KENYA: Stakes are high as Prime Minister Raila Odinga hopes to finally land in State House

Record ID: 362479

  • Title: KENYA: Stakes are high as Prime Minister Raila Odinga hopes to finally land in State House
  • Date: 1st March 2013
  • Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (FILE - 1997) (4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF RAILA ODINGA WITH FORMER PRESIDENT DANIEL ARAP MOI AT A PARTY CONVENTION RAILA'S SUPPORTERS HOLDING HIS PORTRAITS RAILA WAVING AT HIS SUPPORTERS
  • Embargoed: 16th March 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAE0Z8O51D516O7EU96DBIT3CLK
  • Story Text: Raila Odinga, the frontrunner in Kenya's presidential election is hoping he can consolidat his support and win Kenya's national election ahead of his most fierce rival Uhuru Kenyatta. Kenyatta goes on trial at The Hague later in the year on charges of crimes against humanity.
    As part of his campaign circuit, Odinga visited Kenyatta's stronghold in Centrall Kenya with a few days to go to the March 04 polls where he was welcomed by hundreds of supporters as he urged them to vote for him. His campaign team would not have dared plan any campaigns for him in that area few years ago.
    Odinga is the flag bearer and leader of Orange Democratic Movement Party (ODM) but he has joined hands with other parties to form Coalition for Reform and Democracy (CORD). Opinion polls have consistently put him ahead of his rivals, but the margin between them has been reducing in the past few weeks.
    Odinga became prime minister as part of a power-sharing deal in a coalition government with President Mwai Kibaki crafted in 2008 to end the bloody post-election violence that killed more than 1,200 people and uprooted more than half a million people from their homes after the 2007 polls.
    Over the years, he has fallen out with several of his allies who were part of ODM during the 2007 elections. Most notable among them is former Higher Education Minister William Ruto, running mate to Kenyatta and one of four Kenyans due to stand trial at the International Criminal Court, charged with directing violence after the disputed election.
    Odinga and Kenya's president Mwai Kibaki were credited for pushing for a new constitution, passed in 2010, which was a key component in the accord they signed to end the ethnic bloodshed after the disputed 2007 elections.
    Both Kibaki and Odinga are also credited for improving the Kenyan economy as well as fast tracking infrastructure development. Odinga said his government will not be business as usual and will enhance his development programme with his partners.
    "CORD is business unusual; our business will be different from all that has happened before," Odinga said.
    His father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, a nationalist hero and Kenya's first vice president after independence from Britain in 1963, became a key opposition figure against the governments of founding President Jomo Kenyatta and his successor President Daniel arap Moi.
    To political analyst Tom Maliti, Odinga is a populist, able to garner huge numbers of supporters as he is seen to be fighting for their rights.
    Representing Nairobi's Langata Constituency, in which lies the populous Kibera slum, Odinga projects himself as a champion of the poor. But he runs a large business empire and is a member of Kenya's wealthy elite.
    "Raila I would say is a populist and he's keen on satisfying the needs of let's say the poorest section of society, he has paid some attention to that and some argue that he does that to garner votes but in some way one would argue he does it out of conviction that this is something that really needs to be addressed to reduce the inequality in Kenyan society," said Maliti.
    He is viewed as a firebrand by many Kenyans, an impression consolidated by remarks in a biography indicating he was a plotter in an attempted coup in 1982. He was educated in communist former East Germany, and his rivals have said that he would be anti-business if he rises to power.
    Odinga spent nine years in jail under Moi's leadership for protesting one-party rule. He served six years in solitary confinement and charged with treason over the coup bid before fleeing to Norway for brief exile.
    He was born in January 7, 1945.
    Former finance minister Kenyatta has been summoned to appear at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague seneral months after the March election to face charges he helped direct ethnic clashes that erupted after a disputed 2007 vote.
    The March 4 poll will be the first under a new constitution and the first since the 2007 violence that killed more than 1,200 people.
    All sides have promised there will not be a repeat of the ethnic tensions that fuelled the violence and the candidates on Monday denied their support was based on tribal allegiance.
    Kenyatta's running mate, William Ruto, is also facing charges at the ICC for his alleged role in directing the 2007 violence. Both deny wrongdoing.
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