By Tajeu Shadrack Nkapapa
The senator of Nairobi county Hon. Edwin Sifuna has come out to condemn the criticism that was directed at his party leader Raila Odinga for announcing to has agreed to hold a national conversation with the President.
Speaking in a media Interview, the Nairobi senator protected the ODM party leader Hon. Raila Odinga and said that he is a leader of many people in Kenya and he has to represent them in the national conversation that is set to happen on Tuesday.
“Raila did not say he is going to represent Gen Z. The Gen Z’s have said they are leaderless and Raila is not their leader. But there are people Baba (Raila) leads. Not everyone is leaderless and partyless. I have a party and I am the Secretary General of that party,” Senator Sifuna said.
“We can’t sit as leaders and keep quiet as things happen in the country. We are also stakeholders in this country and we have to participate in nation-building, we cannot just keep quiet when all these are happening. Gen Z’s did their X Spaces with the president, did you see Sifuna or Raila there? No. So Raila is a leader to some people and those are the people he is going to represent, not everyone is leaderless,” he added.
Senator Sifuna emphasized that Raila Odinga will have to participate in the planned national conversation to represent the people he leads.
This came after the former prime minister faced criticism on social media platforms after the press briefing at KICC on Tuesday where he agreed to participate in the dialogue to discuss the challenges facing Kenya and possible solutions from Kenyans.
The majority of the Gen Z’s on the X spaces criticized Raila Odinga and branded him as a traitor for accepting the dialogue where the majority of the angry youths reminded him that he does not speak for the Gen Z’s nor represents the youths because they are leaderless.
According to Gen Z, they expected Raila Odinga to be on their side fighting for justice and good governance while a section of the youths on social media platforms said that Raila should only concentrate on campaigning for his AU chairmanship.
The former Prime Minister also said on his X account that he had received a message from Gen Z not to have any handshake with the government.
“Nimeambiwa na hawa viongozi kwamba mumesema hamtaki handshake. Ujumbe umefika,” Raila Odinga wrote on X posting a picture of him with Senator Sifuna and other leaders.