Disability is not Inability

:: RAILA AMOLO ODINGA: Member of Parliament for Langata

Raila Odinga recently launched his bid for Presidency on an ODM-Kenya Ticket.The May 6th 2007 event was clearly a statement of intent that finally proved that he was mature enough, he is able, he is willing and he is ready to run this country as the first among equals to turn Kenya into a Newly Industrialised Country of the order of South Korea or Malasiya within the next 13 years!!

"I am politically mature enough, I am able, I am willing and I am ready to run this country as the first among equals to turn Kenya into a Newly Industrialised Country of the order of South Korea or Malasiya within the next 13 years!!"

:: Raila the Mover & shaker of Kenyan Politics...

Raila Odinga became MP for the cosmopolitan constituency of Langata, Nairobi, in the general election of December 29, 1992, and retained his seat in subsequent general elections in 1997 and 2002. The first nine years were spent in opposition, first in Ford-Kenya and then in the National Democratic Party, but in 2001, Raila was appointed minister for energy in the Kanu government.

Later, as member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he was part of the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) that won the 2002 general election and broke Kanu’s stranglehold on power since Independence in 1963. Raila was thereafter appointed minister for roads, public works and housing.

He was replaced in the cabinet at the end of 2005, after falling out with President Kibaki. Their differences having started with the MOU that Raila-led group felt short changed. His opposition to President Kibaki's version of constitutional reforms led to a referendum victory against the government.

During his four years as a cabinet minister, Raila is said to have effected extensive reforms in the ministries he served. But he is perhaps better known for his persistent and dedicated opposition to all that is corrupt, to decisions made on the basis of ethnicity, and to the accumulation of wealth by a few at the expense of the many.

His opposition to successive governments that he alleges 'have looted his beloved Kenya' and led him into three periods of detention without trial. He was detained for a total of eight years, six of them spent in solitary confinement. "No matter the personal cost, Raila shuns any option that involves compromising his own or the nation’s integrity", quoting from His website.

As the MP for a constituency that houses a large number of Nairobi’s urban poor, Raila has initiated several poverty-alleviation and education projects, including Kibera slum upgrading and the Raila Education Centre. His aim is to ensure good quality of life and education for all. He attracts intense grassroots support bordering on heroworship, and whose behaviour many a times makes others fear a Raila Presidency. One of the main reasons Railafobia has been such strong is the behaviour of His Supporters.

Source: Raila Odinga Website: raila07.com and additional reporting by disabilitykenya.

:: Family and Background...

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:: Railamania....

:: Railafobia...

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