According to her, the move by President Ruto to nominate four members of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) to his Cabinet was a violation of the Constitution.
NARC Kenya party leader, Martha Karua on Tuesday, August 6 claimed that the deal purported to be struck between President William Ruto and Azimio One Kenya Coalition Party leader Raila Odinga within the broad-based government is unconstitutional.
Speaking during an interview with Citizen TV, Karua who was Odinga’s running mate in the 2022 Presidential election, claimed that Odinga had betrayed Kenyans by choosing to enter what she called a ‘come-we stay marriage’ with President Ruto.
According to her, the move by President Ruto to nominate four members of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) to his Cabinet was a violation of the Constitution.
“Whereas the Gen Z have been asking for transparency and accountability, these appointments have lowered the bar because they seek to violate the design of the Constitution, they also seek to lower the bar on accountability,” she said.
“This (broad-based government) is a come-we-stay marriage, it is illegal, it is unconstitutional and it will lead to unconstitutionality in the conduct of the business of Parliament.”
President William Ruto (right) welcomes Azimio La Umoja party leader, Raila Odinga, at Mukami Kimathi’s funeral in Nyandarua on Saturday, May 13, 2023. /PCS
While calling for ODM to drop its renowned status as the opposition majority party to allow other affiliate parties to take over the role of the Opposition, Karua further claimed that ODM was seeking to enter into government through the ‘backdoor’. At first, Raila denied his involvement with ODM legislators being nominated to the new-look Cabinet before admitting that President Ruto sought candidates from his end after he dissolved his Cabinet on July 11.
“A very interesting confession by my former boss…he first denied that ODM had entered government saying that they had entered as individuals. Now what he is saying is obvious that he actually nominated them and gave them over to the government,” she noted.
“When the opposition or part of it enters government, they cannot enter through the backdoor. The law is very clear, the constitutional design is such that it recognises the majority side and the minority side is the Opposition.”
According to Karua, ODM within Azimio was the leading Opposition coalition party and Azimio was the minority party, and by ODM entering government and seeming to deny through its party leader, “it wants to have its cake and eat it because it is going to be part of government and continue to hold minority seats that should be held by the next largest party, such as Wiper.”
Karua argues that ODM is compromised and will not be able to hold the government accountable, especially in the National Assembly because of the members nominated to the Cabinet.
“The public accounts committees and the public invests committees which are supposed to be chaired via the standing orders by the minority side, we lower the bar on accountability,” she noted.
“You can imagine an ODM person questioning CSs who were his party bosses just a minute ago. they may have relinquished their party posts but their relationship is of a senior person and a junior person within the party…even if they have left, that effect is there. ODM loses that moral right to hold to account or be a watchdog to CSs from their own party. That should be held by someone else.”
At the same time, the former Gichugu MP termed Ruto’s decision to dismiss his entire Cabinet, and later announcing a list of new ministerial nominees, some of whom were retained from the previous administration, as a diversionary tactic employed by the Head of State to undermine the gains made by Kenyans following the anti-government protests.
She similarly poked holes into the Cabinet nominees’ vetting sessions held last week, describing them as being conducted by a ‘circus’ Parliamentary committee that seemingly appears to be in Ruto’s pocket.
“The vetting became a circus in Parliament; another discredited institution. The message is that this is more of the same, nothing has changed, nothing will change and that the regime is tone deaf to the demands of Kenyans, as fronted by the Gen Z,” she said.
When asked about the opportunity to join President William Ruto’s Cabinet if it had been presented to her, she remarked that she would have turned it down, terming Ruto a micromanager and that the appointment would just have been a formality, which would not have sat right by her.
Her NARC-Kenya was among Azimio parties – including Wiper, Jubilee, DAP-K, and PNU – that said they had no plans of joining the government, terming it as a means of betrayal to the Kenyan people.
Karua appeared on her first national TV interview since her party’s interest in exiting the opposition political faction to Azimio Secretariat Secretary General Junet Mohamed in a letter dated July 25, 2024.
