The Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition has launched a scathing attack on the Kenya Kwanza Government over its diplomatic relations with Kenya’s neighbours.

The opposition coalition is accusing the President William Ruto-led administration of treating the East African Community (EAC) member countries with disdain.

In a statement on Tuesday, December 19, the coalition — through its leader Raila Odinga — said since Kenya Kwanza came to power, Kenya’s relationship with the EAC has taken a turn for the worse.

The coalition cites the fact that none of our neighbouring EAC countries were represented at the level of president, vice president or prime minister during Kenya’s 60th Jamhuri Day celebrations as one of the indicators of the strain relations.

Journalists on December 17 asked President Ruto why none of the neighbouring countries’ president attended the celebrations, but he was quick to dismiss its significance.

Greed, corruption

The coalition is also accusing the Kenyan government officials of greed and corruption, as another reason for the ‘strained’ relationship with its neighbours.

“Kenya Kwanza is failing the diplomacy test, and the country in the process. Currently Uganda has been forced to go to the High Court in Kenya through its Uganda Petroleum Company to challenge a formula instigated by the Kenya Kwanza cartel that forces the sovereign state of Uganda to have its petroleum products transiting through Kenya to pay a “middleman” fee,” Raila says in the statement.

Raila adds: “Uganda is now forced to desperately seek relief through our Court system to protect itself from the greed of the Ruto regime. We have seen the hands of the cartel that now wield power in the Petroleum sector as if it belongs to one ethnic village.”

CS Murkomen

Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has stirred controversy after saying that Rwanda was an “autocracy” where “whatever the president says is the law”.

Murkomen added that Kenya, unlike Rwanda, was a democracy where everything the government does must be within the confines of the law.

Azimio has described Murkomen’s language as “intemperate and undiplomatic” against a friendly member of the EAC.

“The coarse language used against the great country and friendly people of Rwanda is most unfortunate. Rwanda is the size of Switzerland and is actually bigger than Singapore. It is not the
size that makes nations but the vision and leadership. To our Rwandese brothers and sisters we apologize on the sins of a regime intoxicated by power and corruption.”