Mama Ida Odinga’s Church gaffe cost Raila the presidency
Mama Ida Odinga's Church gaffe cost Raila in the August polls handing Ruto the presidency according to former MP Kimani Ngunjiri
Mama Ida Odinga’s Church gaffe cost Raila in the August polls handing Ruto the presidency according to former MP Kimani Ngunjiri
Former Bahati Member of Parliament Kimani Ngunjiri blamed Ida Odinga for Raila Odinga’s dwindling popularity in the lead-up to the August 9 general election.
Ngunjiri claimed in a speech on January 12 that Ida’s opinions on the church contributed to President William Ruto winning over 200,000 votes, which impacted the presidential polls.
The former lawmaker claimed that Christians were alarmed by Ida’s remarks, compelling some of Odinga’s supporters to change their allegiance.
Ngunjiri added that Raila dug his own political hole, by taking a swipe at the church during one of his campaign rallies.
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“The last thing which helped us get those 200,000 extra votes is when the wife of Raila Odinga said they were going to reduce the churches in Kenya like Rwanda, that gave us a lot of mileage,” Ngunjiri claimed.
“Raila Odinga repeated again when he came to Nakuru. The churches gave us so many votes because of that threat,” Ngunjiri alleged.
Ngunjiri expressed his opinions after the former prime minister censured the church hierarchy for encouraging electoral injustice in the country.
Following the announcement of the disputed presidential results by the IEBC chairperson, Raila charged religious leaders with taking sides.
During campaign periods, both Raila and his wife Ida were forced to clarify their statements relating to churches in Kenya.
The Azimio leader spelled out that he was addressing a section of Muslim women concerning their discrimination in government institutions and that was why he was calling for equal treatment of all religious groups.
“There is a clip circulating around…I was addressing a group of Muslim women who came to see me complaining of discrimination when they apply for passports or ID cards,” Raila stated.
He added, “somebody has picked that comment of me addressing Muslim women and want to use it to seem like am trying to discriminate against Christianity, no.”
On the other hand, Ida was forced to apologize following her comments on regulating mushrooming churches in the country.
“I wish to this morning withdraw the statement I made to NCCK on Saturday, January 29, 2022 (asking them) to regulate the churches under them in order to promote consistency and relevance in messaging for the promotion of evangelism in Kenya,” she stated
“It has come to my realization that my comments haven’t sat well with some members of the church. I sincerely apologize for the discomfort caused, as I meant no harm to any person,” Ida added.
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