Raila set to lead country’s economic recovery team

The trending chorus among Raila Odinga supporters is ” they stole our election but we have stolen their president”. And true, the ODM leader is now poised to lead the country’s economic recovery in new changes expected to be unveiled by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Sources say Uhuru is crafting a new Cabinet lineup that could see several Opposition figures get plum jobs.

Raila could be handed a huge portfolio that would see him coordinate several ministries dealing directly with the economy through a new agency to be established in the Executive under the Office of the President.

Treasury, Agriculture, Tourism, Industrialisation and Devolution are some of the dockets that the former Prime Minister would be entrusted with to coordinate.

The outfit to be headed by Raila will be called the Multi-Agency Economic Recovery Team. It will be directly answerable to the President.

The agency could also bring together eminent political leaders.

President Uhuru has been reaching out to key Opposition leaders to craft a government of national unity as his relationship with Ruto nosedives.

Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka and Kanu chairman Gideon Moi are among those expected to get a share of the government in the new changes.

In the proposed arrangement, Raila will head the Economic Commission or Council that will superintend the country’s post-coronavirus economic recovery.

The Covid-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the country, with the economy on its knees without hope of growth this year.

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The new council will have a multi-sectoral approach, working together with a number of state departments relevant to economic recovery, including the National Treasury.

“There will be an economic commission to help reconstruct the economy. Raila will play a senior role. That team will reconstruct the economy working with a number of ministries,” said a source aware of the happenings.

Raila is said to have told his close confidants during a meeting of the ODM National Management Committee last Thursday that he would be taking a senior role in Kenya’s economic recovery.

The new role would see the former PM chair crucial sub-committee meetings charged with the recovery of the economy.

Already, office space is being worked on at the National Treasury.

Jubilee Party vice chairman David Murathe was the first to hint that Uhuru, who has fallen out with DP Ruto, was working on bringing on board key politicians.

“This country needs a government of national unity post-coronavirus. To bring people together so all can focus on rebuilding the country,” Murathe said on April 13 after a meeting at Cotu secretary general Francis Atwoli’s home in Kajiado.

On Labour Day, Uhuru confirmed that soon he will constitute a team that will steer the country to economic recovery after the coronavirus has subsided or been defeated.

“Very soon, I plan to invite all leaders of different political parties, workers’ unions, employers and other stakeholders, we all sit down and chart the way forward on how to revive the economy post-Covid-19,” he said at State House, Nairobi.