Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga faulted the Kenyan courts for frustrating the fight against corruption.

In an interview with Citizen TV, Mr Odinga stated that the courts were discouraging the war on graft by giving less than stiffer bonds to accused people.

The Opposition leader maintained that the courts were making the war on graft harder by allowing public officers linked to corruption to resume office while they have pending cases.

Stiffer Penalties

Take the public service; if somebody is found to have misappropriated something or acted incorrectly, he is interdicted on half pay, no pay or is suspended so that you don’t go to the office,” said Mr Odinga.

Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga
Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga

But here is a case where somebody has already been investigated and evidence has been found and he has been charged with a criminal offence, but he goes to court and is allowed to go back to the office,” he added.

Mr Odinga opened up about his rollercoaster year that started with his ‘swearing-in’ ceremony and later culminated in the historic handshake with President Uhuru Kenyatta. 

Family Challenges

During the interview, Mr Odinga also addressed challenges that his family faced in 2018 including his daughter Rosemary Odinga's illness which left her partially blind.

After the operation in Nairobi, she was comatose for 8 days… so we had to send her by air ambulance to South Africa where she stayed for three months, Ida (Mr Odinga’s wife) had to take up an apartment in Johannesburg,” an emotional Raila stated.

Rosemary Odinga with her father Raila Odinga
Rosemary Odinga with her father Raila Odinga

When they stayed there she was on a wheelchair, and then she came back and we went to Israel briefly… then it was a Chinese physical therapist who discovered that something was not adding up. So he took a scan and discovered that an aneurysm, which had burst, was recurring and there was another one next to it and a tumor," he added.