Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader and AU High Representative for Infrastructure Raila Odinga has addressed the remarks made by Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi.
Odinga has stated that he does not take the claims by Mudavadi seriously when he was contacted for a comment by the Nation.
“I do not want to discuss Mudavadi’s book mostly because he suffers from serious memory lapses from the claims he is making,” said Odinga through a phone interview with the publication.
In his autobiography Soaring Above Storms of Passion, Mudavadi made countless remarks affiliated to Odinga, among them ban from western countries and financial crisis that attributed to the handshake.
The ANC leader narrated that pressure from western nations and financial woes had everything to do with the much-publicized handshake, as Odinga was a worried man due to the prolonged tension that ensued after the 2017 elections.
In the book, Musalia explained that Raila kept the details of negotiations with the President hush-hush, and it was only at a later meeting with the National Super Alliance (NASA) co-principals that he detailed his fears.
“Raila also mentioned to us in that meeting that he had received letters of cancellation of his visas by various foreign missions in Kenya. He showed us a copy of one such letter he had received from a leading western mission,” said Mudavadi.
Mudavadi additionally stated that he took it upon himself to investigate the visa claims and found out that Odinga was not the only one affected as there were other leaders confirmed by US ambassador to Kenya Robert Godek.
Read Also: Handshake Involved a 19 Hour Discussion, Uhuru Recounts Meeting With Raila
On the financial part, he mentioned that litigations against NASA leaders nearly brought Raila’s party to its knees financially.
“We learnt that the financial capacity to handle these cases was not there. basically the situation was becoming unbearable, ” Mudavadi wrote.
According to Mudavadi, the mock-swearing in of Raila Odinga at Uhuru Park on January 30, 2018, was against the stand of the other NASA principals.
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