We all remember NASA leader Raila Odinga’s mock swearing in that took place after the disputed 2017 general elections, don’t we?
Well, details have now emerged of how tense the preparations for the whole event was.
In his new book, Treason: The Case Against Tyrants and Renegades, Lawyer Miguna Miguna talks of how Raila Odinga became afraid of taking part in the oath taking ceremony for fear of being charged for Treason. Miguna goes further to say that Raila’s close family members led by his Wife and brother were hellbent on making sure he did not partake in the much hyped oath taking ceremony.
This, Miguna claims angered Raila’s children Junior and Winnie who accused their mother and uncle of being bad influence on their dad.
“Nyar Gem [Ida] and Oburu are also a big problem. They are the ones putting pressure on him not to be sworn in,” Miguna quotes Raila Junior as saying, adding that he sounded sad that his father was getting old feet.
Miguna recalls one tense strategy meeting in which Junior confronted his father and told him off, saying he risked betraying the aspirations of Kenyans.
“Look at me, Dad,” Junior persisted. Look at me! Why do you think I have been attending these meetings all of a sudden? Ask yourself why…He fixed Raila with a stern gaze. There was total silence in the room.”
At that point, according to Miguna, Raila resorted to intimidating tactics, telling his son “with his teeth clenched” that he was a very experienced politician.
“Yes, I agree that you are experienced…But I am a Kenyan. And right now I don’t trust you,” Miguna quotes Junior as saying.
At that strategy meeting, Miguna says he and Orengo also told Raila to his face he could not back out of the swearing-in.
However, he claims, ex-Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama, whom he knew as very consistently siding with Raila, claiming the that the timing was not right.
“No, Moguuul [Muthama],” Orengo jumped in, coming to our rescue. “We can swear [Wiper leader] Kalonzo [Musyoka] on his return. Or we can travel to Germany and swear him in there. There is nothing in the Constitution that says they must be sworn in together in Kenya,” Miguna writes.