Hon Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement(ODM) has denied sending Mr Silas Jakakimba to Zimbabwe as their party’s representative during the country’s General Election.
According to ODM executive director Oduor Ong’wen, Mr Jakakimba could and have worked with Raila Odinga before while he was the Prime Minister but he is neither an employee of ODM nor in the Raila secretariat.
Mr Jakakimba issued a statement on Sunday claiming he was sent to Harare by Mr Odinga.
In his statement he said that, “Last week, Hon Odinga asked me to go to Zimbabwe to convey his goodwill message to the Movement for Democratic Change.”
The self-declared ODM strategist challenged critics to visit Youtube and view a clip of him delivering the message.
Mr Jakakimba said he was received at the airport by the widow of MDC founder Morgan Tsvangirai, Elizabeth Macheka.
He’s tour may not have been known by many until Zimbabwe police said they wanted to question him in relation to the post-election violence that killed six people.
Zimbabwe police chief spokesperson Charity Charamba said Mr Jakakimba was in Harare as Mr Odinga’s envoy, adding that he incited opposition supporters.
According Ms Charamba”The Zimbabwe republic police is keen to interview Sila Jakakimba, a Kenyan, in connection with the disturbance which occurred in Harare on August 1, 2018.”
ODM initially fought off general claims that the party was involved in the violence.
It said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission was deflecting blame and that the party does not have the ability and means to create chaos in that country.
Party chairman John Mbadi also added saying ODM wishes for peaceful, free and fair elections across the continent. But on Tuesday, the party disowned Mr Jakakimba.
Dr Ong’wen said reports of Mr Jakakimba acting as Mr Odinga’s envoy and the party’s involvement in the chaos were untrue.
According to Dr Ong’wen, “We want to state that neither ODM nor the office of the party leader sent any representative to Harare either to witness or on observer mission in the general election.”
Mr Odinga and Mr Tsvangirai were close friends, attending each other’s political events from time to time.
Mr Jakakimba dismissed Dr Ong’wen’s statement, insisting that only the Odinga secretariat can comment on his “assignment”.
“Whereas I am a life member of ODM, I have never worked at Orange House. Neither am I an employee of ODM,” he said, referring to the party’s headquarters in Nairobi.
“It is not the province of Oduor Ong’wen to comment on issues he has no idea about.”
When Mr Tsvangirai died early in the year, Mr Odinga gave a keynote speech at his funeral.
Zanu-PF candidate Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared winner in last Week’s elections, beating MDC’s Nelson Chamisa.
Zimbabwe’s opposition MDC Alliance says some of its activists are still missing following a crackdown by security forces in the wake of last week’s election.
The party’s spokesperson Nkululeko Sibanda said abductions and raids were being organised to deny the party the chance of challenging the elections results.
Six people died after MDC Alliance supporters clashed last Wednesday with soldiers, who used live bullets to disperse the crowd.
The demonstrators were angry over the delay in the releasing of the presidential election results as they suspected that the vote was being rigged.
Twenty-seven party activists have appeared in court at a bail hearing in connection with the violence.
Journalists have been tweeting from a press conference held by Mr Sibanda