Raila claims State plans to float Sh83bn foreign bond

Cord leader Raila Odinga has sensationally claimed that the government has embarked on a new bid to float foreign bonds worth $800 million (Sh83 billion).

Mr Odinga claimed that proceeds from the bond could be used to finance corrupt projects and tenders by government officials and State-sponsored businessmen.

He told an international news conference at his Karen home that Kenyans had faced hard economic times during the time President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto have been in power, saying they have supervised, rather than fought, corruption.

“I called you this morning (yesterday) to share my thoughts on the news that as a country, we have finally made it to the corruption super league, where we are playing with long-tested giants who are destined for collapse, and what this means to us,” Mr Odinga said.

He accused President Kenyatta of applying empty rhetoric in the war on corruption, saying the country had been treated to too much talk and drama even as the vice worsened.

Signing an MOU with the US government, tabling the list of shame in Parliament and announcing that all companies doing business with county and national governments must sign and adhere to a business code of conduct was all for show, said Mr Odinga.

"In the end, in the final months of the Jubilee regime, the evidence is all over the place that all that was just cheap talk.

"Like all public relations blitzes, it was meant to dazzle and impress but achieve nothing except cover up for the thieves,” Mr Odinga added.

The Opposition leader also said Kenyan’s position on the worldwide corruption ranking index is a big shame to the country.

“In the latest Transparency International report, Kenya has returned to the super league of corruption, listed among the 20 most corrupt countries in the world, alongside big players like Bangladesh, Cameroon, The Gambia, Madagascar and Nicaragua,” he said.

Signs of bad times were beginning to show, he said, with many Kenyan companies retrenching, stock markets falling and government suppliers failing to get paid.

“The shilling is being propped up by massive Central Bank of Kenya interventions, to the extent of gagging market analysts from making exchange rate forecasts,” he said.

He accused the President of doing very little to stop theft of billions of public funds by leaders in his administration warning that corruption under the Jubilee regime has broken all known records in the country.

“We can only expect that the Presidency, which is the patron for the corruption cartels and racketeers in and around the government, will smoothen the infrastructure for more corruption,” Mr Odinga said.

He also insisted that the National Intelligence Service is manipulating figures in the ongoing voter listing that has seen Opposition strongholds get fewer numbers.

He also warned President Kenyatta against intimidating those criticising his government.

“Raila Odinga should be the last person to be threatened with arrests by a person like the President who has never visited a single police or prison’s cell,” he said.