Raila To Youth: I Will Resign If I Fail To Deliver. I Will Not Invent Excuses

ODM leader Raila Odinga has vowed to step down when in power in case he fails to deliver his promise to the youth.

Speaking on Tuesday in a public virtual lecture to University of Nairobi students, Raila promised to let youth lead in his plan to position Kenyans as an ICT and e-commerce hub in Africa.

“In this regard, there is a commitment I can give the youth of Kenya today. In the event that I fail to deliver what I promise, I will not invent excuses. I will not change the goal posts,” Raila said.

“I will do what Mwalimu Nyerere did next door in Tanzania. I will admit that my experiment and dream has failed and I will let somebody else try.”

It’s the first time the ODM leader has directly acknowledged that he’ll be on the ballot papers come 2022.

He shunned DP William Ruto’s Kazi ni Kazi narrative saying that the youth deserve better-paying jobs.

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“Let me be clear here too. I do not subscribe to the idea of Kazi ni Kazi. No. I have been allergic to giving excuses and resorting to half measures,” Raila said.

“ Young people were promised digital jobs, who were promised knowledge-based economy, who were promised double-digit economic growth, are now being offered wheelbarrows and being told Kazi ni Kazi . That is a route I promise Kenyans can never take.”

Raila, in the lecture organized by UoN’s department of political science and public administration, said Kazi ni Kazi will only hold the youth back instead of putting them ahead in a fast-changing world.

“I want to prepare Kenyan youths for jobs of the future, not jobs of yesterday. I want to focus the youth of Kenya on where the world is going, not where the world is coming from,” he said.

“In an era when nations are sending their sons and daughters to planet Mars, I refuse to tell the children of Kenya that the tools our great, great ancestors used in the pre-historic age represent some kind of revolution that can take them places.”