Nairobi — Long-serving opposition leader Raila Odinga has thrown his weight behind sentiments by former First Lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta on payment of taxes.

Addressing a rally in Kibra on Sunday, Odinga shared in Mama Ngina's sentiments that the ongoing clamor on payment of taxes is politically instigated.

He accused President William Ruto of being insincere in pursuing tax cheats saying the President was overzealous than the biblical Zacchaeus.

"Ruto promised a poor man's government where people expected a caring regime but Kenyans have been rewarded with an I don't care government," he told the crowd in Kibra.

"Ruto found a little in people's pockets and now that little is being taken away to feed his rich friends," Odinga claimed.

He added: "Instead of redeeming people from poverty he is pushing people to poverty."

Odinga accused Ruto's government of targeting the Kenyatta family saying the Kenya Revenue Authority should be allowed to work without political interference.

Tax evasion

Odinga spoke a day after the Former First Lady broke silence over the tax evasion debate putting the Kenyatta business empire on the spotlight.

In an apparent response to allegations by President William Ruto's allies that businesses owned by the Kenyatta family had evaded taxes, the spouse of the country's founding leader Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and mother to immediate former President Uhuru Kenyatta said the claims were baseless.

"There are procedures on matters taxes and one cannot avoid paying taxes because it is against the country's law," she said during the handover of a church in Malindi whose construction she aided.

"If all these reports are true then they should reclaim the money from the businesses," she added.

In remarks delivered in Kiswahili, Mama Ngina appeared to suggest Ruto's campaign to tame tax evasion was politically motivated.

"Why do they get excited when they mention other people's names?" she posed.