Edwin Sifuna, the Secretary General of the Orange Democratic party has displayed his frustration on the real state of the nation.
Speaking on Citizen Tv on Thursday, the self spoken senator explained the reasons as to why he did not attend the state of the Nation address last week pointing out that he is not a person to sit down and watch as lies are being told.
“So going into that state of the Nation Address, I knew he was going to come and gloss over issues. And because our standing orders require that we hear him in silence. I am not in the nature of sitting quietly when people are telling lies. I suspected that I was going to shout and say that is a lie,” Sifuna said.
He said that the president is known for glossing issues other than presenting the truth blatantly as it is. He recalls a day that president Ruto announced that a road was complete in his area only to visit the place and find the opposite claims that keep him wondering why the president is full of lies.
Sifuna explains that the matter on the state of the nation is not to be addressed to a sitting in parliament but should engage the much affected people who are the citizens
“The State of the Nation is a state of the people. So if you want to know the state of a nation just speak to the people, are people able to feed their families, are they able to afford rent and they are looking at school fees in the coming New Year,” Sifuna noted.
He pointed out that the state of the nations address did not address the real issue that Kenyans wanted to hear. The real matter according to the senator is not about the increment of hustler fund money but the high number of unemployed individuals that the nation is facing despite the President saying that job opportunities have been created.
“If you have a president speaking to Parliament for a whole one hour and he has not told you how many jobs he has created because he has created new jobs, that tells you there is a problem if he has not told you that he has made the lives of the people better than you found them. Then there is a problem,” said Sifuna.
He further advised the President to address the issue as it is. If things are difficult he should let it be known to the people he is serving and say it to them the measures he is taking to curb the difficulty.
“And it is because he’s defending the indefensible. Tell the people the truth come to the house and admit that things are difficult. explain to them why you’re meting pain on them every day,” he said.
During his first ever State Of The Nation address on November 9 since he assumed office, the President expressed the need for taking practical and sustainable solutions to the challenges faced by Kenyans, emphasizing that the country has been living beyond its means for the longest.
“As I told Kenyans on my first day in office, times were difficult, and many people are struggling, necessitating urgent and effective sustainable solutions. We must admit that as a country, we had been living large and way beyond our means,” the Head Of State stated.
