Raila Odinga face to face with Robert Mugabe at the State House

by Nare Msupatsila

2011 April 29 15:46:58 | 537 Views

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga says his country is prepared to help Zimbabwe complete its constitution making process that has been constantly marred by chaos.

“We in Kenya are slightly ahead of Zimbabwe and we have something to share with Zimbabwe particularly in the process of constitution making. So we have offered that we will share some of the information that we have with Zimbabwe so that there is no need to re-invent the wheel. They can use whatever is useful for them here because circumstances are never the same, they differ,” Odinga told journalists at State House Friday afternoon while emerging from a brief meeting with President Robert Mugabe.

The Kenyan Premier flew into Zimbabwe mid morning Friday where he went straight to pay a courtesy call on the Zimbabwean leader. The two emerged from the meeting holding arms and for almost five minutes, were chatting while holding arms.

Odinga, a strong critic of President Robert Mugabe, is in Zimbabwe at the invitation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s mainstream MDC formation and is set to grace the party’s on-going elective congress in Bulawayo.

Odinga refused to comment about Zimbabwe’s coalition government saying the matter was for Zimbabweans.

“That is the issue for Zimbabweans he said,” eliciting a loud giggle from President Mugabe. “We had a very useful meeting. I am very thankful to his Excellency for meeting us,” he said while commenting about his meeting with Mugabe.

“We had a very good meeting with his excellency, President of Zimbabwe. I brought with me greetings from his counterpart President Mwai Kibaki in Kenya. We have basically been comparing notes about developments in Zimbabwe and in Kenya, as you know that Zimbabwe and Kenya share a number of things in common plus we have the colonial legacy between us,” Odinga said.

Mugabe did not speak to journalists but only shook his head and nodded in agreement to what the Kenyan premier was saying after their meeting.

Odinga arrived at the State with his wife and entourage with Deputy Prime Minister, Thokozani Khupe who received him at the Harare International Airport.

Opening the congress on Thursday, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the president of the MDC said Zimbabwe will hold elections in a year's time, contracting Mugabe, who had said elections will be held this year.

Source: RadioVop