The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) chairman and Suba South Member of Parliament, John Mbadi, has accused his Kikuyu counterpart, Kimani Ichung’wah, of whipping emotions and apportioning blame on the government.
Mbadi and Ichung’wah were hosted on Citizen TV by Waihiga Mwaura, on Tuesday night, April 5, where the two discussed the state of the nation.
Speaking on the state of the economy, Mbadi argued that his colleague, who is affiliated with the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) under the Kenya Kwanza alliance, was intentionally propagating an agenda against a government he once served.
This was after Ichung’wah accused the government of misappropriating funds by spending the taxpayers' money on projects that have not been approved by Parliament.
“I have no shame to say on national TV that to a large extent, Parliament has failed. They (MPs) have refused to use their brains,” Ichung’wah castigated his colleagues.
Mbadi in response argued that Ichung’wah and all politicians allied to the Deputy President, William Ruto, are part of the root cause of Kenya’s problems witnessed under President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime.
The Minority Leader in the National Assembly stated that Ruto’s allies contributed to the outrageous borrowing spree in Uhuru's first five years in office.
“Stop whipping emotions. You know what Jubilee did to this country. You have even been trying to distort the figures for money borrowed. In fact, this time, Kenyans expected difficulty as we faced the pandemic, unlike between 2013 and 2017.
“You were borrowing money all over the place and now that we are where we are, you want to claim high moral ground that since you are now not in government, you are speaking for the people of Kenya,” Mbadi hit back.
He further accused Ichung’wah and DP Ruto's allies of passing legislation that are currently hurting the citizens. Mbadi argued that he opposed these laws then, but was suppressed by the DP’s allies.
“I agree, opposition is nice. Play that role, it is sweet and you can say any lie and get away with it. Also, don’t run away from responsibility,” Mbadi added.
The MP, who recently stepped down from Homabay gubernatorial race, added that Ichung’wah emulates the spirit of his own boss, the DP, who lauds and criticises the government at the same time.
Ruto, on Tuesday, April 5, lauded the government for working with counties to settle the pending bills after meeting members of the Council of Governors.
24 hours earlier, on Monday, April 4, Ruto claimed that the government intentionally created a fuel crisis, saying that the high fuel prices were unprecedented and were not necessitated by ordinary market responses to global crude oil price dynamics.
“I watched Ruto addressing the nation stating that the government reduced pending bills. He spoke so well. Tomorrow, he will be telling us how the government is useless, and we cannot balance fuel prices,” Mbadi called out the DP.
Ichung’wah, however, insisted that the country is in a deep crisis as everyone was failing in their roles.
“We are misapplying, misdirecting and misappropriating.
“I will not sit down and apologize on behalf of the government. If money had not been misdirected, whatever external shocks that came into our economy, we would have money to mitigate that,” he argued.
