Former Prime minister Raila Odinga on Monday announced how he will distribute some duties and responsibilities in his government.
At the event that was organized at KICC, Raila named Martha Karua as his running mate and also announced Kalonzo Musyoka as his chief minister even though the Wiper party leader declined to take up the role, and went ahead to announce his presidential bid in the August 9 general elections.
While making the announcement, Raila said that the team will help him form the Azimio government once the coalition wins the the elections
“For the third arm of government, I nominate Hon. Kenneth Marende as the speaker of the Senate, I further nominate Hon. Wycliffe Ambetsa Oparanya as the CS for the National treasury. Hon Peter Munya as CS for Agriculture and chairman of the Kenya productive sector and Hon Ali Hassan Joho as CS for land to deal with the historical land injustices at the Coast region and within the borders of the Republic of Kenya, once and for all,” Raila said.
Lee Makwiny, a political analyst has however stated that there was a motive behind every appointment that Raila announced on Monday. He said that the appointments were made specifically to deal with the prevailing political situation.
According to him, Raila appointed Kalonzo as the chief minister so that he can serve two main objectives.
“The first objective is that Raila is giving an offer to One Kenya Alliance. OKA wanted to produce a presidential candidate or to go alone. When they joined Azimio, they insisted on one of them being nominated as the running mate. So Raila Odinga has nominated Martha Karua. Martha Karua was one of the co-principals of OKA,” Makwiny said.
He further said that by giving the two positions to Karua and Kalonzo, Raila was trying to appease OKA. Aside from that, he was targeting the Ukambani voting bloc by handing Kalonzo a lucrative position in government.
Another reason why Raila settled on Karua and not Kalonzo is because their previous pairings did not work out.
“Raila Odinga in his own wisdom believes that by having someone from the larger Mt. Kenya region as his running mate then his chance of getting 2 million votes or 40% of the votes are higher by doing that, it would have meant that Kalonzo Musyoka is going to be out of the equation so he is offering Kalonzo Musyoka the chief Cabinet Secretary so that the Kamba nation can remain in Azimio.
“The Chief Cabinet Secretary which the Deputy President is calling Prime Cabinet secretary has gone to Musalia Mudavadi and the speaker of the senate has gone to the coastal region, what other appointment are they waiting for, none, so at least Raila Odinga is offering the Kamba nation,” he Makwiny explained.
On the appointment of Oparanya and Marende, Makwiny said that Raila offered the Luhya nation the two positions in response to Ruto giving Mudavadi the prime minister position and Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula speaker of the senate.
“But the condition which Kenya Kwanza is putting on them is that they must deliver 70% and these guys have been telling the Azimio team to tell the larger Western Kenya what they have for them so Raila is telling them we have the minister for finance here I am giving it to you.
“It will be upon the minister for finance to allocate money to the sugar industry and offer any other thing. Remember the position of the prime cabinet secretary is not in the constitution so the minister of finance will be more powerful,” the analyst stated, adding that the ODM leader is targeting two main voting blocs in Western, that is Kakamega and Vihiga,, because he already has Busia.
He went on to say that Raila was keen on stopping Mudavadi and Wetang’ula from achieving the 70% votes in Western and also intends to make Oparanya the regional kingpin.
With retaining Peter Munya as the Agriculture CS, Raila is Mt. Kenya East that he has them at his heart after they were denied the running mate position in Kenya Kwanza, when Kithure Kindiki was not picked as the running mate for the presidential candidate.
“The ministry of Agriculture is normally used to incubate leaders. I tend to think that Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta and telling Mt. Kenya East that we are grooming your son so it’s upon you guys to support him,” he said.
Makwiny further said that Raila decided to address the perennial land issues in the coast by giving Mombasa governor the Land CS position.
“Raila Odinga is telling them that one of my deputy party leaders who is Ali Hassan Joho is going to be the minister for lands so he is going to be the one to deal with historical injustices,” he said.
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