Wanjigi: Why I fell out with Raila
Safina presidential candidate Jimmy Wanjigi has opened up on his separation with ODM boss Raila Odinga and exposed the behind-the-scenes intrigues that ruined their friendship.
In a wide ranging interview with the Star, Wanjigi, however, insisted that his fall out with Raila was never personal but ideological to "continue with the journey to Canaan.'
Recounting his last days with the Azimio presidential candidate, Wanjigi said Raila's decision to broker a political truce with President Uhuru Kenyatta in March 2018 triggered their separation.
He argued that Raila left him stranded as he laid ground for what would have been a one-million-people march to State House on March 27.
Raila had on January 30 been been sworn in at Uhuru Park at a mock ceremony executed by controversial lawyer Miguna Miguna and Ruaraka MP Tom Kajwang'.
He was, therefore, according to Wanjigi, expected to occupy State House after taking 'oath of office'.
Wanjigi recalls that on March 9, 2018-the day Raila shook hands with Uhuru-they had held a lengthy meeting the previous night at Raila's Capitol Hill office.
The meeting centred on planning how they would popularise the State House march.
“We met on Mach 8 in Raila's office with James Orengo and Baba where we set a date of the grand march to State House as March 27 and set various dates to emotionalise the city towards the march,” Wanjigi said during the interview on Friday.
“We were starting with a rally on March 11 at Jacaranda grounds where we were going to re-brand National Resistance Movement Reloaded after Miguna Miguna had been kicked out of the country.”
Miguna had unveiled the NRM before he was unceremoniously forced into exile.
The politician said that during the meeting at Raila's office-the eve of the handshake-they agreed to have three days of demonstrations in the city to popularise NRM and the march.
“What we wanted was a million man march to State House ....but the following day at 9am Orengo called me and asked: 'Have you heard that our man is in Harambee House?'” Wanjigi said.
At this time, Wanjigi who was leading the campaign to occupy State House, was polishing the programme of activities and stitching together a tight schedule that would deliver Raila to the House on the Hill.
“I had come home late in the night knowing that we had a plan..but when Orengo told me he had been called by a Reuters reporter that Raila was at Harambee House, I tried calling Winnie(Raila's daughter), Raila's bodyguard and Raila himself but their phones were off,”Wanjigi said.
It was this surprise development that would soon strain his relationship with the ODM boss, whom he had approached in the lead up to the 2017 polls to craft a winning formula for Nasa coalition.
Having fallen out with President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto before joining Nasa, Wanjigi said he rejected Raila's proposal to cross over with him to the 'oppressors” again.
“I told Raila that I would never go near Uhuru because once bitten twice shy. This(handshake) to me was an act of betrayal and a surrender,” Wanjigi said.
Wanjigi is said to have played an instrumental role in crafting the UhuruRuto grand formula that won the presidency in 2013.
He would later fall out with the two leaders ahead of the 2017 polls over what he has termed as "greed and insatiable appetite."
Revisiting the events that followed Raila's mock swearing in at Uhuru Park on January 30, 2018, the Safina presidential aspirant explained how he hid the ODM leader at his posh Muthaiga home for seven days.
Wanjigi said after Raila exited his House for the first time after a week, the police started harassing him into submission over his role in the 'swearing in.'
“The day he (Raila) went back home, Uhuru came back for me on the highway. We had just come from lunch with Raila at Dusit and as I left for home the cops came for me and even tried to arrest my father," Wanjigi said.
“Here in knew he had returned to to Pharaoh. Despite that this five years have never gotten any better, there was no Canaan.”
It was at this point, Wanjigi says, he realised that Raila had gone to bed with the regime and was no longer interested in pursuing what he termed as the country's reform agenda.
He explained that although Raila called him for a meeting at Dusit after the Harambee House handshake on the same day, his deal with Uhuru had no actual benefits for the common people who 'stuck their necks out for him.”
“Then after they walked out of the steps of Harambee, Raila called me and asked that we meet at Dusit for lunch," he said.
"When we met he gave me the document they had signed which had a 9-point agenda. Then I asked him after reading it, that a part from signing this, where is power here?
“He said people will be compensated. He (Raila) said the negotiation was to end the bloodshed. I said 85 people had been killed by police we had all stuck out our necks, for you to come with this piece of paper, this to me is a betrayal and a surrender.”
Wanjigi said their plan to deliver economic and political liberation to Kenyans under Nasa was ambitious and well crafted as the country approached the 2017 polls.
“We drew up what we called a Canaan plan. In other words we were going to reach Canaan. Raila was baptised Joshua to lead the Kenyans from all the mess that Pharaoh(Uhuru) had given the Israelite in Egypt. In that journey, we took a lot of great risk to our lives.” Wanjigi said.
He named the raids at his home after the supreme court ruling that nullified Uhuru's election and the a quarter page obituary placed in the Daily Nation then as part of intimidation against him.
“On the day of the swearing in, it was me who drove Raila in my bullet proof vehicle because this was a journey to Canaan, to my shock, our Joshua did an about-turn and returned to Pharaoh. So I will continue with the journey to Canaan alone but with Kenyans on my side,” he said.
It was this betrayal, Wanjigi said, that pushed him to recast their Nasa dream for a new Canaan for Kenyans with his own presidential bid that he has branded an 'Ithweka' moment for the country.
He said this election is about the economic sustenance and Kenyans must assess the leadership that presents itself for election on the basis of bringing solutions of these problems.
Wanjigi warned that both Raila and Ruto have been part of the economic mess experienced in the country and cannot be trusted to position themselves as having solutions.
“You can not tell me that the very people that helped to put us in this situation, that the same thinking that put us in this situation can now be the solution. If they had their minds at the time, they would not have put us into this situation,” he said.
According to Wanjigi, Ruto was part of the government when the country's poverty index grew from 38 per cent.
“William Ruto has been a partner in this government, he cannot say he has not been a defender of the foundation of this government and the proliferation of debt and the record speaks for itself,” he said.
“My friend Raila Odinga has been part of this government over the last five years and the poverty rate has increased to 63 per cent.
"I say part because his members parliament have clearly been in support of whatever policies that have been approved in parliament by Uhuru's government. So they are part and parcel together.”
The aspirant likened the country's political landscape like the Coronavirus which he says begun as UhuruRuto in 2013 before mutating into two strands of Azimio and Kenya Kwanza in 2017.
“The two horse race is just but a virus that began as Ruto in 2013 mutated to Jubilee in 2017 as Covid 19, then mutated into two strands of Delta which is Kenya Kwanza and Omiron-Azimio. The only way of dealing with this virus is for the people to be the vaccine and eradicate it from our midst,” he said. BY THE STAR

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