Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli has questioned former President Uhuru Kenyatta\u2019s political influence, arguing that his failure to deliver the presidency for the late Raila Odinga during the 2022 presidential polls casts doubt on his ability to influence Jubilee Party’s Deputy Leader Fred Matiang\u2019i’s bid.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Citizen TV’s JKLive show, Atwoli claimed that the lack of clear engagement from Uhuru left Raila\u2019s campaign machinery uncertain about its standing, echoing sentiments previously raised by Suna East MP Junet Mohamed.<\/p>\n
\u201cUhuru appeared to be supporting Baba, but at no point did he convene a meeting with the people who were on the frontline campaigning for Raila. Maybe he was meeting Baba, with about two or three people. But openly, he neither came out to see the brigade supporting Raila nor gave us a sense of direction,\u201d Atwoli stated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what Junet was explaining. You couldn’t know what was happening. Baba was an honest man; he couldn’t have received the money and not paid the agents.”<\/p>\n
Atwoli further cast doubt on Uhuru\u2019s endorsement of Matiang\u2019i, warning that political goodwill without grassroots influence will be insufficient to secure the presidency.<\/p>\n
\u201cI now hear he is saying he wants Matiang\u2019i to be President. If Matiang\u2019i is not careful with his own moves, Uhuru will not make him the President. If he didn\u2019t make Raila, how can he make Matiang\u2019i to be a president?\u201d Atwoli posed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven in his constituency, if he couldn’t get an MCA of Jubilee or MP?\u201d<\/p>\n
Atwoli argued that while Uhuru may have desired Raila\u2019s victory, he lacked the political muscle to deliver it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe might have wished Raila to be president, but he didn’t have the ability to make him president; wishing and having the ability are different,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Turning to the future of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), Atwoli dismissed claims that the party was on its deathbed, insisting it could still stabilise and reorganise in Raila\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not the end of the road for ODM. They can still salvage ODM. ODM, in the absence of Raila Odinga, they have got to undergo all those teething problems until when they will reach somewhere and settle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Atwoli expressed confidence in the party\u2019s current leadership, noting, \u201cI think to me, ODM is in the right hands with Oburu (Oginga) at the helm.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the COTU SG, the simmering differences between ODM members would likely have been muted had Raila still been alive and at the helm of the party politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli has questioned former President Uhuru Kenyatta\u2019s political influence,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1470,7138,7140,7139,80,2206,2207],"class_list":{"0":"post-10117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kenya","8":"tag-2027-elections","9":"tag-atwoli","10":"tag-cotu","11":"tag-fred-matiangi","12":"tag-kenya","13":"tag-raila-odinga","14":"tag-uhuru-kenyatta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}