RAILA ODINGA HITS HARD ON AFRICAN PRESIDENTS WHO CLING TO POWER

Raila Odinga delivering a speech in Isreal

 PhotoCourtesy: rao.co.ke

BY JEMEDARI Mwanawakiume

Opposition leader Raila Odinga has minced no words for African presidents who are not willing to relinquish power even after the electorate demand so.

Delivering a speech in Israel, Raila seemed to hit hard on Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni who has been in the news since February 18 when the country went into polls, enabling him to controversially retain his seat as Uganda president.

In his speech, Raila says that even international observers have lacked words to explain the February 18 Uganda election which saw Museveni intimidate opposition leader Kizza Besigye and get to power for another five-year term.

“Uganda has just gone through an election that even observers are struggling to find the right words to describe,” Raila’s speech read in part.

He went further to bash African presidents who do not want to subscribe to term limits, saying they are derailing efforts to create a democratic continent.

The ODM leader says a number of African countries are having difficulties in deepening democratic culture and up-scaling their governance performance. According to him, the conflicting trend is eating into the institutional capacity of would-be democratic structures like parliament and the judiciary.

Raila believes that this is also paralyzing accountability bodies like the office of the Auditor General, the ombudsman and anti-corruption institutions.

“Our elections are getting more chaotic and more prone to manipulation. They are more likely to produce bitterly contested results that create divisions rather than unite the nation. Elections are failing to peacefully aggregate people’s preferences in the choice of political leadership. Incumbents are using them to confirm themselves to power or tear apart their nations,” Raila said.

The CORD coalition co-principal is on record disputing two presidential elections in which he lost to Mwai Kibaki in 2007 and Uhuru Kenyatta in 2013.

And this is why Raila believes that Africa needs to urgently address the question of how to make elections promote social cohesion, create rather than undermine political legitimacy and ensure inclusivity rather than entrenching exclusion.

Raila is a strong believer of term limits. He says that there is need for Africa to respect and uphold term limits as part of free and fair elections.

“Across the continent, many leaders are revising their constitutions to remove term limits. These quests for extensions are often couched in a language that portrays a leader’s desire for more time in office as a response to popular demands,” Raila added in what is seen as a jibe directed at Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunzinza.

The two presidents are on record trying to change the constitution to give them more terms in office. On his part, Kagame says that Rwandan citizens are impressed with his leadership and want him to remain in power.


Raila was speaking in Israel during the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace forum where he had been invited by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Harry S. Truman Research Institute and the Africa Centre for Peace and Democracy.