Salim Lone (c) and Opposition leader Raila Odinga (L). [Photo| Salim Lone]Opposition leader Raila Odinga's advisor Salim Lone has said that media missed Raila's joke when he said Deputy president William Ruto needs his support for him to win in 2022."HOW MEDIA MISSED THE RUTO JOKE
"When pigs fly" is a popular English idiom which is used when one wants to point to something that will never happen.
And that is what Mr Raila Odinga was saying yesterday. He was using humour to highlight the impossibility of Mr Ruto thinking he might be president in 2022. I can now confirm, having just talked to Mr Odinga, that he was NOT telling his arch opponent that he could support him.
Mr Odinga was joking. He was saying that the only way Mr Ruto could win the presidency would be with his support – meaning something that, like a pig flying, that could never happen. The media missed the humour and reported it as a serious remark.
As a result, I – and am sure hordes of others – were inundated with calls from friends and supporters reacting with disbelief at Mr Odinga’s widely reported comments, and thinking he was misquoted. The remarks made absolutely no sense, they meant that Mr Odinga had abandoned every aspect of NASA’s massively successful campaign to correct the fraud that was perpetrated on Kenyans in August and October to put Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto into State House.
It would also have meant that Mr Odinga had ditched his closest NASA associates and was now seeking to ingratiate himself with Mr Ruto – four days in advance of his swearing in along with the Deputy President Kalonzo Musyoka.
It was just a joke.
Salim Lone, Adviser,NASA flagbearer Raila Odinga."