Opposition leader Raila Odinga tops the list of the nation’s rather reckless leaders but has, however, always managed to regain his footing after each daredevil stunt.
This began in 1992 when Raila sharply differed with his father, in a situation that took a rather disrespectful turn as he attempted to take over the Ford Kenya party forcefully.
Raila and his battalion of youth stormed the party's National Delegates meeting at Nairobi’s City Stadium and went ahead to chant slogans despite orders from his father and opposition leader Jaramogi Oginga Odinga to remain silent.
Oginga was at the time on the podium, but the younger Odinga would have none of his calls for calm, a behaviour that too many can translate to eternal misfortunes in the name of a curse.
But Raila went ahead to win the Langata parliamentary seat that very year, landing upright from the ugly encounter.
After his failure to capture the leadership of the Ford-Kenya party following the death of Oginga in 1994, the angry Raila made the biggest stunt of the time.
Very frustrated for being locked out of the leadership of a party founded by his father, the Chairman slot was instead given to Kijana Wamalwa who was Jaramogi's ally, Raila began his party-hopping habit.
In 1997, he resigned from the party, resigned from his parliamentary seat and vied afresh on his new National Development Party (NDP) ticket; the opposition doyen went ahead to defend his seat.
And seemingly getting used to making unprecedented and at times dangerous moves, he recently went ahead to swear himself in as the People’s President despite warnings that the same would amount to high treason.
With the backing of his opposition brigade and thousands of supporters, the former Premier was on January 30, 2018, sworn in as the People’s President in Uhuru Park, Nairobi.
This was after the leader rejected President Uhuru Kenyatta’s twin re-elections on August 8 and October 26, 2017, even after boycotting the repeat poll.
Despite initial threats from then-Attorney General Githu Muigai that he would be sent to hang according to the constitution, Raila remains a free man and was even recently tipped to head the African Union infrastructure development department.
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