Obama’s big day: Why Raila will stay away

• The PM was among prominent leaders that Mr Obama, who has his roots in Kenya, had invited to the event.
• PM's spokesman says Raila's plans to attend the convention were scheduled to coincide with an official visit to Canada, which has been cancelled.
• Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta, Water minister Charity Ngilu and former MP Oloo Aringo had also been invited for the coronation.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga will, after all, not attend Monday’s historic convention which will end with Barack Obama formally accepting nomination as Democratic party’s presidential candidate.

Kenya’s Ambassador to the United States Mr Oginga Ogego and the PM’s spokesman, Mr Salim Lone, confirmed that Mr Odinga will not attend the occasion during which history will be made as a man he refers to as his cousin becomes the first US black presidential candidate on the Democratic party ticket.

Mr Odinga, 63, has said that the US senator’s father was his maternal uncle.

The PM was among prominent leaders that Mr Obama, who has his roots in Kenya, had invited to the event that will climax with an open rally on Thursday at which Mr Obama will accept the nomination.

Mr Ogego said that Mr Odinga was not able to “make it” to the convention, in Denver, Colorado but expressed optimism that other invited guests from Kenya would attend the coronation of Mr Obama as a presidential candidate.

“I am hoping we will still have a delegation attending both the Democratic and Republican conventions,” Mr Ogego told the Sunday Nation on Saturday.

“Kenya is a good friend of the US and it is important that its leaders come to witness how such crucial events are held.”

Mr Ogego said that Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been on a formal trip to Spain, Water minister Charity Ngilu and former Alego Usonga MP Oloo Aringo had also been invited for the coronation.

The Republican Party national convention, during which Senator John McCain will be formally nominated as the party’s candidate to fight it out with Mr Obama in the race for the White House on November 4, is scheduled to start next week at Minneapolis.

In Nairobi, Mr Lone explained that plans by the PM to attend the convention were scheduled to coincide with an official visit to Canada. However, he said, the trip was cancelled following the unexpected developments in Canada, which now has to go to the elections next month.

“The invitation to go to the US was combined with a trip to Canada. However, the whole arrangement was cancelled when it became clear that Canada is gearing for elections possibly next month,” he said.

“Travelling to the US to attend the convention only was too much. He cancelled because he could not just fly to the US for one event. After all, the Prime Minister had never said that he would attend the convention,” Mr Lone explained.

The cancellation of the trip by Mr Odinga comes hot on the heels of the publication of a book that is being used to attack Mr Obama in which the PM features.

The book, The Obama Nation, by Jerome Corsi depicts Mr Obama as a covert sympathiser of radical Islam and Communism.

In the book, the PM, who is portrayed as a close relation and associate of Mr Obama, is described as a “Muslim sympathiser with well-known communist political roots”.

Mr Lone has since dismissed the allegations, stating that Mr Odinga would not want to be dragged into controversies beyond the borders.

“You would think that the PM’s four months in office, and the role he played in restoring peace to Kenya and reconciling our people would have finally shamed into silence all of Mr Odinga’s demonisers,” Mr Lone said.

Similar allegations touching on Mr Odinga and Mr Obama originated a few months ago in a chain e-mail from Celeste Davis, an American Christian missionary who, along with her husband Loren Davis, claimed to have worked in Kenya for 12 years.

The couple alleged that Senator Obama donated nearly $1 million to the Orange Democratic Movement’s campaign last year. Mr Lone dismissed the allegations as bizarre and discredited.

Senator Obama was in Kenya in August 2006 to visit his father’s home in Nyangoma-Kogelo village in Siaya District.

When Obama addressed the people: Jothurwa Jokogelo amosou? (the people from by father’s home I salute you) in smattering Dhuluo, the crowd broke into deafening cheers and screams.

Ms Kathy Gest, an official of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), which is hosting up to 500 world leaders at the convention said there were a few invited guests who were by Thursday yet to confirm attendance.

“We are still compiling the final list of guests since some have said they will not attend while other new ones have been added,” she said. Ms Gest said there were Kenyan officials expected to attend.

“The International Leaders Forum gives political leaders from around the world a unique opportunity to observe American democracy first-hand while hearing from a wide range of experts from the US and abroad,” said former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, chairman of NDI.

The Obama campaign team on Friday called on supporters to come together to watch his acceptance speech and “celebrate how far we’ve come”.