Miguna is a project of my detractors, says Raila

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Prime Minister Raila Odinga has maintained he will not engage in a war of words with a former aide August 17, 2012.  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By GODFREY OMBOGO and ELISHA OTIENO
Posted  Saturday, August 18  2012 at  11:06

IN SUMMARY

• Mr Odinga terms Miguna Miguna a project out to injure his quest for the presidency.
• PM says State House race between reformers and non-reformers.
• Miguna to join hands with "others" to ensure Mr Odinga does not clinch the presidency.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga has maintained he will not engage in a war of words with a former aide.

Mr Odinga termed Miguna Miguna a project out to injure his quest for the presidency.

He used a Luo analogy describing his former Mr Miguna as "a man who ran away with his clothes while he (Mr Odinga) was taking a bath".

"I decided to let him go and I bought new clothes because running after him would be pointless. I know he was sent by my opponents," he said.

The PM's remarks came as Mr Miguna returned home from holidaying in Canada after launching his controversial book, Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya.

Speaking separately, Mr Miguna said he was going to team up with “others” to make sure the ODM party leader does make it to State House after the March 4, 2013 polls.

He said Mr Odinga lacked the qualities to lead the country after President Kibaki leaves office.

"He (Mr Odinga) is not competent to become president and I will work very hard with others to make sure he never gets that opportunity,” Mr Miguna said at NTV studios, Nairobi on Friday night during the 'Trend' programme.

"But in the event he becomes president, I will not stop criticising him because fear is not part of me."

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Mr Odinga said that he will not back out of the State House race despite what his opponents say to vilify him.

"It is still going to be two-horse race between ODM, which for reforms and a conglomeration of other parties which are against reforms,” he said Friday after inspecting the Bondo-Misori road which is under construction in Bondo, Siaya County.

The PM said other presidential aspirants, especially from the G7 Alliance, have no agenda for Kenyans. He said their sole motivation is block him from the presidency in the next General Election.

Mr Odinga said that ODM is still the party to beat and that is why other “small” parties are planning to unite against it but “they will be surprised when election time comes”.

"They are saying I am old and should retire with President Kibaki but it is them who are old in ideas since they are against reforms and want to take us back to the dark days of our forefathers."

The PM likened the next elections to those of 1963 saying they will be between those for the new Constitution against those against it.

"You expect those people to implement the Constitution that they were opposed to. You all know that some of them were water-melons,” he said.

He was accompanied by Bondo MP Oburu Oginga and his Rarieda counterpart Nicholas Gumbo who called upon their constituents to take ID cards in large numbers register as voters.

"It is the only way we are going to send the Prime Minister to State House and we have to do it in the first round so as to avoid a run-off," said Dr Oginga.

Govt will disclose Saitoti plane crash mystery

PM Odinga also said the deaths of Cabinet ministers Prof Geaorge Saitoti and Orwa Ojode including four police officers in a plane crash will be unearthed by the government.

Addressing leaders from Kajiado North Constituency in Langata, PM Odinga said Kenyans do not want Prof Saitoti’s death to remain a mystery like the political assassinations that have rocked the country since independence including that of Pio Gama Pinto, J.M. Kariuki and Robert Ouko.

He reiterated that in 2009 he signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Prof Saitoti for the forthcoming General Election. He said the MoU would have been made public in October.

“So when people were trying to associate him with G7, we just laughed at their misconceived ideas,” he added.