ODM leader Raila Odinga is calling for compensation by the government to families who lost their loved ones during the opposition and Youth protests in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
The former PM outlined several irreducible minimums during a consultative meeting with Mombasa ODM elected leaders. Today regarding his negotiations with the Kenya Kwanza administration
On governance, Odinga wants an end to abduction, torture, arbitrary arrests, and killings of youths.
“Youths that were injured and parents whose children were killed in 2023 and 2024 during the Azimio and Gen Z protests. We want their families to be compensated. That is a demand that we are putting. Most important we want an end (to abductions and killings),” said Odinga.
Last week, the former PM met President William Ruto in Mombasa when he jetted into the country after a grueling African Union Commission Chairmanship campaign.
After the meeting, he embarked on nationwide consultative meetings with his bastions before he announced his next move after unsuccessfully vying for the continental position.
The consultative meetings started in Nyanza before he proceeded to the Western region. Odinga is on a two-day Coast region consultative meeting.
The Mombasa meeting held at the Governor’s office was attended by Governor Abdulswamad Nassir, Senator Mohamed Faki, County Assembly Speaker Aharub Khatri, MPs Mohamed Machele (Mvita), Badi Twalib (Jomvu) and Rashid Bedzimba (Kisauni) and a host of MCAs.
Odinga said the country is facing a lot of challenges and many people are struggling to make ends meet.
The former PM further noted that the cost of living has surged; prices of commodities skyrocketed and there are challenges in education, health and employment of youths and women.
“We want all to be addressed, if they will not be solved it will prolong the suffering of the people, which is not good, especially to our children, our women, and our elders. We are looking at what can be done for them to solve” stated Odinga.
Tribal discrimination in employment is part of the consultative meeting’s agenda, Odinga wants all Kenyans to be given equal employment opportunities as they all pay taxes.
“Our resources must be distributed equally,” he stated, adding that corruption is rampant in the country, hindering development and making the country poor.
He is concerned about the ballooning public debt despite the fact that Kenyans are being taxed. He wants the government to end corruption.
Odinga also decried that devolution since its onset has not worked as they had envisaged when the 2010 constitution was promulgated.
He pointed out that the aim of devolution was for most services to be rendered by County Governments, but they are now seeing the strengthening of the Provincial Administration and devolution wobbling.
He expressed his disappointment that the delay disbursement of funds to County Governments; he wants the state to streamline the Taifa Care being administered by the Social Health Authority and in higher education.
– By Sadik Hassan
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