Editor's Review

“Mr. Ruto, you may have weakened Parliament, captured state institutions, and co-opted the judiciary to consolidate power. But power ultimately belongs to the people.

Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga now says that the Kenyan citizens are taking back power from President William Ruto. 

In a statement via Twitter on Tuesday, April 17, Raila accused President Ruto of weakening Parliament and capturing other key state institutions.

The former Prime Minister stated that power belongs to Kenyans who are now taking it back and demanding accountability from the Head of State.

“Mr. Ruto, you may have weakened Parliament, captured state institutions, and co-opted the judiciary to consolidate power. But power ultimately belongs to the people, who are now taking it back and demanding direct accountability from you. That is the position,” Raila stated.

This comes after Azimio announced that it would not take part in a parliamentary bi-partisan negotiation process.

File image of Kalonzo Musyoka and other Azimio leaders

Addressing the media at the Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka (SKM) command center in Nairobi, the opposition poked holes in Kenya Kwanza’s bi-partisan motion claiming that they were not involved.

“Last evening we learned of a motion drafted by the Kenya Kwanza leadership allegedly aimed at setting up a joint select committee at parliament. The motion is in absolute bad faith. We have insisted on an extra-parliamentary process in view of the structures of debate in Parliament we will therefore not participate in any such parliamentary process,” Kalonzo stated.

The Raila-led coalition directed Azimio's bi-partisan team chairperson Otiende Amolo to invite the Kenya Kwanza team for a meeting to set ground rules on an extra-parliamentary negotiation process.

“We have instructed the chairperson of our team Senior Counsel Otiende Amolo to formally invite the Kenya Kwanza team for a meeting to set the ground rules for the talks,” Kalonzo added.