Azimio La Umoja leader Raila Odinga’s involvement in the debate about the removal of the IEBC Four from office is purely about himself and his political ambitions, analyst Macharia Munene says.
Raila has strongly come out in defence of the four, who are facing possible ejection from office for disputing the IEBC commission’s declaration of President William Ruto as winner of the August poll.
While he says that he is out to prevent Ruto from using unconstitutional means to settle scores, Munene argues that this is just Raila taking full advantage of an opportunity to gain relevance.
For him, Raila is trying to be vocal for political reasons and is using the issue to regain relevance for his own political ambitions. He say it has very little to do with the well being of the four commissioners.
“This is an opportunity that has arisen for Raila to redeem himself. He lost the election, so he wants to regain the ground and relevance,” he told The Star.
But Raila holds that the four, Juliana Cherera, Irene Masit, Francis Wanderi and Justus Nyangaya are being victimised for not dancing to Ruto’s tune, threatening to protect them at all costs.
“The injustice being inflicted on the IEBC commissioners, if proceeds as currently conceived, will mark the beginning of a massive pushback against Ruto and those who think like him, by the people of Kenya. We will openly and robustly lead that pushback,” he said recently.
The four stood with him in August, and went against IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati, who declared Ruto President-elect. They also supported his presidential petition against Ruto’s win at the apex court.
