Raila Odinga: Why Ruto is Creating The Office of The Opposition Leader

ODM party leader, Raila Odinga, has indicated that President William Samoei Ruto is being pushed by the international communities to create the office of the “Official Opposition Leader”.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with KTN News on Tuesday night February 28, the opposition leader insinuated that Ruto anticipated ODM would win the presidential poll and therefore advocated for the creation of the office of the Official Opposition Leader before the August 2022 polls as a backup plan during his engagement with senior diplomats in Kenya.
Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya Alliance(OKA) coalition leader, Raila Odinga, is currently claiming that President Ruto is being pushed by the international communities to establish the office of the Official Opposition Leader.

Odinga added that after Ruto was declared the president in August, the diplomats approached him and asked for the creation of the same office he had proposed.

In Odinga’s opinion, this was so because they knew that they were not going to form the government.
Odinga indicated that this was Ruto’s idea in association with senior diplomats which acted as a backup plan in case Ruto lost the August 2022 presidential polls.

He added that Ruto had planned to be a powerful opposition leader and wanted the international communities to aid him in pressurizing Odinga to create the position of opposition leader.

After winning the elections, the diplomats approached Ruto and asked him to establish what he had asked to be created(office of the Official Opposition Leader) and that was the genesis of that proposal.

President Ruto in December 2022, wrote to speakers of both the National Assembly and Senate to consider the insertion of a constitutional amendment bill for creation of the office of the Official Opposition Leader.

The proposed amendment in which the Kenya Kwanza coalition Members of Parliament have been asked to pass, will also give Odinga the power to choose his allies to independent and constitutional commissions and address parliament and the country occasionally.

The office will be funded by taxpayers and will offer Odinga and the future holders of that office, powers and authority to solicit and mobilize financing from donors as one way to supplement its budget allocation and to finance all its activities.