Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala believes Kenya’s opposition is dead and the Orange Democratic Movement led by Raila Odinga is responsible for following his handshake with President Uhuru Kenyatta in March 2018.
Since the handshake, the opposition party and Jubilee party pledged to work together and field one presidential candidate in the 2022 General Election in what analysts say was aimed at ensuring that Deputy President William Ruto does not succeed President Uhuru.
Prior to the handshake, the opposition leader Raila Odinga used to put the government on toes where he could unearth corruption scandals as witnessed in the National Youth Service (NYS) something that has been buried since March 2018.
Speaking to NTV Kenya on Wednesday, October 26, the politician said that the 2018 handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga killed the opposition that used to put the government on toes as it could no longer execute its watchdog mandate.
“The ODM party drastically shifted from being the voice of the oppressed and began wining and dining with the oppressor,
“ODM is solely responsible for the death of the opposition in this country,” Malala said.
It should be remembered that Raila Odinga and President Uhuru put their political rivalry that had lasted for decades aside and pledged to work as a team for what they termed as a way to way to end winner-takes-it all political competition.
Their handshake later culminated into the politics of succession where the president appears to be leaning towards the former Lang’ata Member of Parliament to take over the leadership mantle from him.
Analysts have since then linked the death of the National Super Alliance (NASA) to the handshake.
This was after the ODM leader appeared not to back one of the NASA principals as earlier agreed prior to the 2017 General Election where Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper), Musalia Mudavadi (ANC), and Moses Wetang’ula (Ford Kenya) threw their weight behind a Raila Odinga presidency with he later expecting Raila to reciprocate their support in the 2022 elections.
