Orange Democratic Movement party leader Raila Odinga demanded to be addressed as Prime Minister during a radio interview on Friday, November 13.
Raila, who served as the country’s second premier during the grand coalition government between 2007-2013 wondered why he is referred to as former prime minister, and yet there has been non ever since he left office.
“There is nothing like former Prime Minister. You can only refer to me as a former Prime if there is someone occupying the position,” Raila told Musyi FM presenter in this interview.
“There is no current premier in the country, so you can’t refer to me as former, refer to me as Prime minister,” the ODM leader reiterated.
Raila Odinga was sworn in as Prime Minister, along with the power-sharing Cabinet, on 17 April 2008 following a disputed 2007 presidential election.
The post of premier was first held by Jomo Kenyatta between 1963 and 1964 soon after independence. Raila is thus the second person in Kenya’s history to hold the position.
In the same interview, Raila made it clear he had no intention of causing chaos at DP Ruto’s Nyanza rally, given Ruto’s caliber cannot be compared to his.
He distanced himself with accusations of having a hand in the violence witnessed at Deputy President William Ruto in Kondele, Kisumu county on Wednesday, November 10.
He further added such actions are childish, and his stature cannot allow him to engage in such activities, adding that he is too big to organize violence against someone as small as the DP.
Raila urged Kenyans to allow aspirants regardless of their political ideologies to transverse the country, each and every corner of the country to sell their agenda.
On his second day tour in the backyard of what is regarded as Raila’s political grounds of Nyanza region, DP Ruto was forced to cut short his speech after a rowdy youth at Kondele in Kisumu pelted his motorcade with stones.
Police were forced to lob tear gas after futile attempts by Ruto to calm the crowd.
