Kenyans on Thursday attacked President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto after they snubbed the National Super Alliance (NASA) presidential candidate Raila Odinga during the 54th Madaraka day celebrations in Nyeri.
The Opposition leader while speaking to a local daily, however, refused to blame President Kenyatta and Ruto for ignoring him stating that he had attended the event to mark the 54th anniversary of Kenya’s attainment of internal self-rule from the British colonial government at the invitation of the government.
The former Prime Minister explained that he had done his role by attending the national event at Kabiru-ini Stadium in Nyeri and left the rest to the organizers.
"I received an invitation to attend the national day celebrations and I honored it. It was their responsibility to recognize me, I leave it to the people to judge the way they (government) handled the issue. I don’t want to appear to be complaining.
“Hiyo ni shauri yao (It is up to them). The problem is theirs. This was not supposed to be a Jubilee affair. Honestly, I would have done it differently,” Raila stated.
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader, however, stated that the Jubilee government should not have used the event as a campaign platform but for preaching national unity and remember freedom heroes.
“This should never have been used as a campaign platform, where one party campaigns for re-election,” Mr Odinga lamented.
He argued that some of the achievements they were pitching, such as the SGR, were conceived during the Grand Coalition Government, which was headed by former President Mwai Kibaki with him as the Prime Minister.
President Kenyatta used the event to outline some of his achievements for the past four years and urged the residents to re-elect him to complete some of the projects they had initiated.
Some of the projects he cited include; the Standard Gauge Railway, connection of six million households to electricity, improving service delivery through Huduma Centres and increased student enrolment in schools and colleges among other feats.
