Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga during the interview at his Raila Odinga Centre in Nairobi on Tuesday. PHOTO/ANN KAMONI NATION
By ROY GACHUHI gachuhiroy@gmail.com
Posted Friday, May 24 2013 at 23:03
Posted Friday, May 24 2013 at 23:03
IN SUMMARY
- In the wide-ranging interview, Mr Odinga said he did not lose the 2013 election but was rigged out. He cast himself as a victim of a relentless, fully-funded and all-reaching State machinery intent on winning the poll at any cost.
- But in the interview, he shrugged: “When they did what they did, I said ‘this is a setback’. You count your loses and move on. This is just one of the roadblocks. You have hit a roadblock here, you reverse and then move on, because this is a movement. It is not an even... It must continue.”
Kenyans will have a chance to know some of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s best kept secrets when he publishes his autobiography in about two months.
In his first detailed interview since the March 4 General Election and the Supreme Court ruling that affirmed his loss to President Uhuru Kenyatta, Mr Odinga told the Saturday Nationthat the book takes most of his time since he relinquished office as Kenya’s second Prime Minister.
“It is taking a lot of my time these days,” he said. “As you know, a lot has been written about me. There have been biographies. This is an autobiography. It is now my turn to tell my story.”
In the wide-ranging interview, Mr Odinga said he did not lose the 2013 election but was rigged out. He cast himself as a victim of a relentless, fully-funded and all-reaching State machinery intent on winning the poll at any cost.
Free of bitterness
But remarkably, he sounded conciliatory, free of bitterness and repeatedly said the battle was never personal but ideological. It was a war of competing systems.
“As I have said before, I wish President Uhuru Kenyatta the best because life must continue for Kenyans and they have a manifesto. They made promises that they must keep and they should be given the opportunity to deliver on their promises. I have not taken this personally about Uhuru or Ruto because we are talking about a system, not two individuals.
“If you try to individualise it, you miss the point. It is a system. These two individuals are just beneficiaries of a system and now that they are there, they are Kenyans, and they should be given ample opportunity to show their worth.”
Looking drawn after the long campaign and its aftermath, Mr Odinga found plenty to laugh about on issues that many Kenyans are ripping themselves apart about, especially behind the anonymous and safe platforms of social media.
Tearing the justices of the Supreme Court apart, he laughed uproariously as he remarked that their decision was influenced by “very, very high stakes” and that “if you see an individual acting out of character, you must ask yourself what is it that is motivating it”.
This will doubtless be interpreted as a swipe at his long term friend and once fellow detainee, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, whom many Jubilee supporters had feared would endorse Mr Odinga’s petition.
But in the interview, he shrugged: “When they did what they did, I said ‘this is a setback’. You count your loses and move on. This is just one of the roadblocks. You have hit a roadblock here, you reverse and then move on, because this is a movement. It is not an even... It must continue.”
He made light of television footage showing people in Nyanza, the bedrock of his support, beating up his posters and banners during Cord’s botched nominations.
He said: “When I saw it, I just enjoyed it. So long as it was not violent. What I detested was the violent part when some people organised to hijack returning officers, ballot papers, beating up the returning officers, burning the ballot papers and so on; that was abhorrent.”
However, he seemed agitated when addressing charges that his wife Ida had a role to play in his election defeat.
Clearly upset, he said: “Some people can be very unfair. Ida has played a very positive role in my life and she tried to help in any way she could. But first, I didn’t lose this election. I was rigged out of it. How can anybody accuse her of contributing to a loss that never was?
Rigging machinery
“Ida was not part of the Kenya intelligence system, she was not part of the election rigging machinery at the IEBC, she didn’t steal votes in polling stations — how unfair can people get!”
During the interview conducted at his private Raila Odinga Centre at Nairobi’s Upper Hill suburb, the former PM was at pains to distinguish his person and the fate of the Cord coalition that he leads, remarking: “The thing is that we are just players in this game. You don’t look at it as an end. If you look at it as an end then you will end up committing suicide politically.
“You must look at it as a movement and that you are not indispensable. You have got your own life. So this will go on even if Raila Odinga is no longer here.”
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