Kenya: Raila Odinga now an Ambassador at Large for Uhuru Kenyatta?

A behaviour put up by Raila Odinga, the leader of the biggest opposition party in Kenya, National Super Alliance continues to inflict pain on its supporters virtually every day.

After a long-standing dispute between Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta after the 2017 elections easily made pollsters predict a heated general election in Kenya come 2022.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission - IEBC pushed Kenya election date to October 26 to enable the commission conduct again the presidential election that meets standards set by Supreme Court.

IEBC decision comes after Supreme Court delivered its full judgment on the presidential election that was held on August 8. President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared winner in the election over National Super Alliance (NASA) presidential candidate Raila Odinga. But the Supreme Court upheld petition filed by Raila, who had claimed Uhuru's re-election was fraudulent.

Hurriedly, The IEBC on October 30, 2017, declared President Uhuru Kenyatta winner of the October 26 repeat presidential election.

Uhuru Kenyatta garnered 7,483,895 votes out of the 7,616,217 valid votes cast. While the IEBC verified results of the October 26 election, NASA has already said it will not recognize Kenyatta's victory and threatened to swear in Raila Odinga as the president should the president-elect be inaugurated. NASA also pushed for a second repeat presidential poll in 90 days but Deputy President William Ruto said no such thing will happen.

According to Jubilee party, 90 percent of the country voted. It blames NASA for disenfranchising those who did not vote when it asked supporters to stay away on election day. Voting did not happen in 25 constituencies in Homa Bay, Siaya, Migori, and Kisumu where opposition supporters barred IEBC officials from delivering voting material and engaged police in running battles.

On October 10, 2017, Raila Odinga withdrew from the race citing a skewed playground. Raila said he did not withdraw from the election to create a political crisis to force a coalition government but took the decision because he did not want the culture of stolen elections to continue in the country.

Odinga explained that his withdrawal was meant to push for a free and fair electoral process in Kenya now and in future elections. "I don’t have to always be on the ballot, but I want my candidate or whoever will be on the ballot to participate in a free and fair contest. There is no need of going to an election whose outcome is already predetermined,” said Raila Odinga.

What obviously could breed an unending Political Civil War in Kenya happened on January 30 2018, when opposition leader Raila Amolo Odinga was also sworn in by his party members as the Peoples President of Kenya.
Holding a green Bible to his right hand and sandwiched by his former aide Miguna Miguna and Siaya Senator James Orengo, Raila Odinga recited his ‘oath of office’ before thousands of his supporters at Uhuru Park, Nairobi.

“I Raila Odinga in full realisation of the high calling to assume the office of the people’s president of the Republic of Kenya, do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the people and the Republic of Kenya; that I will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of Kenya, as by law established, and all other laws of the Republic as adopted by the people of Kenya; that I will protect and uphold sovereignty, integrity, and dignity of the people of Kenya. So, help me God.” he carefully said.

The ‘swearing-in’ which the government has maintained is unconstitutional now leaves the supporters of the opposition outfit with questions of what follows next despite the fact that Odinga’s Vice President Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka was absent at the ceremony.

Soon after the event, Raila Odinga changed his Twitter bio to "President of the Republic of Kenya".
Fast forward, an unprecedented Political U-turn took place in Kenya on March 9, 2018, to the amazement of supporters of the National Super Alliance – NASA and the followers of Kenya Politics.

In a rare show of unity on Friday, March 9, 2018, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga told Kenyans they had set their differences aside and would work to unite the public.

The two met at Harambee House office of the President before addressing the press. They neither specified their strategies nor took any questions.

Raila, who was first to speak, noted ethnic division came to an end today and that he and his ‘brother’ will bridge the existing gap.

The NASA chief and Orange Democratic Movement party leader said they resolved to end animosity before Kenya sinks.

“We refuse to allow our diversity to kill our nation. We have traveled so far … we cannot make it to our destination without bridging the gap,” he said.

“… we have to come together and solve the animosity that we have been pouring into the boat before we all sink. We shall not fail. If we stand firm we shall not fail.” In his address, the President assured Kenyans of a new political beginning following his meeting with Raila – he noted they had an opportunity to extensively discuss matters affecting Kenya.

Self-declared National Resistance Movement Kenya (NRMKe) General Miguna Miguna expressed his feelings towards the talk that was held on Friday, March 9 between President Uhuru Kenyatta and National Super Alliance (NASA) Coalition leader Raila Odinga.

Miguna Miguna terms the move by Raila as a betrayal to supporters of the coalition which is the government’s major opposition. According to the lawyer, who is Canada after being deported from the country in early February, Raila shouldn’t have held talks with Uhuru whom he claims stole his victory.

“By castrating himself, recognizing & GROVELLING before Uhuru Kenyatta who stole his victory and murdered & maimed thousands of his supporters and DESECRATED the constitution, rule of law & democracy, Raila Odinga has BETRAYED Kenyans. You can't dialogue without leverage,”Miguna tweeted on Saturday 10 March.

The result of the ‘political U-turn’ e between Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga have begun as the Odinga travelled to South Africa for Winnie Mandela’s funeral as an official representative of the Kenyan government.

The trip to South Africa where Odinga was treated as Kenya’s representative by the government and accorded private talks with top ANC leaders demonstrates that Odinga’s role within the Jubilee government led by Kenyatta is picking up sturdily.

‘‘Odinga is on this visit in a more official capacity, officially representing the Kenyan State and all the Peoples of the Republic of Kenya,” his aide Silas Jakakimba, said in a statement.

Odinga was received by the Kenyan High Commissioner to South Africa Jean Kamau, and met South Africa’s deputy president David Mabuza, former presidents Jacob Zuma, and Thabo Mbeki, and Mozambican High Commissioner to South Africa Paulino José Macaringue, among other dignitaries at the funeral.

While the reconciliation between Kenyatta and Odinga was greeted as a means to end the violence, bitterness and political instability that followed last year’s elections, Political analysts say the handshake could have threatened the ambitions of Kenya’s deputy president William Ruto.

“This pact between Kenyatta and Odinga has redefined the race as everybody has had to go back to their drawing board and decide how they are going to run in 2022,” said Ngunjiri Wambugu, a lawmaker from Kenyatta’s Jubilee party, a political alliance between his Kikuyu ethnic group and Ruto’s Kalenjin.