Raila now centres campaign on national unity

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has centred his fifth stab at the Presidency on a unity call in a country that is traditionally sharply divided by elections.

To demonstrate his resolve to bring the country together, the  ODM leader will be contesting on Azimio La Umoja coalition party ticket – a new political machine founded on the platform of unity and peaceful co-existence.

Speaking in Nakuru during the conferment of city status, the former premier underscored the need for unity as the country heads to elections.

“These days I'm promoting Azimio La Umoja which basically aims to bring our people together. Our people need to live in peace and love each other with full realisation that they are Kenyans first before being members of their respective ethnic communities,” Raila said.

Kenya has suffered politically instigated violence after almost every presidential election with 2007/08 documented as the worst in the country's history.

The chaos that followed declaration of Mwai Kibaki's second term  resulted in 1,133 casualties and at least 350,000 internally displaced persons.

According to President Uhuru Kenyatta, the country lost in excess of Sh1 trillion during the six months of chaos that followed the 2017 presidential results.

Coming after the courts dealt a blow to the Building Bridges Initiative constitutional amendment drive, the unity initiative has turned out to be Raila’s roadmap for his race to State House.

The fourth time presidential candidate kick started the aggressive strategy to counter Deputy President William Ruto's hustler narrative and deflate his 2022 presidential bid.

Raila's traditional campaign messages around social justice, land reforms and faithful implementation of the Constitution have this time taken a back seat.

On December 10, the ODM boss unveiled the new political machine, a mass movement fashioned in similar arrangements of the 2002 National Rainbow Coalition that allowed for fielding of candidates by the umbrella coalition.

Speaking during the launch, Raila said the movement will be anchored on humility, brotherliness, unity, equality and productivity.

“To put our country on the path of lasting unity, stability and prosperity, I hereby announce the launch of Azimio La Umoja Movement,” he said at Moi International Sports Center, Kasarani.

ODM chairman John Mbadi said the coalition party will eliminate competition between constituent parties that could lead to splitting votes and losing seats in some areas.

“What will not happen is that another party that is part of coalition will field a candidate for the same seat. We are eliminating that, if you are members of Azimio we will not field two candidates belonging to Azimio to contest one electoral seat,” Mbadi said.

“It will then force us to either do joint nomination or agree in advance that in this particular seat we are leaving for Jubilee or Jubilee is leaving for ODM.”

ODM secretary general Edwin Sifuna told the Star that there are ongoing talks to come up with agreeable framework on how the Azimio and individual parties will field candidates for various seats next year.

“The movement is a coalition party. The key aim of a political party is to make sure that the coalition can actually field candidates on its name,” Sifuna said on phone.

“The discussion has just began, there will be some candidates for Azimio like the Presidential candidates and in other areas where people do not want to use their political parties we can have Azimio candidates.”

The ODM boss, widely seen as President Uhuru Kenyatta's preferred successor and backed by wealthy Mt Kenya region tycoons, is also dangling a Sh6,000 monthly social protection programme to endear himself to the majority of poor Kenyans.

Raila is promising to inject some Sh100 billion more on the social protection aspect, with his eyes focused on winning to his camp approximately two million poor households through the initiative.

“We would add about Sh100 billion to this and expand it to include the poorest of the poor. And nobody should lie to Kenyans that taxes would have to rise for this to be realised, far from it,” Raila said.

By targeting the lowest strata of society, the ODM boss seeks to counter Ruto who has for long projected himself as the hope to the country’s poor, christened the hustlers. 

He promised to seal loopholes that loot Sh2 billion daily to raise enough resources to fund the ambitious programme. 

Raila has also promised the youth at least four cabinet slots as part of his 2022 pledges.

-Edited by SKanyara