Betrayal has defined the history of Kenyan politics, but one person who has borne the brunt of treachery has been ODM Leader Raila Odinga.
The day Raila waited at State House gate only to learn President had sneaked out
"The lack of courtesy was very disturbing"
The day Raila waited at State House gate only to learn President had sneaked out
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Former Wiper Chairman and ex Kitui Senator David Musila in his new memoir, Seasons of Hope, sheds more light on the extent of betrayal and humiliation that Odinga has underwent in the hands of political allies.
Musila writes that Odinga's famous Kibaki tosha declaration helped propel former President Mwai Kibaki to office during the historic 2002 elections.
"When it was Raila Odinga’s turn to speak, he suddenly shouted his now famous Kibaki Tosha (Kibaki suffices) slogan.The crowd roared back its approval, with their voices thundering across the city and reverberating in waves across Kenya".
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"The riddle was now solved. This announcement came as a shock to all of us! As the Uhuru Park rally ended, everyone in the country knew that Kibaki would be the opposition presidential candidate," Musila recalls the Uhuru Park rally that united the Opposition against the current President and then Kanu candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.
Despite the gesture from Odinga, the former Kitui Senator recalls that after Narc took office in 2002, the third President became cold and disrespectful of Odinga and some of the other politicians who had run his campaign.
"It was not lost on us that Kibaki had started treating us with contempt. When we held a crisis meeting as LDP, Raila was furious at the shabby treatment by our coalition colleagues. He decided to go on his own to see the President.
"Saitoti, who was the new Minister for Education, had been to see the President on a routine visit and on his way out he found Raila at the gate and asked him what he was doing there yet the President had already left.
"Raila had been waiting for two hours but without his knowledge that the President had already gone to his home in Muthaiga. I empathised with Raila and remembered with a sense of déjà vu all those many years ago when Moi gave me the slip at State House when I went to see him about my transfer to North Eastern Province as a PC. The lack of courtesy from our partners was very disturbing."
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Musila also makes reference to his own betrayal, having saved Kibaki's life on two occasions, during the 1982 coup and after the 2002 accident where he was the first person to arrive after the then Opposition candidate's vehicle was involved in a grisly accident in Machakos county.
Despite their close relationship, Kibaki did not appoint him to cabinet despite his name being proposed by a Narc coalition partner - LDP.
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