Raila slams KK for lack of public consultation

ODM leader Raila Odinga. [Emmanuel Wanson, Standard]

ODM leader Raila Odinga has sustained his attacks on the government over the controversial affordable housing project.

According to Raila, there was no public participation before the project was launched by the Kenya Kwanza government.

Speaking in Meru during a meeting with ODM supporters at the home of Zablon Mathenge, his long-time friend, Raila said the government did not involve Kenyans before kicking off the implementation of the programme.

"Kenyans were not consulted, there was no public participation," he said, adding that they had a similar agenda in the Azimio manifesto but they could have done it after consulting Kenyans.

"It is a plan that Kenyans don't understand because there was no public participation," he said.

He said the colonial government was doing well in putting up affordable houses including establishing estates such as Ofafa Jericho, Kaloleni, Kariokor, and others in Kisumu, Meru, and Mombasa among other parts of the country but after independence successive governments did not escalate it.

"The colonial government did well but our governments performed badly," he said.

The opposition boss said with large numbers of people migrating to urban areas, up to 60 per cent of people in Nairobi live in informal settlements (slums), hence the need to build better houses.

He said that the previous regimes had benchmarked with countries such as South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, and other countries on how to effectively overcome the housing challenge.

"We worked with Kibaki and developed Kenya without tax hikes, I am the one who started the affordable housing programme. I have a secret on affordable housing but I am not going to tell them," he said.

The ODM leader trashed Ruto's bid to export labour, arguing that the government should focus on creating employment within its boundaries, instead of exporting skills to other nations.

"We want the creation of jobs in Kenya, not our people working as slaves in other countries," he said.

Raila said a high number of foreign investors had left the country due to high taxation.

"We have seen investors running away from our country, lamenting the high cost of electricity and taxation. We have said before and we repeat that there is no need to increase taxes, just deal with corruption, and do it objectively," he said.

He said the high cost of electricity and corruption had prevented Kenyans from achieving economic growth.

Raila accused the Kenya Kwanza government of working against the wishes of Kenyans.