[Ms Rosemary Odinga with Raila Odinga and Ida Odinga at a South African hospital. Rosemary is believed to have withdrawn from Kibra constituency race. Photo/Fcebook.com]
Rosemary Odinga, the eldest daughter of Kenya’s political maestro Raila Odinga, will not participate in this year’s elections even after making her intentions known.
Having launched her campaigns to unseat Kibra MP Ken Okoth, Ms Odinga momentarily had her campaigns interrupted due to brain tumor, a condition which precipitated her to seek medication in South Africa.
And having gone weeks out of public limelight, a top lawyer who spoke in confidence said Ms. Odinga had opted out of the race following tough conditions from South African based doctors.
“Just like any aspirant, she was required to participate in nominations but she has opted not to. She will not be in the race due to advice from doctors,” said the source.
The source added: “She has to recover fully and time isn’t on her side because her name wasn’t even in the final ODM list, an indication that she will not participate.”
Significantly, her move has handed incumbent MP Ken Okoth a political lifeline after contemplating ditching ODM for Wiper Democratic Movement.
The change of events now narrows the competition to two, that will involve Mr. Okoth and for Cord secretariat Eliud Owalo, who was critical of Ms. Odinga’s presence in the ballot.