A photo of Omai carrying Uhuru on his motorbike in 2002. [Photo/the-star.co.ke]
A bodaboda rider who carried Uhuru Kenyatta on his motorbike during the 2002 presidential campaigns wants to meet the president as promised.
Donald Omai from Kakapel village in Teso North Sub-County said Uhuru, who was on a campaign trail in Busia ahead of the 2002 polls told him he would love to meet him if he became president.“He landed at Amagoro polytechnic in Amagoro town and I mobilised youth to go and meet him,” Omai said in an earlier interview with the Star.“When he alighted from the helicopter he requested to be carried on a motorcycle. I carried him from the polytechnic to Deep West hotel where he was scheduled to meet councilors (now MCAs).”Uhuru who was then contesting for the presidency on a Kanu ticket was in company of former Nation Media Group Chief Executive Officer and former Amagoro MP Albert Ekirapa.Omai said he drove Uhuru not knowing that the man who sat on his motorbike would become Kenya’s fourth president.He said after addressing the councilors, he again carried the son to Kenya’s first President, Jomo Kenyatta, to the polytechnic from where he told him before boarding the helicopter that if he became president, he would want to meet him because he had never used a motorcycle in his campaigns.“I just want to tell the president to give me a chance to meet him,” Omai said.He said his attempts to meet Uhuru have been unsuccessful. In 2014, he traveled to Nairobi with intension to go to State House. He, however, failed because of the high security around the premise.He says he has been in the bodaboda business for the last sixteen years.When he spoke to this writer on Saturday, he expressed optimism he would one day meet the President.“I pray that he gets re-elected. However, he should not forget the promise he gave me in 2002. My hope of meeting him has not faded,” Omai said on phone.