Nairobi News

President William Ruto has promised to give his election competitor Raila Odinga a job, if he is willing. President Ruto made the revelation during an interview with the BBC Africa Daily.

“If Raila Odinga comes by, I would provide him something to do,” President Ruto, adding that there roles the Azimio leader could play as a Kenyan leader.

“He can support the country in other initiatives, areas maybe in the Great Lakes regions, he has contacts there. He can work with the rest of us as an elder statesman. As President, I would deploy all the resources we have for the good of the country,” President Ruto said.

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However, President Ruto yet again ruled out the possibility of a political handshake agreement with Mr Odinga, insisting that there is need for a ‘functional democracy.’

“The handshake arrangement was the biggest fraud on the people of Kenya. It should not have happened. Once you compromise the opposition, oversight, the line between the government and the opposition, you are headed in the wrong direction. Many wrong things will happen as it did happen,” he said.

The head of state also said the opposition has a constitutional responsibility to ensure that the government is held to account.

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“The opposition is part and parcel of the function of our country and to compromise that element of governance and oversight is the very wrong thing to do. Opposition does not mean enmity,” Dr Ruto said.

President Ruto has already given his predecessor Mr Uhuru Kenyatta a job with the latter continuing to chair regional peace interventions on behalf of the Kenyan Government.

Mr Odinga has taken a low profile after losing to Dr Ruto and at the age 78, it is most likely that the veteran politician is in the sunset days of his long and illustrious political career.

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