Former Kiambu governor William Kabogo has said that “Raila Odinga is the most dangerous mammal on the face of the earth” and that selling this politician to the Mount Kenya Region voters was a big mistake that need to be examined carefully. Mr. Kabogo said William Ruto will get more love at the ballot in Central province than the former prime minister.
Mr. Kabogo said the ODM party leader Mr. Raila Odinga is synonymous to violence each and every election in Kenya’s history. While William Kabogo have a favorable view of the deputy president William Ruto, a section of the Kenyan public may disagree with the former Kiambu governor.
This is because William Ruto was one of the suspects that were accused of perpetrating post election violence or at least using their proxies to engage in inter-tribal violence in the greater Rift Valley Region. William Ruto has been blamed to be responsible particularly for the killing of dozens of Kikuyu men, women and children at the Kiambaa church.
The Kiambaa church was burnt down in the 2007/2008 post election violence after people from the Kikuyu tribe sought refugee in the church from violent Kalenjin youth who were persecuting the victims from the rival tribe. It should be noted that during the violence, Mr. William Ruto was an ODM party member who was in support of Mr. Raila Odinga.
So in essence, supporting William Ruto is the same thing as supporting Raila Odinga as the two men waere inseparable during the 2007-2008 election violence.
Also, since the violence have always happened in the Greater Rift Valley Region, it is difficult to pin down Raila Odinga for what goes on in this province as it is not Raila Odinga’s stronghold. Should the violence happened in Kisumu, Nyanza, then it would have been easy to blame it on the former prime minister Raila Odinga.
There has always been bad blood between Raila Odinga and William Kabogo. For example on June 20, 2020, Kabogo took a swipe at Odinga for keeping silent at a time when Kenyans, both in the country and in the diaspora continue to suffer from the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic.
During that time, Kabogo also added that he has tried to reach the ODM party leader on several occasions but that his calls were never able to go through.
“Of late, Raila doesn’t pick my calls”, Kabogo stated as he opened up on his failed attempts to reach Raila. “Why is he (Raila) silent when Kenyans are suffering? He has a voice that can be used to push the government to act. Who else can swear himself in as President in Kenya and not face the government’s wrath?”
After being unsuccessful in connecting with Raila Odinga, Mr. William Kabogo donated Ksh 500,000 to help repatriate fellow Kenyans stranded abroad back home in Kenya due to the grounding of planes during the covid-19 pandemic peak.
