Raila rules out deal with Gachagua hints at pact with Ruto
“The traps set against me did not work. That is why you saw me at State House.”
Kisii County welcomed me today as I continue consulting the grassroots. Thank you Gov Simba A
Kisii County leaders for sharing your views with me.
Raila Odinga’s energy after the AUC bid didn’t work for him has been astonishing. The man is all over the country from Homa Bay to Kisumu and then rapidly to Busia and then to Mombasa, Wajir and now he is in Kisii. The Gachagua led Kenyan opposition in the meantime never even bothers to talk to Kenyans across the country and that is clear because Gachagua declared the opposition as a GEMA enterprise and Kalonzo has to bend down to that or Gachagua will throw him out.
ODM is currently the most powerful and well organized political party in our country. That is their best gift to the nation.
According to news reports, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has ruled out any possibility of joining forces with former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Instead, Raila hinted at the prospect of entering into a formal and structured working relationship with President William Ruto ahead of the 2027 elections.
Raila’s clarification is expected to influence the direction of Gachagua’s alliance, which is seeking to build a formidable opposition force to challenge Ruto in 2027.
Gachagua and Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka have been urging Raila to resume his opposition role and work with them in preparation for the next general election.
However, after days of speculation, Raila stated on Wednesday that he would align with progressive leaders rather than those who openly admitted to setting traps for him near State House.
“The other man said he had set traps everywhere to prevent me from reaching State House for a handshake. So, do you want us to work with someone who set traps for me? I told him that is impossible,” Raila remarked.
“The traps set against me did not work. That is why you saw me at State House alongside other East African leaders, including Presidents Museveni, Samia Suluhu, and Ruto,” Raila noted.
In reality Kalonzo Muysoka and Martha Karua are soon going to be at war with Rigathi Gachagua because Gachagua will not want any new coalition party until after the courts clear him to run for office after impeachment and that will never happen. That is a dead coalition and Raila Odinga has every right to walk away from it.
Here is the deal for me. If Raila chooses to work with the Ruto government that is fine as well as a few things are sorted. First the Ruto government SHIF health system has to be sorted and it has to be done right now. How the heck does the system work. How do Kenyans pay into it.
What healthcare coverage do they have. Those are the simple things to be dealt with right away and if Raila can help Ruto get that done then good for them and for the country. Kenyans have to know how their healthcare works and how they pay for it. This cannot run around in cycles. Fix it.
Second thing is about education in our country. Our population is young people and we are lucky for that. I argue with my nephew who is holds degrees as a mechanical engineer and tell him to just build stuff at home instead of looking for a job. He is teaching now at a polytechnic.
Our educations system is very bad. You have to pay money. I had a niece in a Kenya Medical Training Centre (KMTC). The Fees was very high and me and her mother just said we had to do it. The system is impossible for many Kenyans.
Can Raila Odinga and his team help President Ruto redefine the education system and funding to benefit all Kenyans.
President William Ruto with former Prime Minister Raila Odinga signing of a political pact at KICC on March 7, 2025
President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Friday signed a political pact, which they plan to implement together going forward.
The deal listed 10 priority areas that the working framework will explore.
The Memorandum of Understanding is premised on a commitment to resolve the social, economic and political challenges facing Kenya.
Some of the issues listed is the implementation of NADCO report, upholding the rule of law, promoting and protecting the livelihoods of young people, leadership and integrity and national debt.
Ruto has vowed to ensure that national resources are managed prudently to reduce the over-reliance on foreign debts.
He also vowed to ensure that an audit of past debt is conducted so that the country can understand how much has been borrowed and for what purposes and how it is paid.
“I attempted to set up this audit, it didn’t work. I am confident that with this broad formation, we will now be able to audit our debt,” the President stated.
Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga signing of a political pact while flagged by ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna, Kisumu Governor Anyang Nyong’o and Narok Senator Ledama Olekina at KICC on March 7, 2025
Raila insisted that the new deal will help tackle key national challenges.
“Through this agreement, we will address unemployment, poverty, inequality, and institutional failures caused by inefficiency and corruption,” he said.
Raila clarified that the political pact is not a coalition.
“We make it clear that the MoU we have signed today does not define the formation of a political coalition between ODM and UDA,” Raila stated.
President William Ruto with former Prime Minister Raila Odinga during the signing of a pact at KICC on March 7, 2025
Of all that does not work I think and many Kenyans maybe excited of a political union between Raila Amolo Odinga and Ex CJ David Maraga and even including Okiya Omtatah in there.
‘Fix the law, fix the country’: Ex-CJ David Maraga on how he would run Kenya as president
Former Chief Justice David Maraga says that if he were to be elected President of Kenya, he would strive to ensure Kenyans are law-abiding citizens.
Maraga, in an address at the People’s Dialogue Festival at Uhuru Park on Thursday, tore into Kenya’s governance challenges, pinpointing that adherence to the rule of law is the ultimate solution to the country’s problems.
The former CJ, who has touted as a possible President William Ruto successor over his stand on issues affecting Kenyans, argued that most African nations are hell-bent on breaking the law, hence the perennial economic and leadership challenges bedeviling the continent.
According to Maraga, defiance to the law is the root cause of corruption, which he believes is the biggest challenge in Africa, and whose solution can only be solved through ensuring every citizen upholds the rule of Constitution.
“If I were to be given the privilege to govern this country, I would get everybody to obey the law; the moment you are obeying the law, everything will fall into place,” he said.
“When you get everybody to obey the law, the question of money not going through the Consolidated Fund will end. The issue of diverting funds from a given project to another will end, and the country will run smoothly.”
He added: “The truth of the matter is that what is ailing this country and very many African countries is corruption; the moment we will deal with corruption, we will have no problem.”
Maraga faulted the current leadership for running opaque projects using public funds without prioritising the need for accountability.
He underscored that a transparent government should not strain to acquire resources or seem as if they are overtaxing the people; rather, the people themselves would be more collaborative since they can monitor how their funds are spent.
“You are given resources to use for the welfare of the people, and you take it all for yourself and begin speaking a language, thinking that some of us didn’t go to school and we can’t even understand the English they’re using,” he said.
“We don’t have infinite resources; the resources are there, they are limited but if a government is transparent and says, look, I have Ksh.10 million, I have used this here and that there, give me more, you will give the government more money when you are transparent and use the resources given to you for the intended purposes.”
And Here are the biggest political losers. Kalonzo and Eugene say Raila has betrayed the Saba Saba demonstrators in 2023 and the Gen Z activists in 2024. Was Kalonzo and Wamalwa involved in 2023 Saba Saba when Gachagua was trying to get Raila Odinga killed during the demos, or in the Gen Z actions. Not at all. They just sit and talk nonsense. They are finished politically with Gachagua as their king and they know that very well.
Kalonzo declares Ruto-Raila cooperation agreement ‘a betrayal to Kenyans’
Opposition leaders Kalonzo Musyoka and Eugene Wamalwa attend the People’s Dialogue Festival at Uhuru Park on March 7, 2025.
Opposition leaders led by Wiper Leader Kalonzo Musyoka and DAP-K Party leader Eugene Wamalwa have described the cooperation agreement between their former ally Raila Odinga’s ODM and President William Ruto’s UDA as a ‘betrayal to Kenyans.’
The two leaders say Raila has betrayed the cause of the Kenyan people who died in 2023 and 2024 as they protested the high cost of living, punitive taxes, and governance problems.
Adongo Ogony is a Kenyan Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
