Former prime minister, Raila Odinga's daughter, Rosemary Odinga. [Photo: Kisumu Insyder]
Former prime minister, Raila Odinga, has come into defense of his daughter, Rosemary, following claims that her organisation received funds from a donor, and diverted them.
The Non-Governmental Organisation Coordination (NGOC) Board through CEO Fazul Muhammed wrote to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Patrick Njoroge, saying the foundation, Key Empowerment Foundation Kenya, received Sh530 million from George Soros Foundation.
In the letter dated July 31, Fazul accused Rosemary Odinga's Foundation of receiving foreign funds to engage in subterfuge political activities globally and nefarious regime change tactics, instead of supporting the less privileged in the society, as required.
However, according to Raila, who is contesting in the 2017 general election to be Kenya's fifth president, her daughter's organisation has never officially been registered, and so has never received any money..
He said, Key Empowerment Foundation Kenya submitted all the requirements when applying for registration, but was yet to be issued with a certificate.“Without the certificate, there is no way it could open a bank account and receive the monies alleged. Fazul also knows that even in the application for registration submitted to the NGO Coordination Board, Rosemary Odinga does not appear in the list of members of the board," Raila said in a statement, through Dennis Onyango, the Communications Director at Raila Odinga Secretariat,.
Onyango noted that Fazul was targeting Odinga, and not Rosemary, terming the allegations as "callous and fraudulent.”
In the statement seen by the Daily Nation, Thursday, Onyango indicated that Odinga's family had instructed its lawyer to start proceedings at the High Court, to have Fazul declared unfit to hold public office, “because of this fraud”.