Former Kakamega County senator Boni Khalalwe has blasted ODM leader Raila Odinga opting for the handshake with president Uhuru Kenyatta.
Khalwale believes that Odinga would have accepted defeat even if it was an unfair loss. He adds that the former Premier would have then embarked on supporting his running mate to clinch the 2022 elections.
“Everyone knows that Raila Odinga won the August 8 elections. And if you saw the crowd that turned up during our last rally on third August 2017 they were ready to make Odinga a president. So opting for a handshake was a wrong move. We know he won and what he would have done is to accept the election loss and backed Kalonzo Musyoka for 2022 elections instead of going for the handshake and swearing in. I also won the Kakamega County elections but they were manipulated so accepted and focused on 2022. he said in an interview with a local radio station.
Raila was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Langata in 1992, serving as Minister of Energy from 2001 to 2002 and as Minister of Roads, Public Works, and Housing from 2003 to 2005. He was the main opposition candidate in the 2007 presidential election, running against incumbent Mwai Kibaki. Odinga was appointed Prime Minister in April 2008 in a power-sharing deal with Mwai Kibaki, serving as Supervisor and Coordinator of a national unity coalition government In the subsequent presidential election 5 years later he placed second against Uhuru Kenyatta, garnering 5,340,546 votes, which represented 43.28% of the total votes cast.
He made another run for the presidency in August 2017 against Uhuru Kenyatta and lost after the chairman of the electoral body declared Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner with 54% of the votes cast to Raila’s 43%.
This outcome was later annulled by the Supreme Court following findings that the election was marred by “illegalities and irregularities.” A subsequent fresh election ordered by the Court was however won by Uhuru Kenyatta when Raila declined to participate citing inadequate reforms to enable a fair process in the repeat poll.
Son of the first Vice President of Kenya, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, draws a large chunk of his support base from most regions in Kenya, most notably the Coastal Region and his native former Nyanza province. Raila is commonly known as “Baba”, due to coincidence: he was an MP at the same time as his father between 1992 and 1994. Other nicknames that have been associated with the premier are such as “Nyundo” which is hammer in kiswahili, “Tinga” which means tractor in Kiswahili a symbol of his National Development Party, NDP, “Agwambo” meaning a man who is unpredictable and ‘BABA’ which means the political father.
Raila Odinga first ran as a presidential contender in the 1997 elections, coming third after President Daniel arap Moi of KANU and Mwai Kibaki of the Democratic Party. He contested for President again in the December 2007 elections on an Orange Democratic Movement(ODM) ticket.
Raila Odinga was born at the Anglican Church Missionary Society Hospital, in Maseno, Kisumu District, Nyanza Province on 7 January 1945 to Mary Ajuma Odinga and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. His father served as the first Vice President of Kenya under President Jomo Kenyatta. He went to Kisumu Union Primary School, Maranda Primary and Maranda School where he dropped out in 1962. He spent the next two years at the Herder Institut, a part of the philological faculty at the University of Leipzig in East Germany.
He received a scholarship that in 1965 sent him to the Technical School, Magdeburg (now a part of Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg) in the GDR. It in 1970, he graduated with an Msc (Masters of Science). While studying in East Berlin during the Cold War, as a Kenyan he was able to visit West Berlin through the Checkpoint Charlie. When visiting West Berlin, he used to smuggle goods not available in East Berlin and bring them to his friends in East Berlin.
He returned to Kenya in 1970. In 1971 he established the Standard Processing Equipment Construction & Erection Ltd (later renamed East African Spectre), a company manufacturing liquid petroleum gas cylinders. In 1974, he was appointed group standards manager of the Kenya Bureau of Standards. In 1978 he was promoted to its Deputy Director, a post he held until his 1982 detention