Raila is attending a series of closed door meetings and rallies in Taita Taveta county.
This comes weeks after Deputy President William Ruto toured the area.
Image: SOLOMON MUINGI
Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho has told off Deputy President William Ruto over his 'hustler' brand.
Addressing the rally in Mwatate on Thursday, Joho said Coast people are not hustlers and therefore the DP should stop misleading them.
"It is absurd for the deputy president to claim to represent the poor. Which hustler flies across the country with fleets of cars and helicopters," Joho posed pointing out that Ruto had opted for early campaigns.
He accused DP Ruto of being behind politicians accused of hate-mongering.
Meanwhile, ODM leader Raila Odinga has said the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) is the only way Kenyans can solve all historical injustices.
He said the report shall address problems occasioned by bad governance and build lasting unity.
"This report is addressing nine key problems that the country has faced for years," he said.
The meeting comes about a week after Deputy President William Ruto toured the area, where he dismissed the BBI as a tool for certain individuals to get positions of power in government.
Ruto, who held a meeting with religious leaders in Taveta in what seems to be setting the ground for his 2022 presidential bid, said the BBI will not ensure solve all Kenyans' problems as depicted by its proponents.
On Thursday, Raila denied the BBI and referendum are geared towards making him President and President Uhuru Kenyatta a Prime Minister.
He said the constitutional change will see the system of governance change to enable the President to appoint ministers from Parliament.
"Governance is about politics. We cannot have Cabinet Secretaries who are not politicians and we expect them to fully understand what Kenyans are going through," Raila noted.
Raila further asked the Senate to drop all the changes in the revenue sharing formula and instead maintain the existing sharing formula.
"We want the Senate to allow counties to get allocations as it was done last year. Once we pass the BBI, allocation to counties shall be increased to at least 30 percent," he said.
The opposition leader accused a section of senators of being hell-bent on derailing implementation of projects in counties through the revenue sharing impasse.
He said some senators had faked arrest to avoid taking part in passing of the revenue sharing bill.
"We have information that those who received bribes to sway the bill had to call the police and fake arrest. The arrests were fake," Raila said.
And in a rare show of unity, Taita Taveta County political leaders have vowed to strongly support the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition chief Raila Odinga.
Governor Granton Samboja on Thursday led other county leaders to address a public rally at Mwatate where they lured residents to support the Building Bridges initiative BBI.
The rally was attended by among other ODM leader Raila Odinga and Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho.
Governor Granton Samboja asked residents to support the government so as to benefit from development projects.
"The handshake has created a good working relationship between counties and the national government. Let us all support it," the governor said.
He further asked the government to release to the county all the royalties from Tsavo National Park and mining companies that are being held by the National Treasury.
His sentiments were echoed by Senator Jones Mwaruma who asked youth from the region to be given 50 per cent of jobs in the upcoming recruitment of KWS rangers.
"Tsavo National Park occupies more than 62 per cent of our land and therefore we deserve to be given priority in employment," Mwaruma said.
Wundanyi legislator Danson Mwashako said government had neglected key projects in the area including the Mzima II water project.
Mwashako termed the proposed water project a fantasy after it failed to kick off.
The government announced to implement of the Mzima II water project in 2017 but since then, it has not been launched for implementation.
The multi-billion water project is expected to address the perennial water shortage in Voi, Wundanyi, Mwatate and Taveta constituencies while the surplus will serve the coastal city of Mombasa, Kwale and Kilifi counties.
It shall supplement the existing Mzima.
"The ministry of water keeps on saying that the funding proposal sent to Exim Bank of China is yet to be approved. They have made it look like a campaign project by the Jubilee government," the MP said.
Deputy Governor Majala Mlagui expressed her disappointment for the delayed commissioning of the Voi gemstone value addition center commissioning.
She asked the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining to fasttrack operations at the facility and open doors to local miners.
The Gemstone Value Addition Center in Voi Town is still lying underutilized, three years after completion.
The center was to boots mining sector economy in Kenya as all mining trade was set to be carried inside the gemstone center.