Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said the opposition hasn’t been done away with and the notion that the opposition is dead is a creation of the media, “The hullaballoo that the opposition is dead in Kenya is a media creation,” he said. Speaking after meeting Embu leaders led by former Minister Joe Nyagah at Capitol Hill in Nairobi, Raila said he hasn’t joined the government, despite the famous handshake between him and President Uhuru Kenyatta, “I don’t have any position in the government. There is nothing that stops me from criticizing the government,” he said. Following his decision to pursue the same path of peace and development for the country with President Kenyatta, some Kenyans have believed the opposition’s cutting edge has been destroyed.
The former premier who was appointed the AU High Representative for Infrastructure Development in Africa said the handshake ensured they could establish peace in the nation and that he and the President could agree on common issues to implement, “We only agree on certain issues that we want to implement. We were coming from a very difficult historical situation which required some kind of mediation and this is what we’ve done,” he said. He added that the Building Bridges Initiative clearly outlines the working agreement that is entailed in the handshake, “It’s written in simple English and you can read. It doesn’t mean Raila has gone to the government,” he said.