Raila was in utopian slumberland as votes were being stolen – Kanchory

Raila Odinga's Chief agent in last year's presidential election, Saitabao Ole Kanchory has revealed that his boss was deceived into believing that he would not lose the polls.

The lawyer writes in his book Why Baba Is Not The 5th that there was an elaborate game to make Raila pretty comfortable that he was winning the elections even when things were going south.

Naming Bomas of Kenya as the nerve center of the game to rig the presidential election, Kanchory explains how efforts to 'awaken' Raila to see the reality of the game failed in deaf years.

From being surrounded by handlers who he says obscured the reality of the planned rigging from him to getting false assurances on his imminent win, Kanchory says Raila was given a false impression.

Kanchory says that the whole plot to beat Raila Odinga was pegged on convincing him that he could not lose the election and that government machinery could not allow the election to be stolen from him.

''Deception was the name of the game and some of us knew that if only we could awaken Baba from this utopian slumberland in time, the ploy would be foiled and his presidential bid saved. It was not to be,'' Kanchory explains in his book.

Highlighting a wide range of instances where critical information was being concealed from Raila by his handlers, Kanchory says the Azimio leader doubted him despite his all-important reports.

''Perhaps due to my age or some other impertinent consideration, the stoic Raila Odinga could not see how he and his advisers could be wrong and a young political neophyte like myself be right about such fundamental aspects of a game he had mastered so well,'' he says.

For instance, Kanchory reveals that Raila overruled him when he protests IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati's decision to change the verification rules at the auditorium.

Chebukati, the National Returning Officer of Presidential elections had ruled that the process of verification needed to be hastened by allowing Constituency Returning Officers to submit results forms directly to him.

''When Mr Chebukati made this communication, I made it clear that as Azimio, we were opposed to any proposal to change the rules midway through the game and that his proposal would render the role of agents redundant,'' Kanchory writes.

He says that when he contacted Raila over what he terms as a Chebukati's mischievous misrepresentation of his views to his deputy Caroline Karugu that he had agreed to the change of rules, Raila asked him to relax.

Kanchory says he called Raila after failing to locate James Orengo and Otiende Amollo whom he had earlier sent to see him at Bomas over the verification process.

''My position was that we should immediately stage a walkout from the verification floor unless and until our demands were met. Baba hesitated for a few seconds, then said no, no, just go on,'' he says.

He says that concerns about the integrity of the electoral process at Bomas had been shared with the Azimio top brass including Charity Ngilu, Nderitu Muriithi, Raphael Tuju, and Orengo, among others.

''All our concerted efforts to get Baba to see the light of the day were watered down by the assurances he was receiving from his handlers,'' Kanchory says.