ODM leader and NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga. [Photo/ Business Today]
An inflammatory tweet from ODM Party’s verified account has received a huge backlash from Kenyans, with many supporters of the National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition vowing to support the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta. The tweet, sent after the Court of Appeal dismissed NASA’s cases against IEBC regarding the tender to print election materials, said the opposition “will accept the results of a free, fair, credible and peaceful elections, which cam only have one outcome: NASA victory”.
Many saw the message as being insincere and hypocritical, bringing back memories of a “Raila Doctrine” — a phrase lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi created in 2013, and which went into Wikipedia. The doctrine states that “a presidential election can never be declared to have been free and/or fair unless Raila Odinga wins the election.” Reacting to the tweet, which was roundly criticised by both Jubilee and NASA supporters, a number of Kenyans who said they had planned to vote for Raila Odinga, vowed to back his opponent — Uhuru Kenyatta — just to teach the opposition a lesson. Here are some of the replies to the tweet:
The party is yet to respond formally to the backlash.