Onyonka: Deal with govt has destroyed Raila
By Valerian Khakayi, July 17, 2025Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka has claimed that the formation of the broad-based government has destroyed Raila Odinga’s political influence.
Speaking during a live interview with a local TV station on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, Onyonka said that all were in agreement with him joining Ruto’s government to help him due to the government’s instability.
However, he said that what happened later disappointed many, adding that as a party, they held discussions and proposed several issues for inclusion in the broad-based government, but those proposals have yet to be implemented.
“Initially, when Raila sat with us and discussed about him joining the government to help President William Ruto because the government was unstable and there was uncertainty about what has to be done, many of us were positive about that but what changed on the way annoyed many people because we said there were some low-hanging fruit this government and our party leader could have come and to told William Ruto ‘we want to support you but rally your troops and fix some matters concerning Kenyans'” he said.
The other issue that we told Raila was that we want to make our country fair, and we do not want to have constant election failure, and Ruto and Raila should come up with an election system.But not a single aspect of those issues that we were talking about was implemented. We were talking about good governance, inclusivity.”
Onyonka further stated that the project involving the national government under Ruto’s leadership was meant to benefit the historically marginalised Nyanza region. However, he added that by portraying Raila as the Luo kingpin, it ended up destroying him politically and eroding the credibility he once held.
“I say this with humility to my party leader Raila Odinga, the fact that the project with the national government of William Ruto was intended to do was deliberately targeted at the Nyanza region, which was historically marginalised, and by him being referenced as a Luo leader destroyed him and removed the credibility he had held,” he added.