Raila's greatest fear during private meetings exposed

janet ndila

April 11, 2017 1:26 PM

A former close associate of Former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, has exposed one of his greatest fear during private meetings.

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One of the greatest fear Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader Raila Odinga possesses during private meetings has been exposed by his former aide and Canadian-based lawyer, Miguna Miguna.

In his book, Peeling Back the Mask, Mr Miguna reveals that during his encounter with the former Prime Minister it was evident that Odinga was suspicious of everyone who took notes during his private meetings.

The Nairobi Gubernatorial aspirant recounts that the ODM chief was always hysterical when individuals attending his meeting started jotting down important points.

“Raila distrusted note-taking. He has, on occasions, lashed out at me with fury, out of the blue, for my note taking,” Miguna says in his book.

Mr Miguna opines that this could have been a strategy Odinga uses to prevent anyone from using remarks he may utter during such meetings to pin him down.

“Much later, I came to wonder if Raila might have been consciously trying to discourage record-keeping as a way of concealing his various business deals. He didn’t want someone recording what might turn up later as evidence against him,” the lawyer highlights.

Miguna also mentions that Odinga’s tactic could be attributed to his experience during President Daniel Moi’s era, in which Kenyans were very careful over their comments towards the Government, since spies were deployed everywhere.

“Perhaps this was partly a throwback to his “underground” past when everything was committed to memory for fear that Moi’s Special Branch boys would use any written record to obtain quick and easy convictions from trumped-up sedition and treason charges,” Miguna states.

After the aborted 1982 coup, Odinga was arrested, tortured and held in horrid conditions for almost six years.