picture quote, Raila Odinga
3 hours ago
Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya President Raila Odinga announced today that he does not recognize the government of William Ruto, who won Kenya’s presidential elections last August.
Odinga, who was holding a rally in Kamkunji, Eastleigh, a Somali-majority region, attributed this to what he called the “illegal results” of last year’s elections.
He told people gathered at Kamkunji airport that his coalition believes the current government is illegitimate.
“First of all, at Azimio, we boycotted the results of the 2022 election. We cannot and will not recognize the Kenyan Kwanza coalition government,” Mr Odinga said.
He further added: “I have not recognized Mr. William Ruto as President of Kenya and I have not recognized all other officials in office.”
Mr Odinga said his coalition is demanding that all basic information for the 2022 elections be submitted to the IEBC Electoral Commission and then another impartial commission will review it.
“We call for an immediate end to any attempts by Mr. Ruto to legislate the IEBC’s constitution and instead allow the people of Kenya to deliberate on the constitution of the Electoral Commission,” said Raila Odinga.
picture quote, Raila Odinga
The Kenyan opposition leader said his coalition is demanding that the current government “resign as it has no power to govern the country”.
Mr Odinga was joined by other politicians including Martha Karua, Kalonzo Musyoka, Eugene Wamalwa, Wycliffe Oparanya and former presidential candidate George Wajackoyah.
The statement by Raila Odinga and other leaders of his party came months after Kenya’s highest court ended a dispute over the election results and dismissed allegations that the election had been rigged.
The unfortunate candidate
Raila Odinga is Kenya’s unluckiest candidate.
He ran for the presidency five times and was always defeated, always saying that the election was rigged.
The Kenyan Supreme Court annulled Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory in the 2017 general election and ordered a re-run of the election.
Odinga then boycotted participation in the repeat election, saying that there was no system to enable a free and fair election.
He also ran against Uhuru Kenyatta in the last election in 2013, calling them illegal when announcing the results.
picture quote, Getty Images
In 2007, Mr Odinga boycotted the results of the election against former Kenyan President Muwai Kibaki, and a row over that election caused violence that left more than a thousand dead.
The first time he ran for the presidency was in 1997 when he finished third. Odinga did not take part in the next elections in 2002.
Who is Raila Odinga?
Raila is the son of Kenya’s First Vice President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.
He is 77 years old and was born on January 7, 1945 in Maseno in western Kenya.
His supporters call him Agwambo and PAPA. He studied in the former GDR.
He has been a member of parliament in Africa’s largest slum, Kibera, for more than 20 years.
Most of the people who support him are his ethnic Luo people who live in the Nyanza region in the southwest of the country, where he was born and went to school.
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