Former Prime Minister H E Rt Hon Raila Odinga on Thursday had a seven-hour meeting with South Sudan President Salva Kiir in what seems to usher in his full-blown role as an African Union special envoy, and an official representative of Kenya in the negotiations to end civil strife in the troubled country.
It was his first formal role after the historic March 9 handshake with President Uhuru Kenyatta, sealed on the steps of Harambee House, Nairobi.
Mr Odinga, accompanied by his lawyer Paul Mwangi and Suna East MP Junet Mohamed, took a 7am Kenya Airways flight to Juba for the talks with Mr Kiir that ended at around 5pm.
Next week, Mr Odinga will travel to South Africa to meet former South Sudan vice-president Riek Machar, the ace of the other half of the new country’s ugly conflict
Details of the meeting emerged as Mr Odinga promised to use the handshake to tackle increasing corruption scandals in government, even as a 14-member implementation team developed a timeline, projecting that it would take them six months to produce a report on the initiative.
Source : Nation
