Raila, Karua Explain How Azimio Gov’t will Lower Cost of Living in First 100 Days in Office

Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya coalition presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua have pledged to lower the cost of living within their first 100 days in office.

Speaking jointly during a roundtable with journalists on Tuesday evening, Odinga and Karua said they will achieve this by cutting down on government expenditures and prioritizing essential services in the budget.

“You can make some adjustments, when you for example cut down on some expenditures and focus on feeding the people, making it much more bearable for the local person in the country,” said Raila.

“We are really just talking about basically just essential commodities like the cost of unga, sugar, cooking oil, fuel. You can look at budget and make some adjustments in terms of expenditure, both recurrent and development.”

Karua echoed Raila’s sentiments, saying that their administration would put every effort to ease the suffering of Kenyans.

“When we ascend to office, we have given a pledge that within our first 100 days in office, we will bring down the cost of living. And there are numerous ways to achieve this, like my principal (Odinga) has already explained. And this will not be the first time that a government tried to lower the cost of living,” she said.

“During the Mwai Kibaki era, the government tried to lower the cost of living by, for instance, looking for ways of providing maize to industries at cheaper prices so as to lower the cost of flour.”

The two further distanced themselves from the current cost of living, insisting that they are not part of the Jubilee government and do not have the power to change it.

“Kenyans are not stupid, they know very well that I’m not in government. I don’t earn a salary or allowance from government, and I don’t live in a government house, but I advise. I can give some advice. It is not implementable, the user may or may not use it,” said Odinga.

He added: “I do not want to speak for the government, but I have indeed spoken to President Kenyatta about these issues. I know he is facing a lot of challenges, for example now the government is being pulled in two different directions; there is a faction government that is opposing that very government’s agenda. That faction of government is playing with the livelihood of Kenyans. They’re trying to divert attention of the public, playing populist politics with the cost of living.”