Raila rules out joining Kibaki coalition

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Raila rules out joining Kibaki coalition
By DAVE OPIYO
Last updated: 2 hours ago

ODM leader Raila Odinga has rejected proposals to join a coalition government under the leadership of President Kibaki.

Mr Odinga said the party wanted a properly negotiated settlement that will give a lasting solution to the political crisis facing the country.

The Langa’ta MP-elect said he would not agree to the terms laid down by the Head of State since he did not win the elections.

“(President) Kibaki should not offer us anything because he knows very well that he did not win the elections,” said Mr Odinga at the party’s headquarters.

“In fact, it is us who should be inviting him for a coalition government because we know very well that we won the elections.”

He went on: “It is an insult to the people of Kenya that someone who did not win an election is inviting others to join a coalition.”

Accompanied by a host of ODM MPs-elect, Mr Odinga said the President was simply continuing with the mandate Kenyans gave him in 2002, which he added would soon come to an end.

And he added that he would only participate in talks with the President under the mediation of the head of African Union and Ghanaian President John Kufuor.

Mr Odinga revealed that the President had confided in some of the religious leaders in the country that he did not actually win the elections.

“If Kibaki is a true Catholic Christian he should own up and accept in public that he did not truly win the elections which were openly rigged to his favour,” he said at a press conference in Nairobi.

The ODM leader dismissed the notion that he was power hungry, saying he was in no hurry to get to government.

“Appointing us to cabinet positions will not solve the current situation. We are therefore in no hurry to get to a government that is illegitimate,” said Mr Odinga.

And he declared that they would continue with their countrywide peaceful protests on Tuesday until the President resigns.

In Nairobi, the party will yet again attempt to hold another rally at Uhuru park grounds as other parallel rallies continue at the Babadogo grounds, Kayole, Kawangware, and Kamkunji grounds.

ODM supporters, he added, are advised to put on white arm-bands to signify peace.

He at the same time appealed to the country’s security forces to desist from killing innocent Kenyans exercising their democratic right adding that his party was not responsible for the paralysis of many sectors in the country.

“Kenyans will not surrender until justice prevails,” he declared.

The ODM leader said the country now needed a truth justice and reconciliation body, which will help in the healing process after the current crisis.

'There can be no justice without truth and no peace without justice. Kenyans must not be judged by such low standards as the president want. In fact, we should be equated with other western democracies like Italy, France among others,” he said.

The ODM team, led by Eldoret North MP William Ruto later attended a church service at the All Gospel Church Light house in Kayole before attending an Inter Denominational prayer meeting at the All Saints Cathedral Church in Nairobi.