President Kenyatta stated that the election was not a contest of good versus bad ideas but of different visions vowing to work with all Kenyans [Photo: Capital FM]
President Uhuru Kenyatta gave himself as a benchmark in his speech on Tuesday following his inauguration and it will be used to gauge him going forward.
Thirdway Alliance Party Leader Dr Ekuru Aukot has said that Uhuru's second inaugural address sounded 'very promising as he sounded like someone determined to achieve his promises'.
Aukot, however, noted that Kenyatta's’s speech needs to be put to the test against the speech he gave at his first inauguration in 2013.
"The president was silent on what he promised in 2013 and made new promises to Kenyans but did not scorecard his previous promises. The speech touched on many key issues affecting the country, among them the division that has torn the country because of different political allegiances," Aukot says in an opinion piece on the Wednesday Star.
On Uhuru's promise to be the 'President of all', Aukot says Kenyans need to give him the benefit of the doubt, as for him to achieve unity across the country it will depend on what he does going forward.
He also commends the president for promising that he will not isolate his competitors’ ideas.
"I commend him for that because he has shown he is playing the politics of agendas. In fact, in his speech he borrowed some ideas from the Thirdway Alliance manifesto on industrialisation and power. He touched much on maximizing, buying and selling Kenyan-made goods and that was one of our main pillars during the campaigns," Aukot adds.
The former Committee of Experts Chairman said that going forward, the Thirdway Alliance as part of the opposition will play its role of keeping the government in check and also propose legislation 'that will end the bad politics and present the politics of ideas'.