Opposition leader Raila Odinga has finally publicly explained why he Deputy President William Ruto and his co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka in his handshake meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta in March.
“I said I didn’t want to talk to those people who want to talk about 2022. He (Uhuru) said he would not come with Ruto, but also asked that I don’t come with Kalonzo. We agreed that the initial talks were to be talks about talks,” he said.
He said there would have been no Kenya he not agreed to the talks and recounted how he braved high treason and “death by strangulation” to get himself sworn as the peoples’ president.
He said President Kenyatta had agreed to his arrest but backed off on further consideration of the full implications.
“I boldly faced treason which attracts death by hanging to get myself sworn in as the People’s President. Uhuru had agreed I get arrested but revisited the decision after considering what that would have meant for our country,”
“Our people had already agreed to gather all presidential portraits and burn them in a single heap. We were also going to start collecting taxes from our strongholds… I thought about it keenly and figured that we could easily head the Iraq way,” he said.
Raila was speaking in Kitui where he had graced the opening of Professor Makau Mutua’s Villa. He termed the Legal Czar as independent mind,whose fearless writing and speech had won him friends and foes.
“When I was coming here, I told President Kenyatta that I was coming to open Makau’s hotel and he told me to tell him to stop being too critical,” Raila said.
