Nasa leader Raila Odinga addresses a press conference at their Okoa Kenya offices in Nairobi on October 9, 2017, where he said that he will not be compelled by courts to take part in a flawed electoral process.[Photo: nation.co.ke]NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga seems to be planning for the fifth and perhaps his last defeat, veteran Journalist and Daily Nation Columnist Macharia Gaitho has said.Gaitho says that the August 8 General Election saw Odinga fail to dislodge President Uhuru Kenyatta but then followed the 'historic Supreme Court annulment of the presidential election' that gave Raila a new lifeline."Common sense would have dictated that Odinga would approach the fresh election on a roll. Vindicated on his previous alerts about systematic plans to steal the elections, he could claim that he was cheated of victory, and use that to re-energise his support base in pursuit of a knockout punch come the repeat poll," writes Gaitho on Tuesday's Nation.This he says would, meanwhile, see Kenyatta’s 'dispirited support base, flounder around in shock, dismay and disbelief.However, Gaitho notes, things didn’t turn out that way as 'it is Mr Kenyatta who is campaigning as if his life depended on it, while Mr Odinga again seems to be preparing for defeat'."The veteran opposition leader, on almost certainly his last stab, is not even campaigning for president; but campaigning against everything and everybody. With just over a fortnight to the October 26 presidential poll, it is becoming increasingly clear that Mr Odinga does not intend to participate unless his demands are met," he adds.Gaitho further notes that even if there was no rigging, Raila would enter the repeat poll facing serious risk of electoral humiliation."The hard reality is that Nasa does not have the machinery to stop the elections. The face-saving option might thus be to stay away on the grounds that the IEBC was bound to again hand Mr Kenyatta an undeserved victory," Gaitho writes.

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