Eldoret, 18 March, 2025 / 8:30 pm (ACI Africa).
The opposition has the important role of regulating the Executive arm of government, ensuring “checks and balances”, Bishop Dominic Kimengich of Kenya’s Catholic Diocese of Eldoret has said.
In a March 16 NTV Kenya report, Bishop Kimengich echoed those faulting the broad-based government that Kenya’s President, William Samoei Ruto, and opposition leader, Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga, formalized on March 7 in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between their respective parties, the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
While President Ruto and Hon. Odinga have argued that their pact is neither a new political alliance nor does it involve sharing government positions, the March 7 MOU has sparked criticism, critics saying that the move undermines the role of the opposition in Kenya.
For Bishop Kimengich, “If the opposition, as we have seen now, is working together with the government, and if that will bring development, bring stability, bring peace in our country, then we have no problem. But we must also have the opposition.”
“For any government to run, we must have checks and balances, and that should be preserved because it is sacrosanct in any democratic institution,” the Kenyan Catholic Bishop said, and emphasized, “It is important we have checks and balances so that we can ask questions about the policies of the government and other things the government is doing.”
