Nominated MP dismisses Ruto attempt to create the office of Opposition

Nominated MP has dismissed President William Ruto attempt to create the office of Opposition saying it was a pure political exercise.

“Writing the letter to me is clearly a political exercise that Ruto was engaging into, i don’t think he was interested in all this”, said Mbadi

He said the President ought to have summoned the House Leadership to ask them to amend the Constitution through a parliamentary initiative

“The President has no interest whatsoever in creating the office of the Opposition, entrenching the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) in the Constitution and the gender top up”.

Mbadi added that the President knew exactly what he was doing.

“He wanted to cause controversy and he has succeeded in doing. Now if the whole process collapses, he will carry his hands and say ‘I proposed and it did not go through’.
The former Minority Leader in the last Assembly explained that what President Ruto did might be setting the stage for a legal ground for people to challenge the validity, constitutionality of amending the Constitution by the president pushing it.

He further stressed that if we wanted to amend the constitution, peace meal amendments was not the way to go.

” There is a need to get a bipartisan team, engage them, get legal minds and see which areas need amendment “he proposed.

He added that allowing President Ruto to proceed with the amendment process will set a bad precedent.

He said when former President Uhuru Kenyatta initiated the process of amending the Constitution, it was the right because he was in his last term. But President Ruto doing it barely five months in office is suspect.

Mbadi further stated that the Kenya Kwanza government should not think that they are creating the Opposition office to appease Raila Odinga.

He said Raila has survived since 2013 when he left office and does not need that office to be pleased, if it has to be created then it should be for posterity.

“Raila does not require soft landing, Raila space in our politics is naturally given by the people. Today he is out of the country people are asking what he is doing, our own President Ruto was out of the country no one is asking about it ”

He added “We can have only one Raila.so I don’t think creating this office you can do it for Raila”.