Raila: I’m not too old to be president

CORD leader Raila Odinga (pictured, above) says his presidential ambitions should not be opposed based on his age. Speaking on Nation FM’s breakfast show today, the 70-year-old opposition leader stated that there several presidents older than him in Africa, such as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Nigeria’s newly elected President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Robert Mugabe (91) is old enough to be my father and I am younger than Buhari (72),” said Mr Odinga, a former Prime Minister, who has contested for Kenya’s top seat thrice. He says only the people can retire him from politics and termed President Uhuru Kenyatta’s proposal to have him and Kalonzo Musyoka quit before receiving retirement benefits as malicious.

“Uhuru’s decision to revise my pension as passed by Parliament and statement that I quit is malicious. You are paid pension for a job already done. I already served as Prime Minister, Kalonzo Musyoka was Vice-President,” he said.

Mr Odinga reiterated the need to reform the IEBC to make it more efficient: “We have a situation where results are counted several times, by the time the results arrive at the tallying centre they have been changed. In these amendments IEBC won’t have a national returning officer, the results received at the polling station will be the ones announced.”

If CORDS Okoa Kenya initiative does not meet the legal threshold to have a referendum, they will sell the proposed constitutional amendments during the 2017 elections, he said.

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