• Atwoli said he made the request in last year's Labour Day celebrations.
• He said that right now they are all engaged in serious campaigns to make sure that Raila becomes the next African Union Commission chairperson.
Image: FRANCIS ATWOLI/X
Central Organisation of Trade Unions boss Francis Atwoli has said that he is the one who asked President William Ruto to get Opposition leader Raila Odinga a job.
Speaking on Sunday, Atwoli said he made the request in last year's Labour Day celebrations.
Atwoli was speaking during Cotu thanksgiving day service at St Stephens Jogoo Road.
He said that when he requested Ruto, he did not know that he would take it seriously.
Atwoli said that right now they are all engaged in serious campaigns to make sure that Raila becomes the next African Union Commission chairperson.
He said the campaign is being led by Ruto himself.
"Labour Day ya mwaka jana, I asked President William Ruto, as a country if we are to move towards one direction, look for your friend, your closest friend Raila Odinga. Even if you get him a job at the UN or the African Union. Little did I know that it sunk in the two of them.
"Right now, all of us are campaigning for my in-law, the doyen of opposition politics Raila Amollo Odinga, serious politics that is above our political divide to get the African Union Commission chairmanship and it is being led by none other than President William Ruto," the Cotu secretary general said.
Atwoli was one of the leaders who strongly campaigned for Raila to become the fifth President of Kenya.
However, soon after he lost, Atwoliswitched camps and now backs President William Ruto.
Atwoli later explained that as trade union, Cotu works with the government of the day to streamline the needs of Kenyan workers.
In January, he said that he had warned Raila that should his campaigns be mismanaged and he failed to win, he would go back to his office in Cotu and work with the government of the day.
"And I told my Azimio people if you mismanage the election and you are not elected, I will return to my office and when I return to my office you should know that I will work with the government," Atwoli said.
"I did not hide them. And indeed we mismanaged the whole election. We didn't have agents, we didn't have any logistics and strategic election committee."
He insisted that as a unionist, his job is to negotiate with the government of the day to ensure workers get better welfare.