- The Speaker said there was need for Kenyans to put in new faces at the country’s top offices.
- He further criticised Uhuru's administration accusing it of recycling the corrupt by assigning them new roles.
Image: HANDOUT
National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi has asked his competitors in the 2022 presidential race to pave way for a fresh crop of leaders to steer the country.
In reaffirming his 2022 presidential bid, Muturi, in an apparent reference to ODM leader Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto, said the track record of his rivals leaves a lot to be desired.
The Speaker said there was a need for Kenyans to put in new faces at the country’s top offices, adding that some of those competing against him have been around for over 30 years.
“Looking at the political landscape, we have the same old faces. How do we expect change?” he asked in a meeting with Nairobi traders.
Muturi said since some of the country’s top politicians have been around for some time, they cannot purport to tell Kenyans that they have solutions to their afflictions.
He further trashed the economic models floated by Ruto, Raila, and ANC’s Musalia Mudavadi’s teams saying there was nothing new the teams were fronting in their bids.
In a swipe at his competitors in the race to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta, Muturi said the country is not short of ideas or economic strategy.
“Don’t tell us of models. These ideas have been there. It is how we implement them that is the problem. We have lost direction. It means we have deviated from what we are and what is supposed to be done.”
The Speaker also criticised Uhuru's administration accusing it of recycling the corrupt by assigning them new roles instead of sending them away after they are implicated in scandals.
“We need to reform our governance institutions. I have talked about this and we have heard the President talking about it, but no one has been sentenced. It is a game of musical chairs,” Muturi said.
He questioned why government officials in the current administration have let down their guard to a point of the President taking matters up by himself.
“The question we are asking them is; didn’t you seek a job to do it? Do you need the President to come down? Something is wrong and that is why we want to fix it,” he said.
“This crop of leaders has nothing new to offer Kenyans. They are just reincarnated like a snake shedding its exoskeleton,” he said.
Muturi said he seeks to put in place an administration where order, discipline, and integrity would be the order of the day in the style of former Environment Minister John Michuki.
The Speaker asked Kenyans to join him in the journey of restoring discipline and order in the country. “That is how we would prosper as a country,” he said.
“We must begin asking ourselves what it is we don’t do. We must reform our institutions of government otherwise it would be difficult to achieve the prosperity we desire,” he added.
Muturi argued there was no way Kenyans “can keep doing things the same way and expect different results.”
“If the country is in the dire state that it is today, and we want change, can we trust them to change yet many of them have been in government?” he asked.
Defending his place as Speaker in the government hierarchies, Muturi said it is the Executive arm of the government that is tasked with the responsibility of implementing policies.
“It gets to a point where we must tell people that we appreciate what they have done. But let us now give a new breed of people the opportunity to take charge,” he added.
"There is nothing for wananchi in the idea of some of these leaders. mama mbogas don’t need those stories they are being told,” Muturi said.
In defence of Uhuru’s administration, he said the problem in the country is the lack of discipline and lack of order.
“For the President to be involved, it tells you there is something wrong and shows there are people who are lazy and are not doing their job well.”
Muturi called out leaders for coming up with unpredictable policies, pointing that most are passed with personal business interests.
He said if elected in 2022, his administration will not hesitate to push out of government anyone who is not ready to follow the law.
Muturi pointed out that “leaders must accept areas where mistakes have been pointed out and go back to the drawing board and ask themselves what they have been doing.”
“When you pick your phone to influence tenders, there is a problem. Let bidders compete lawfully without taking advantage of positions in government.”
-Edited by SKanyara