Raila Odinga barred from accessing airport VIP Lounge

By Standard Team

NAIROBI, KENYA: Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia is once again in the eye of a storm involving former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Just hours after Kimemia was sworn in Monday, an aide to the former PM alleged that Raila was barred by State security officials from accessing the VIP Lounge at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi on Kimemia’s orders.

But when contacted last evening, Kimemia told The Standard he was unaware of the incident and so could not comment.

The incident allegedly occurred when the PM was on his way to Kisumu.

The aide, Mr Eliud Owallo said security officials at the airport claimed to be acting on orders issued by Kimemia when he was Head of the Civil Service, a position that has since been scrapped by the Constitution.

Raila who shared power with retired President Kibaki is now demanding an apology from the Government.

According to his aide, the former PM was allegedly barred from accessing the VIP Lounge in Unit 3 at JKIA.

“Arising from today’s incident, Raila will not take anything short of a public apology from the highest echelons of Government,” said a statement sent from Raila’s team.

Owallo claimed a similar fate befell the former PM’s wife Idah Odinga on Friday last week at the same airport.

“The security personnel at JKIA claim they are acting on the basis of a letter written by Mr Francis Kimemia whose contents they have been instructed to enforce “to the letter” at all

Airports within the country,” said Owallo in a statement.

He said it was becoming “clearly evident” that some people in Government with narrow and parochial interests are intent on deploying acts of intimidation reminiscent of the single party era.

Owallo said those threatening Raila have false hopes that such machinations will make him submissive, but that was wishful thinking.

Integrity questions

“Such barbaric acts are unacceptable in today’s political dispensation,” said Owallo on his Twitter page last evening.

“It is becoming clearly evident that some people in Government with narrow and parochial interests are intent on deploying acts of intimidation reminiscent of the single party era with the false hope that such machinations will make Hon Raila Odinga submissive,” said Owallo.

Top guns in Raila’s ODM party have for some time been unhappy with

Kimemia and saw his hand everywhere; from the row over Kibaki’s appointment of county commissioners in defiance of a High Court ruling, to the boardroom wars in the National Hospital Insurance Fund that pitted him against former Minister for Medical Services Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o.

ODM leaders close to the former PM believed Kimemia went out of his way to frustrate the now defunct Office of the PM.

Some integrity questions were raised against Kimemia during his vetting by Parliament’s Committee on Administration and National Security two weeks ago.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission raised questions and allegations of abuse of office against the long serving civil servant, but the committee, cleared Kimemia.

It recommended the National Assembly approve Kimemia’s nomination and subsequent appointment to the post of Secretary to the Cabinet.

During the recent campaigns, and just before the March 4 elections, Raila, the Coalition for Reform and Democracy presidential candidate, and his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka accused Kimemia of favouring the then Jubilee their rivals Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto.

But Uhuru dismissed the claims as a scheme by CORD and civil society to use “politics of propaganda, incitement and apportioning blame” to attack his campaigns.

Campaign meetings

As the presidential campaigns heated up, CORD wrote to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission over an alleged plot to rig the polls by certain top officials in Government.

It turned out one of those they had in mind was Kimemia. Former PM Raila told journalists at Wilson Airport while on his way to a campaign meeting in Marakwet that Kimemia had taken sides in the campaigns.

Odinga said at letter that CORD had copied to observers and diplomatic missions provided evidence that civil servants were involved in politics.

But Kimemia came out fighting and in a strongly worded response dismissed the claims as fiction, saying he was elsewhere at the time he was alleged to have attended one of the meetings.