President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s political deal is hanging on a thread as ODM big guns now declare the Memorandum of Understanding binding the two ‘dead’.
ODM secretary general Edwin Sifuna on Saturday termed the truce ‘meaningless’ in the wake of the resurging abductions and extrajudicial killings, which were core of the MoU signed in March this year.
The death of X influencer Albert Ojwang’, he said, is the last nail on the once-promising truce forged in the aftermath of the deadly 2024 protests.
Speaking during a funeral service, Sifuna who is the official spokesperson of ODM party, said the agreement between UDA and opposition outfit is irredeemable.
“As Sifuna, if you ask me about the MoU we signed with UDA, it is of no use, it is not effective,” he said during the ceremony attended by ODM deputy party leader Godfrey Osotsi.
“Where we have reached, it doesn’t matter what Ruto does, that agreement is dead. The only way to breathe life to that MoU is to bring back to life Albert and other youths.”
According to the Nairobi senator, there is consistent and intentional breach of the 10-point areas the two parties agreed thus rendering their deal dead.
“How comes we can agree there is no more killings of the youth but still a young man is taken from his home in Homa Bay, driven to Nairobi and killed inside a police cell?” Sifuna posed.
“Recently, some two youths were picked from Elgeyo Marakwet, tortured and their fingers chopped off and dumped in Nakuru. That is why the MoU has no meaning.”
“Today I must say, where we have reached as a country, we need action not empty rhetoric.”
Sifuna’s statement came days after Osotsi made similar sentiments on the floor of the House.
Osotsi cited betrayal, insincerity and calculated political sabotage and warned the party was re-evaluating its engagement with the ruling outfit.
“We signed an MoU with UDA and agreed we are not going to have abductions and killings like this one,” he said in the Senate on Thursday.
“If we do not get proper answers from the UDA government, we will consider this as a breach of the MoU we have with UDA.”
ODM executive director Oduor Ong’wen in an interview said the reemerging
extrajudicial killings are a ‘great concern’ to the party, which signed an MoU
with the ruling party.
“It is of
a great concern; our MPs had a press conference where they talked about it. Our
youths also condemned it,” Ong’wen told the Star on the phone.
“Those are things you don’t mention ODM in the
same sentence.”
The ODM’s declaration follows mounting frustrations in the broad-based government over continued crackdown on activists and unmet promises.
Raila, who has maintained a diplomatic stance, is reportedly under pressure from his allies to rebuke the administration’s excesses in light of the recent cases of human rights abuses.
Last week, the veteran opposition chief, while reacting to Ojwang’s death, urged the police to hold their own to account.
“Ojwang' now joins the horrifying long list of young defenceless Kenyans whose lives have been taken too soon, in brutal and senseless circumstances, at the hands of the police,” Raila said in a statement.
“While these deaths cause tremendous pain to individuals and their families, they seriously erode the authority and credibility of the police and the state and that is a significant step towards chaos and collapse.”
