In 2018, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and ex-president Uhuru Kenyatta buried their decade-long hatchet and decided to work together through a handshake.
While Uhuru Kenyatta said the handshake was aimed at bringing the country together, the then deputy president William Ruto opposed the move saying it was aimed at succession politics in the 2022 elections.
The handshake later saw Uhuru Kenyatta dump his deputy president and threw his weight behind his partner Raila Odinga in the 2022 presidential election.
Although the president drummed up support for his handshake partner, the opposition leader emerged second after President William Ruto.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Wafula Chebukati declared William Ruto the president-elect after the latter garnered 7.1 million.
Raila on the other hand polled 6.9 million, just a 200,000 vote difference.
As such, Embakasi East Member of Parliament Babu Owino has claimed that Azimio l Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party presidential candidate Raila Odinga would have been president were it not for the handshake.
During an interview with Esther Ngonye, the ODM lawmaker said the handshake between Uhuru and Raila messed up the former prime minister’s chances of becoming the president.
In his own thinking, the outspoken legislator termed the handshake as a ‘fake arrangement’ and vowed to oppose any other form of a handshake between President William Ruto and his party leader Raila Odinga.
“I think when it comes to handshakes, these are fake. I don’t believe in those things personally also because the handshake we were in just messed us up the other day. Were it not for that handshake, Raila would have been the president today as I speak, by any means necessary,” Babu Owino said.
