Tanzania’s President John Pombe Magufuli has been known to be a close confidant of Raila Odinga with their close relationship becoming evident after the former took power in October 2015.
Raila send a personal congratulatory message to Magufuli after his emphatic win in that election. But it seems the friendship is not mutual as we have always believed.
Magufuli allegedly declined to have Raila sworn in as the ‘People’s President’ at the Kenyan embassy in Tanzania.
This is according to controversial Kenyan-Canadian lawyer Miguna Miguna who made the revelation in his newly released book titled ‘Treason: The Case Against Tyrants & Renegades.’
Miguna, in the book, purportedly lifts the lid on behind-the-scene discussions that preceded the January 30, 2018 swearing-in ceremony of Mr. Odinga as the ‘People’s President’ at Uhuru Park, Nairobi.
He narrates how the National Revolutionary Movement of Kenya (NRM-Ke) committee had proposed that, if it was impossible to swear in Mr. Odinga at a public venue in Nairobi, “then we could do it at a Kenyan Embassy in Ghana or Tanzania.”
The self-declared NRM-Ke General, however, notes that when Mr. Odinga asked Siaya Senator James Orengo to speak to President Magufuli about the possibility of holding the ceremony in Tanzania, he (Magufuli) declined and even opposed their swearing in plans.
“According to Orengo, Magufuli believed that leadership was ‘a gift from God’ and that if God had not given Raila that gift,there was no reason to pursue our plans and that Raila should forget about being sworn in as The People’s President,” reads an excerpt from the book.
“In other words, Magufuli was of the view that God did not want Raila to be the president of Kenya. I found such statements to be outrageous. God had not manipulated the August 8, 2017 General Election.”