A showdown is looming Tuesday next week as National Super Alliance team make true their earlier threats to have Raila Odinga sworn in, in a parallel event to Uhuru Kenyatta’s.
Nasa leader Mr Raila Odinga, who is currently in Zanzibar, is set for swearing-in fete on Tuesday 28, a similar day Jubilee’s Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto will be sworn in after the Supreme Court on Monday upheld their re-election in the highly protracted October 26 repeat polls.
Former Machakos Senator Mr Johnston Muthama divulged shortly after the Supreme Court ruling that the plan to have Mr Odinga in office as the President is underway, hours after the committee working on polishing the Kasarani venue for swearing in ceremony of Mr Kenyatta resumed their work on Monday.
“We are going ahead with the swearing-in, as planned,” Mr Muthama quipped as quoted by the Star even as their candidate, Mr Odinga, remained mum on the issue.
A fortnight ago, the Opposition leaning politicians gave a sneak preview of how the swearing in ceremony of Nasa leader Raila Odinga would look like.
Former Kakamega Senator and Ford Kenya leader Mr Boni Khalwale who spoke at Jacaranda Grounds in Nairobi, amid a tough warning by the police to call off the gathering as it was illegal, said that already the plans to swear in Mr Odinga are in top gear, a move that was applauded by Siaya Senator Mr James Orengo.
Mr Khalwale revealed that already Nasa had come up with a team of four men drawn from the Coast, Nyanza, Western and Eastern who would be given special roles in an event which will run parallel to Uhuru Kenyatta’s.
“Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho will leave Mombasa with a Sheikh or Imam. The Imam will be influential and will not just be picked haphazardly,” Mr Khalwale told a crowd at Jacaranda grounds in Nairobi, but failed to disclose the role of the Muslim leader.
“For me, I will come from my home in Kakamega with a padre, whom I will bring to the event,” he added.
In what seemed a mop up for numbers from Kalonzo Musyoka’s backyard, who has been silent over the matter since the October 26 repeat polls, vocal former Machakos Senator Mt Johnstone Muthama was handed a new task of bringing an elderly man for special African prayers.
“Muthama will carry a 90-year-old man from Eastern to make an African prayer against the current regime,” he added.
NASA’s senior Counsel and Siaya Senator Mr James Orengo, according to Mr Khalwale, would be instrumental in holding tight the Nyanza and Kisumu region and ensure the region held rallies in support of Mr Odinga’s swearing-in fete.
“Mr Orengo will come with the judge. So all four, pastor, old man, judge and the Shiekh, will be present to give Mr Odinga the mandate to lead Kenya,” Khalwale said.
Meanwhile, Nasa leader Mr Raila Odinga left the country for Tanzania’s Zanzibar Islands, a day to the Supreme Court ruling which upheld Mr Kenyatta’s victory on Monday.
Mr Odinga’s advisor Mr Salim Lome revealed to the New York Times that the former Premier had opted not to be in the country during the deliberation by the Supreme Court over the legitimacy of President Uhuru Kenyatta after the highly protracted October 26 polls.
“The unrest pushed Mr Odinga out of the country. He left Kenya on Sunday night. He is in Zanzibar, off the coast of mainland Tanzania,” Mr Lome told the New York Times on Sunday