Raila, Mudavadi criticise portal launched to list Uhuru's achievements

Nasa co-principals Raila Odinga and Musalia Mudavadi on Tuesday accused President Uhuru Kenyatta of lying about his government’s achievements.

In separate press statements, the Nasa leaders painted a grim picture of the country, accusing President Kenyatta of misleading Kenyans.

They were reacting to a portal (www.delivery.go.ke) launched by the Head of State on Monday to list his government’s achievements.

“This is a very inopportune time for the President to make the wild claims he is making. What the President and his administration think they are achieving with the alternative facts remains a mystery.

"One thing is clear though; the President is struggling to account for his four years in office,” Mr Odinga told journalists at Orange House.

He said “Jubilee’s tales still do not add up”. He enumerated failures and what he said were inconsistencies in what the President said he had achieved in security, energy, roads, use of the Sh200 billion Eurobond proceeds, health, social inclusion, and food security.

He argued that the figures on the roads built by the government were inconsistent with different data in the 2016 State of the Nation address, when they were 3,000km; in this year’s address 1,950km and 1,500km in the Budget Speech read a week after the address.

“The portal that his office has just put up claims 2,000km of ‘inter-city highways’ under construction and another 500km under procurement.

"But there is a huge mystery. Which are the cities the highways are connecting? Cities, towns and most municipalities for that matter are already connected,” he said.

WHERE IS THE MONEY?

On Eurobond proceeds, Mr Odinga insisted that the Jubilee government had squandered the funds, saying the government was out to cover up the theft by intimidating the auditor-general.

“If our claims are unfounded, why go to such great lengths to obstruct and intimidate the auditor-general? What is Jubilee afraid of?” asked Mr Odinga.

In a statement sent to newsrooms, Mr Mudavadi said President Kenyatta and his government had failed.

He added that tabulation of projects initiated by the grand coalition government in the portal amounted to “conmanship”.

“Whatever is termed achievement only reminds and magnifies Kenyans’ disbelief in a government that has failed them. It’s only Uhuru and Ruto who seem to see and feel development amid the high cost of basic goods,” he said.

Added Mr Mudavadi: “The impact of corruption is not in the billions stolen, but directly corresponds to their individual impoverishment. Kenyans keep asking us ‘What is happening? Where has money gone?’ The simple answer is Jubilee has squandered it.”

He said the government would have done better in the war against corruption if the Presidency had been serious and stood against the vice.

“One achievement that Jubilee should have enumerated is the domestication of corruption,” he said.

WORRYING LEVELS

Mr Mudavadi warned that Mr Kenyatta’s government had a high appetite for loans from China and other parts of the world and that inflation of costs of government projects was at worrying levels.

At Orange House, Mr Odinga dismissed claims that the government had connected up to five million households to electricity since it took office in 2013.

He described the claim as inconsistent with Kenya Power reports and figures from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

“Projecting with this figure suggests that the total number of household connections over the last four years is at best 800,000,” said Mr Odinga.

On food, the ODM chief described as a total failure the grand Galana-Kulalu project. “The project produced ten 90-kilogramme bags of maize per acre instead of the 40 bags per acre that was projected. Once again, no value for money,” he said.

Mr Odinga also rejected assertions that Jubilee has issued over 2.4 million land title deeds since 2013.