How innocent photo with Raila ruined my life - Sasha Mbote opens up [Video]

Businesswoman Sasha Mbote, who took a photo with ODM leader Raila Odinga in 2017, has come out to disclose how the image ruined her life in Zanzibar.

Sasha was speaking during an interview with YouTube content creator Lynn Ngugi in which she narrated how the two met in Park Hyatt Hotel in Zanzibar.

After a long day at work, the hotelier and spa owner decided to wind down at the hotel where she spotted Odinga and approached him.

"I screamed Oh my God! Baba! He stood up and shook my hand and he introduced me to his people. I told him my parents will not believe that I met you, can I please take a picture with you?

Sasha Mbote Pulse Live Kenya

"Jimi Wanjigi said bring your phone, he is your Baba, Baba wa Kenya. I brought my phone and he took the pictures. Baba asked where I was sitting and he told me to join them," Sasha recalled.

She added that Odinga’s bodyguards instructed her not to post the photos until the former prime minister was out of the Island.

After posting the photos on social media, she embarked on a trip to Arusha which was 700km away.

When she switched on her phone, the messages that flooded in made the phone unusable for a while.

Media houses in Kenya had published the photos and claimed that Odinga had been spotted with a masseuse in Zanzibar, fueling all manner of speculations, including being the former PM’s side chick.

“I always tell people this, if my mother and father doubted my dignity, I would have killed myself. As much as I was putting up a face, I was broken inside,” she said.

The hotelier was scared of returning to the country due to threats that she had been paid by Odinga’s rivals to taint his image.

In Zanzibar, police were also looking for Sasha, accusing her of disrespecting the local traditions and doctrines.