By Anderson Ojwang
In Central Kenya, where the late Raila Amolo Odinga was loathed and loved in equal measure, last saturday turned into the cradle of truth on how his 2022 presidential election was bungled by the key men he entrusted to lead the Canaan dream.
On Wednesday, January 7, Raila would have celebrated his 81st birthday, but now his friends and foes are being treated to dark secrets by his trusted key men on how they bungled the election and handed over the presidency to William Ruto and his deputy, the impeached Rigathi Gachagua.
Raila was loved by Mt Kenya in 2002 and was christened Njamba for delivering the presidency to the late Mwai Kibaki and to the region after 24 years in the cold under President Daniel Arap Moi’s rule — a passing cloud that never was.
But after the fallout with the late Kibaki, Raila returned to his old skin — hated and loathed — a scion of the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kenya’s first Vice President, an ally turned foe to the founding father of the nation, the late Jomo Kenyatta, who led the Agikuyu community to an oath that the presidency should not visit the Lake.
At a burial in Murang’a County, attended by Gachagua, a former Ruto ally and a former personal assistant to former President Uhuru Kenyatta, ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna, without mincing his words, laid the blame for Raila’s bungled presidential campaign at the doorstep of Azimio La Umoja Secretary General Junet Mohammed.
Interestingly, the late Raila’s Central team was composed of then President Uhuru Kenyatta, who had declared his support for the former Prime Minister’s presidential bid.
In Uhuru’s team, which formed the cog and apex of Raila’s campaign machinery, were then Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i and then Principal Secretary for Interior Dr Karanja Kibicho.
On Raila’s side in the team was Suna East MP Junet Mohammed, who had wriggled his way in and became the most trusted man. Junet had Raila’s ear, and his word was like law to Raila, never to be broken.
Currently, Matiang’i has recently been made Jubilee Party deputy party leader and its presidential candidate in the 2027 general elections.
Embakasi East MP Babu Owino was the first to claim that Raila was set up and made to believe that he would win the election.
“Raila was designed to fail and he believed he would be made president. He fell into the trap and the agents were not paid in Central Kenya, and that is how we lost the election,” he said after the 2022 elections.
Tough questions
The tough questions that have emerged are why Central Kenya, with a vote of 4,453,106, did not have agents while it was the backyard of President Uhuru and Kibicho.
Ruto won the presidential contest in the region, garnering 2,938,802 votes against Raila’s 847,205 votes.
Where did the Sh500 million earmarked for agents go, and who was it paid to, or who pocketed it? If agents were recruited, who recruited them, and is there a list?
Number of polling stations in Kenya and how that was used to deny Raila victory
In the 2022 general elections, Kenya had 52,481 polling stations, and if Raila’s Central team had procured agents nationally, Raila could have walked into the ballot with 52,481 votes strong, which could have denied Ruto the 50+1 per cent victory and forced a rerun.
Junet said that once Muhoho Kenyatta took charge, “they never procured any agents for Raila Odinga, not in Mt Kenya and not in Luo Nyanza. It was a long con game.”
How Sifuna lit the fire that may consume political careers in the post-Raila political matrix
Sifuna accused Junet of bungling Raila Amolo Odinga’s bid by failing to pay presidential agents.
“You were eating Uhuru’s money instead of paying agents and allowed Wamunyoro (Rigathi Gachagua and President William Ruto) to defeat us.
The day we start the audit of the 2022 elections, it is good you have started the debate. Let everyone state their contributions in the 2022 general elections.
I want to ask Junet Mohammed, when did Uhuru Kenyatta’s money start to be bad? Those days you used to take Uhuru’s money, and some you didn’t bring to the party, and some you squandered,”he said.
The Azimio La Umoja volunteer alarm bell that Junet never responded to
The Azimio La Umoja Volunteer Board, through one of its members, Ronny Raburo, said it was wrong for Junet to shed crocodile tears when he failed to address the Central Kenya agents’ issue.
Raburo, who met with the late Raila at breakfast ahead of the elections over the emerging presidential agents’ issue in Central Kenya, said the former Prime Minister tasked Junet to urgently handle the matter.
Ronny Raburo said that despite addressing the agents’ issue with Raila at the breakfast meeting and Raila directing Junet to urgently handle the matter, the latter went mute.
He said that two days to the eve of polling day, while attending the last agents’ training at the Kenya School of Law in Karen, they were informed from the ground that there was not a single agent in all the Central Province polling stations for IEBC briefing, and they sensed trouble.
“Raila called Junet and told him to handle our issue as a matter of urgency. We went downstairs with Junet to meet with Julie Nabweara and Jackie (members of the volunteer board), after our brief on the situation in Central Kenya.
Junet gave me his number to call him later in the day to meet him at the Kenya School of Law, Karen. Junet is yet to receive my calls to date,”he wrote.
The Uhuru factor and the funds
Junet accused Uhuru of releasing the agents’ funds to his brother and not to the secretariat.
“The answer is simple, clear and verifiable: former President Uhuru Kenyatta released the funds meant for election agents to his blood brother, Muhoho Kenyatta,” he said.
Junet said Muhoho Kenyatta appointed one Mr Patrick Mburu to take charge of the recruitment and payment of agents.
“Mr Mburu presented himself as an IT expert, claiming he had the capacity to detect and prevent any manipulation of results by the IEBC.”
The restricted office
Junet claimed that around the time, Muhoho Kenyatta operated from an office in Westlands that was so restricted that even Raila Odinga, the party’s presidential candidate, could not access it freely.
“It is from this office — out of bounds for nearly all of us — that they claimed to handle the agents’ payments and other logistics. These are facts, not conjecture. I challenge Uhuru Kenyatta and Muhoho Kenyatta to publicly deny these facts,” he said.
“Let the record also be set straight: Hon Raila Odinga would have had no reason whatsoever to appoint me — Hon Junet Mohammed — as the Leader of Minority in the National Assembly if I had truly betrayed him.
For years, I handled all the delicate assignments from our late dear Party Leader with fidelity and diligence,”he said.
He challenged Uhuru, Muhoho and Mburu to come clean on the matter and deny his claims.
The blame game
After the general election, the Azimio La Umoja Coalition dismissed allegations that some members of the secretariat squandered money budgeted for agents in the August 2022 elections.
This was after claims that top officials at the secretariat misused the money, forcing some polling stations to miss out on agents.
Azimio spokesperson Prof Makau Mutua, in a statement at the time, defended Junet, who was on the receiving end of criticism.
Junet had Raila’s ear
Raila’s chief agent in the August 9 elections, Saitabao Kanchory, claimed that ODM listened to only one person — Suna East MP Junet Mohamed.
“We could not have lost this election if it weren’t for three people. The first one is Junet Mohamed, the second is Joe Mucheru and the third is Makau Mutua. These are people I have worked with and respect, but in terms of responsibility, they take the highest responsibility,” he said on NTV.
According to Kanchory, Junet ran a one-man show and the former Prime Minister sided with everything he said, even when he could clearly see it was wrong.
“The only person Baba would listen to without question was Junet. Even if you had the truth and you told Baba, and Junet came with darkness, Baba would side with Junet,” he said.
“Junet Mohamed is one man who purported to know everything, and he nullified everything everyone said and also made sure he kept people who could have helped Baba (Raila) at arm’s length. He ensured nobody came close to Baba who would have helped him.”
