Cord leader Raila Odinga has said the
opposition did not attend the Kenya Private Sector Association peace strategy
meeting because it was not consulted.
He said there were no proper arrangements
done with the opposition.
Raila said Cord did not boycott the
meeting. He spoke during the third
memorial service of the late Barrack
Okul in Karachuonyo constituency on
Saturday.
Present were ODM national
chairman John Mbadi, Nominated MP
Oburu Oginga, Homa Bay Governor Cyprian Awiti and Kisumu Deputy Governor Ruth Odinga.
Raila said the current IEBC secretariat
is partly to blame for delays.
“Let Kenyans know that we know
we need a free and fair electoral process.
But we should have been consulted
on a meeting of such magnitude
aimed at building peace,” he said.
Raila accused the Jubilee government
of hijacking the electoral preparation
process.
The opposition chief
said Jubilee has a hidden agenda and
leaders’ appearance at the meeting
was only to rubber-stamp their political
scheme.
“We did not want to attend
a meeting whose agenda had been
sanitised by Jubilee even though we
all wanted to be guaranteed a smooth
electoral process,” he said.
Raila said the opposition was not
aware of resolutions to be signed at the
end of the meeting.
The Cord leader
questioned the reasoning behind the
readvertisement of the IEBC chairperson
position, saying it was a tactic being
used by the Jubilee administration
to delay the next polls.
He expressed
concern the Issack Hassan-team has
continued to stay in office “despite
Kenyans losing trust in it”.
“Why should Issack Hassan and his
fellow commissioners continue to be
stubborn? We know the election date
is cast in stone. The IEBC will push this
election merely because it is sleeping
with the Jubilee government in the
same bed.”
