AfricaPress-Kenya: Former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has said President Uhuru Kenyatta is the biggest beneficiary of the Handshake, saying it created an environment for him to govern the country.
Speaking during an interview on Spice FM current affairs talk show The Situation Room on Friday, Mutunga said ODM leader Raila Odinga could have made it difficult for Jubilee to govern after being sworn-in as the People’s President in 2018.
“It was a tactical move by President Uhuru and he is the biggest beneficiary if you look at Raila’s mock swearing-in on January 30, 2018,” he said.
He said Raila had sold a message of hope to millions of Kenyans and were listening to him religiously.
“Millions of Kenyans had hope in Raila and they religiously listened to him at that time,” he said.
Mutunga, however, said the Handshake is political and for two years now nothing much has come out of it.
The former CJ blamed the political class for constantly engaging Kenyans into politics of deviation and division that has done very little to improve people’s lives.
“We started from Handshake and now we have the Building Bridges Initiative and Kenyans are captured into these narratives.”
He cited the recent President Uhuru’s remarks on the rotational president as some of the ways of planting this division among Kenyans.
“President Uhuru said it very cleverly that we need to have a president from another tribe and Kenyans are debating on which tribe will produce this president,” he added.
Mutunga called for alternative political leadership apart from the major parties to expand the country’s democratic space.
He took issues with the current crop of leaders who have resorted to insults and unnecessary fights instead of playing issue-based politics.
“If you start insulting each other, you divide the country more because these leaders have followers who will be infuriated.”
The unexpected handshake between took place on March 9, 2018, bringing an end to the acrimony between leading political parties and tribes and promised to usher in a new era of peace.
The two leaders pledged to work together to address ethnic division, corruption, and historical injustice.
