Friday, July 27, 2012

Raila: My opinion of Miguna, his book


Raila: My opinion of Miguna, his book

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By  BERNARD NAMUNANE bnamunane@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Thursday, July 26  2012 at  23:00
IN SUMMARY
  • Odinga has kept a clever silence as debate on revelations by his former aide raged. Now, through his legal adviser, he breaks the silence on what he will, and will not, do.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga will not seek court redress over libellous claims by a former aide for the sake of freedom of expression and of the Press.
However, he warned that his decision should not be taken as a blanket permission by any media house or publication to repeat what he described as “indecent sleaze” contained in Mr Miguna Miguna’s book.
Similarly, he said that his decision, described as a “constitutional position” was not an approval of the allegations raised in the book, Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya.
Other prominent personalities, who feel the author has defamed them, were free to take legal action against him, Mr Odinga said in a statement written by his legal affairs adviser Paul Mwangi published elsewhere in this paper.
In the statement, the PM neither refers to Mr Miguna by name nor the book by its title.
“The Prime Minister, as a champion of the rights in our Constitution, has accepted to bear the hurt of defamation, rather than take any action that may discourage the advancement and expansion of the field of these rights,” Mr Mwangi said.
But responding from Canada where he says he is on holiday, Mr Miguna said the Prime Minister had not condemned MP Fred Outa and others “who burnt my effigy and buried my coffin in Nyando, thereby openly encouraging people to hurt or kill me”.
He said Mr Odinga had authorised his supporters, including Mr Gitobu Imanyara, Ms Sarah Elderkin, Mr Ngunjiri Wambugu and Mr Omar Hassan Omar “to attempt to assassinate my character by hurling abuse and attempting pseudo and fake psychological analysis on me rather than dealing with the contents and substance of the book.”
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He claimed that Mr Odinga may still pursue him through proxies including his private secretary Caroli Omondi.
“If or when Caroli (Omondi) and others commence action against me, as far as I am concerned, that would be Raila doing it. Everything written about Caroli in the book revolves around what he did after Raila was appointed PM and Caroli started working at his office. Consequently, as far as I am concerned, in all intents and purposes, Raila is Caroli and Caroli is Raila,” he said.
He asked Mr Odinga to personally respond to the allegations in the book, “which are serious and go to the heart of the PM’s ability or lack thereof, to lead”.
Mr Mwangi’s statement, he said, could not be taken to be the PM’s. “Kenyans have not given Paul Mwangi any legal and constitutional authority to act as Prime Minister. The op-ed piece is Paul Mwangi’s opinion. Therefore, as far as I can see, Raila has not spoken on my book at all. Subterfuge will not do’.’
In his piece, Mr Mwangi asserted that the PM wanted the public to freely exchange ideas and nurture a free Press without which Kenya would not attain its target of becoming a first world country.
That is the reason he sees the allegations of nepotism, corruption and weak leadership raised by Mr Miguna, who served as his coalition adviser from 2009 to 2011, as the negative sideshows whose aim is to pull back Kenyans from enjoying the freedoms brought about by the new Constitution.
“The Prime Minister views the recently launched publication as the ugly thorns that grow on the bushes of the beautiful roses of freedom,” the legal adviser said.
But he warns against the use and publication of the claims raised in the book as he leaves it to other aggrieved people to make individual decisions.

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