Azimio leader Raila Odinga has slammed US Ambassador Meg Whitman over her remarks on Kenya’s 2022 general election.
Speaking on Thursday August 17 during the Devolution conference in Uasin Gishu County, Raila said the US Ambassador should keep off Kenyan affairs.
Raila said Kenya is not a US colony and should be left to handle its internal affairs.
“I want to tell the rogue ambassador Kenya is not the United States or a colony of the United States. Keep your mouth shut while here otherwise we will call for your recall back to your country,” said Raila.
Ambassador Whitman on Wednesday said Kenya held the most free, fair and credible elections in her history.
“I arrived in Kenya days before the general election, what I witnessed was short of remarkable. The election was observed by local and international election organizations and the results were upheld by the Kenyan Supreme Court and power was transferred orderly and peacefully at the time,” she remarked.
Whitman also noted that Kenya is the gateway to the East African market of almost five hundred million consumers and a leading regional financial and ICT hub.
Her remarks however did not sit well with politicians allied to the Azimio la Umoja coalition.
Siaya Senator Oburu Odinga earlier told off the US Ambassador over the remarks saying it was insensitive for the US Ambassador to talk about democracy in Kenya after the current administration allegedly denied the opposition the right to demonstrate.
“It is insensitive for the US Ambassador to talk about democracy in Kenya when this regime has criminalized legitimate rights of the Kenyans people to demonstrate, picket and assemble. These are rights enshrined in the constitution and even borrowed from the American constitution,” Oburu stated.
He added, “I really felt hurt when the US Ambassador is dancing and praising democracy in Kenya when such rights are being criminalized and described as the destruction of property.”
