The opposition Cord has been defended from mounting criticisms over its perceived sour relationship with the Jubilee government.
The rivalry between the two coalitions escalated on Thursday last week when eight opposition MPs were thrown out of the National Parliament after whistling and heckling President Uhuru Kenyatta during his State of the Nation address.
However, Nyamira woman representative Alice Chae has defended the opposition from criticisms saying it’s determined to help the government deliver on its mandate.
“It’s wrong for some people to believe that Cord is always wrong when dealing with the government. I believe our work is to keep the government in check on behalf of the electorate and that is what we have done. We are only trying to help them govern the country,” she said.
“As representatives of the people, we are justified to seek the attention of the President whenever we feel certain issues are not properly addressed. So the incident (heckling) isn’t unique, we were simply passing a message,” she said during a function at Nyansiongo on Monday.
She challenged the Jubilee administration to be tolerant with opposition and forge the way forward for the country.
“The government should appreciate the roles played by the opposition. We are not an impediment to development because we are fighting for the same development. They should own failures in managing the country with these high levels of corruption and fix them,” she added.
“It’s also important for them to desist from intimidating opposition whenever we are raising critical issues on good governance in our country. We respect them and they should do the same back by giving us space to work for our people,” she said.