Thirdway Alliance Party leader Ekuru Aukot has stated that Azimio cannot remove President William Ruto from office by collecting 15 million signatures.

Speaking while appearing on TV47’s breakfast show Morning Café on Wednesday, August 30, the Thirdway Alliance party leader said Azimio’s move of collecting signatures was unconstitutional.  

“When Azimio says we will collect 15 million signatures to remove the President from office that is political ignorance,” Aukot noted.

Aukot explained that Azimio leaders were lying to Kenyans with the signature collection, adding that citizens needed political education that would help them understand politics.

“We need to shift away from civic education to political education that will help Kenyans in choosing leaders and what to expect from elected leaders,” he said.

Office of opposition leader

At the same time, Aukot pointed out that talks about creating the office of opposition leader is a waste of time.

“There is no need to have the office of the leader of the opposition because in parliament the position is already catered for as minority leader,” he explained.

According to Aukot, the creation of the office of the opposition leader will lead to duplication of roles already being handled by the minority leader.

“Today we should be expecting National Assembly minority leader Opiyo Wandayi to be tabling alternative policy documents or motions to that of the government of the day,” he posed.

The party leader emphasized that the country is currently facing the challenge of politicization of the constitution implementation process, where politicians push for amendments for personal gains.

“There are certain individuals in this country who have a sense of entitlement that whenever we talk about the constitution, we need to think about ourselves, how do we get into positions of power,” he said.

Building bridges initiative

Aukot explained that the Building Bridges Initiative BBI was rejected because it was meant to benefit a few political leaders in the country.

His sentiments were echoed by Paul Macharia, an Advocate of the High Court, who noted that BBI had no interests of the common citizen since there was no proper public participation.  “Were it not for the small group that felt public participation was not well done in BBI, the majority would have allowed that to slide,” said Macharia.

National dialogue committee

The Thirdway Alliance Party leader at the same time, noted he won’t support the ongoing talks at the Bomas of Kenya for lack of inclusivity.

“When people think about amending the constitution, they think about themselves, they think about those offices, that is why I don’t support the ongoing talks at Bomas,” he said.

“There is nothing national about UDA and Azimio meeting at Bomas of Kenya, if they want to make it national, let them open it to the public,” he added.