Raila Odinga

Raila Odinga is the current Prime Minister of Kenya, and has been a Member of Parliament in that nation since 1992. He is also a first cousin of Barack Obama, whose late Muslim father was Odinga’s maternal uncle. Today Odinga heads the same Luo tribe to which the elder Obama belonged.

In 1982 Odinga collaborated in a failed coup attempt against Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi, an act for which he was subsequently detained without trial for six years. Odinga was released in February 1988 but was rearrested seven months later for his involvement with the Kenya Revolutionary Movement (KRM), an underground organization calling for multi-party democracy in

Kenya

, which was then a one-party state. He was released in June 1989, was re-incarcerated the following month, and finally was released again on June 21, 1991. Four months thereafter he fled to

Norway

.

In 1992 Odinga returned to

Kenya

and was elected to his parliamentary post. He served as Minister of Energy from 2001 to 2002, and as Minister of Roads, Public Works and Housing from 2003 to 2005.

In 2007 Odinga, with the political aim of establishing Islamic Law (Sharia) throughout

Kenya (

where the current population is majority-Christian), challenged incumbent Mwai Kibaki for the office of President. The December 27 election was fraught with irregularities on both sides, and the Kenyan election commission declared Kibaki the winner by a margin of some 230,000 votes.

Odinga protested the results, alleging fraud by the election commission. Two months of violent tribal riots ensued across the country, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, the displacement of another 600,000, and the destruction of some 800 Christian churches nationwide.

In February 2008, former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan brokered a deal between Odinga and Kibaki; the pair signed a power-sharing agreement calling for the creation of the post of Prime Minister, into which Odinga was sworn on April 17, 2008.

During a New Hampshire campaign stop in the spring of 2008, Barack Obama interrupted his schedule to speak by phone with Odinga. “He has called me to talk about the destabilizing constitutional crisis in this country,” Odinga explained. Obama’s spokesman Robert Gibbs confirmed that this conversation did indeed take place. WorldNet Daily (WND) journalist Jerome Corsi, author of the book The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, subsequently reported that Obama "was in contact with Odinga almost daily from the New Hampshire primary, by cell phone, calling Kenya."[1]

In October 2008, Corsi traveled to

Kenya

to learn more about the links between Obama and Odinga. Corsi found: (a) that the pair had been in direct contact on a regular basis since Obama’s 2006 visit to Kenya, where he publicly supported Odinga's candidacy for the presidential election which was to be held the following year; (b) that Obama, knowing Odinga was running on a pro-Sharia platform, had advised the latter on campaign strategy; and (c) that Obama had helped Odinga raise money in the United States for his (Odinga's) presidential campaign in 2007.

After having gathered this information, Corsi announced that he would soon hold a news conference to “expose details of deep secret ties between U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and a section of Kenya government leaders, their connection to certain sectoral groups in Kenya, and [the] subsequent plot to be executed in Kenya should Senator Obama win the American presidency.”

According to a WND story:

“Corsi was to report [that] Odinga’s 2007 presidential campaign strategy called for exploiting anti-Kikuyu tribal sentiments, claiming victory and charging voter fraud even if the campaign knew the election had been legitimately lost. Odinga, Corsi said, also was willing to fan the flames of ethnic tribal tensions and use violence as a last resort by calling for mass action that led to the destruction of properties, injuries, loss of life and the displacement of over 500,000 Kenyans. The purpose was to compel the Electoral Commission of Kenya to declare him the winner or enable him to declare himself the winner by force.”

As Corsi prepared to hold his news conference, Kenyan immigration authorities took him into custody and held him for one day, under armed guard and without food, to prevent him from telling his story to the media. Fearing for his life, Corsi was able to secure his release only by paying thousands of dollars in bribes to Kenyan officials. Kenya Broadcasting Corporation later acknowledged that Corsi had been detained for purely political reasons.

NOTES:

[1] Jerome Corsi, interview with Sean Hannity, WABC Radio, New York (October 8, 2008).

Additional Key Resources:

Bribes paid for Corsi to escape from Kenya
By WorldNetDaily
October 8, 2008

Sendoff to Corsi: 'See you in hell'
By WorldNetDaily
October 8, 2008