Four Members of Parliament received former Prime Minister Raila Odinga at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Tuesday amid backlash following his Beijing trip.
Before embarking on the trip, Mr Odinga told a crowd in Sondu that he was accompanying President Uhuru Kenyatta to lobby for Sh368 billion for extension of SGR from Naivasha to Kisumu. State House has since refuted the claims after reports indicated that China had declined to give the loan.
Minority Leader John Mbadi who also doubles as Suba South MP, Minority Whip Junet Mohammed (Suna East), Nyatike MP Tom Odege and Kisumu Town West MP Olago Aluoch ushered in the ODM leader.
"Together with Leader of Minority in the National Assembly Hon. John Mbadi and colleagues Hon. Tom Odege and Hon. Olago Aluoch, received Rt. Hon. PM Raila Odinga who is back from an African Union engagement in China," wrote Junet.
And in defense of Odinga's trip, Junet said it was purely an AU engagement: "Glad to have received Rt. Hon. PM @RailaOdinga who is back from an African Union engagement in China.
There were expectations in the larger Nyanza region that the loan would be secured. The SGR line is expected to open the port of Kisumu and connect it to the neighboring Uganda.
Early this month, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni visited Kenya for a three-day trip in which the SGR dominated. President Uhuru Kenyatta offered Uganda a piece of land in Naivasha to construct an Inland Port.
"Arrived back home from China and received a brief from MPs who included their Parliamentary leadership," Odinga wrote, without revisiting the loan details like in his previous rally at Sondu.