The debate surrounding why Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party leader Raila Odinga lost the presidency is far from over, months after the heated General Election.
A section of Raila allies spent the better part of last year faulting each other following Raila’s loss to President William Ruto in the hotly contested August 9, elections.
Former Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri, who unsuccessfully defended his seat on a UDA ticket has weighed on why Raila lost his fifth attempt at the presidency despite backing from ex-president Uhuru Kenyatta.
During an interview on K24 on Thursday, January 12, Ngunjiri accused Raila Odinga’s wife Ida Odinga of unknowingly campaigning for her husband’s bitter rival William Ruto in the run-up to the August 9, elections.
He said that Ida Odinga’s attacks against the church during the presidential campaign for the August 9, elections could be the reason why the former Prime Minister lost the presidency.
“When Raila Odinga’s wife said they are going to make sure the churches in Kenya are going to be reduced like Rwanda, and Raila repeated the same when he came to Nakuru, that gave us a lot of mileage as UDA,” he said.
In January last year, Raila’s wife Ida Odinga asked the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) to close down sprouting churches that are governed by incompetent theologians.
Raila’s wife who was speaking in Kisumu during the launch of a book authored by Archbishop Emeritus Habakkuk Abogno noted that many small churches had cropped up in the past few years, adding that they were not effective because their leaders had not been trained.
“We want worshippers to get quality sermons, that can only be achieved if the priests and bishops are well trained,” she said.
Mama Ida’s comment has created a debate among netizens, with some claiming that the remark from Raila’s wife is sufficient proof of Ruto’s statements concerning Raila and the Church.
