Raila Odinga confident of 1st -round win
2013-01-15 10:31
Nairobi - Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said on Monday
he was confident of winning outright in the first round of the presidential
election on 4 March - his third bid for the top job.
"I am very confident I'll be able to win in the first
round," he said in an exclusive interview with AFP, saying he hoped for
"free and fair elections" that will not be marred by the violence
that erupted five years ago after the previous vote.
"Last time round the people felt cheated. People rioted
in protest.... We do hope that with the proper safeguards this time will be
different," he said.
His optimism comes as the UN has warned of an "increase
in violence" ahead of the vote.
Odinga, who has just turned 68, ran in the 1997 election,
coming third after Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki, the current president.
He ran again in 2007 but his adversary Kibaki was declared
the victor.
Odinga disputed the election results and Kenya sank into an
unprecedented cycle of violence that left at least 1 200 dead and more than 600
000 displaced.
An international mediation eventually yielded a coalition
government, with Kibaki as president and Odinga as prime minister.
Despite indications that politicians in some parts of the
country are sowing local ethnic or land disputes, Odinga, sporting a navy suit
and glossy black shoes and sitting under a photo of himself with US President
Barack Obama, said he does not expect a repeat of the violence that followed
the 2007 vote.
Tribalism
Asked why tribalism plays such an important role in Kenyan
politics, where a majority of voters cast their ballots along ethnic lines, he
said the media were partly to blame for trying "to stereotype
people".
"Kenyans now see themselves as Kenyans, members of the
Kenyan nation, not as representatives of various groups," said Odinga,
looking tired and drawn as his advisors bemoaned a particularly heavy schedule
this week.
On the walls of his suite of offices portraits of himself,
his father - the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, a prominent politician - and
anti-colonial rebel leader Dedan Kimathi jostle for space with the pictures
that the late conservationist Joy Adamson painted of the different tribes of
Kenya.
The United Nations's top humanitarian official in Kenya,
Modibo Toure, warned this month of concern over an "increase in
violence", as more than 450 people were killed and nearly 112 000 people
fled their homes in 2012.
The race to replace Kibaki, who is stepping down after two
terms, is between Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's founding father
Jomo Kenyatta.
Adding to tensions is the fact that Kenyatta and his running
mate William Ruto both stand accused before the International Criminal Court
(ICC) in The Hague of orchestrating murder, rape and violence after the last
polls.
Without citing the two by name, Odinga accused Kenyatta and
Ruto of trying to hijack the poll and turn the ICC into an election issue.
"There was an attempt by certain individuals accused by
the ICC to try to make the elections an ICC issue. It was a futile attempt
which has failed miserably," he said.
Peace and civil order
The trials, set to begin on 10-11 April, could clash with a
runoff if no candidate wins outright in the first round.
Kenyatta, who protests his innocence but says he will co-operate
with the ICC, has accused the international community in campaign rallies of
"wanting to impose their thoughts and will on the Kenyan people"
through the trials.
Odinga also expressed his gratitude towards France for its
military intervention against Islamist extremists in Mali.
The game-changing French air raids against Islamists
occupying Mali's vast desert north complement efforts by the Economic Community
of West African States (Ecowas), whose members have pledged to send troops to
help Malian forces root out Islamist fighters, he said.
"Ecowas has intervened there. The French intervention
there is basically a complement to the efforts of Ecowas to push back the
extremists and to create peace and civil order," he told AFP.
Asked what he would prioritise if he wins the election,
Odinga said: "Food, education, jobs.... I want to make the country
self-sufficient in food production."
He said he would cut the salary of the president and the
vice president. However, when pressed on the size of the cut, he said he did
not have the figures to hand.
