Raila’s sleeping habits in foreign lands a cause for national concern

By KWAMCHETSI MAKOKHA
Posted  Friday, May 27 2011 at 18:48

Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s profligate spending on luxury hotels in foreign capitals exposes a callous side of him, but also raises important issues.

Although the Waldorf-Astoria can charge as little as $319 (Sh27,000) daily for a room, Kenya’s Prime Minister would have none of that.

Mr Odinga could have taken the luxury suite – the one with a king bed --for $619 (Sh53,234) a night, but he would have none of it. The hotel staff, aware that he was coming from a poor African country, even likely offered him the deluxe suite, with a large bed, extra accommodation, and breakfast thrown in for $1,059 (Sh91,074) but he just rolled on the lush carpet and created a scene.

He had to feel the soft caress of bed sheets that had served the most powerful man in the world. Although the hotel offers government and military guests from around the world special rates, Mr Odinga insisted on paying the full Sh137,000 ($1,600) the hotel charges US President Barack Obama when he stays there.

Although the Prime Minister, as a state guest and distant relative of the Obamas, could have wangled an invitation to the White House where he could have slept and dined for free, he just had to go and find the most expensive and extravagant hotel in the world.

This raises questions about whether Mr Odinga is a spendthrift or just hungry for power.

At the meeting with Vice-President Joe Biden in Washington, Mr Odinga neglected to mention that he was having difficulties with accommodation.

Had he even hinted at his difficulties, Mr Biden — being a generous man — would have had no difficulty in putting Mr Odinga on a speed train to Delaware for a few nights – free -- since the house there is largely empty nowadays. But no, Mr Odinga would have none of it.

You can imagine Mr Biden’s shock when he learns that all the money American businesses pledged to invest in Kenya would return to pay hotel bills.

Despite having numerous friends and relatives in America, Mr Odinga did not want to spend time in their homes in New York, Washington or Florida. He just wanted to sponge on the Kenyan taxpayer instead of learning a thing or two about the street culture of Harlem and Brooklyn.

Although the Prime Minister claims to be a man of the people, his habits are not communal since he likes to live alone.

It is understandable if Mr Odinga did not want to reconnect with his long-lost relations. Yet Kenya has ambassadors in Washington and New York, whom he could have ordered to extend to him an invitation to their residences for a taste of home-cooked food and old-style Kenyan hospitality in a faraway land.

But even this was not good enough for the Prime Minister. He had to sleep at the Astoria to avoid helping his relatives.

Renowned world leaders have nailed the art of saving on foreign trips, and their lessons are all in the public domain. Take Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, for example. He travels around with his own tents, food, pets and water. He pitches the tents in the open fields and does not even pay land rates.

Mr Odinga could have emulated Col Gaddafi and travelled with his own tents, together with a Libyan expert to help him erect them, but again, he was only keen on blowing poor Kenyans’ money. This might suggest that the Prime Minister is afraid of the outdoors.

With his reputation for scarcely sleeping, it is difficult to understand why Mr Odinga even needed a room, let alone a presidential suite. New York never sleeps. It a city that ought to have fitted Mr Odinga like a glove on a hand.

For someone who claims to speak for the youth, it was shocking that Mr Odinga would yield to the fluffy temptations of the Waldorf-Astoria when the night scene was rocking.

New York has something like 100 nightclubs, and the cover charge is not even a tenth of a cheap room at the Waldorf. This could suggest that Mr Odinga does not have the interests of the youth at heart.

Back to that presidential suite, it is unclear why the Prime Minister’s bodyguard needed to sleep if he was guarding him. Bodyguards are paid to remain alert and awake.

Paying for their accommodation encourages them to sleep and neglect their work. This means that he is not a good supervisor of even his bodyguards.
Better still, he could just have avoided all these travels, sat back in Nairobi and summoned all the people he wanted to speak with to come to him. They are rich, after all, and can afford to fly around like bats and sleep in Kenyan hotels.