Raila aide questioned over ‘hate campaign’

An aide of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga was Tuesday questioned by police over reports of an impending anti-government campaign.

Mr Eliud Owalo said the detectives wanted him to explain what he knew about the campaign and further claimed it was meant to “destabilise the government.”

“They told me about the allegations that I was working with churches, NGOs and other organisations to destabilise the government. But I declined to have my statement recorded because I was not officially summoned,” he said after the session with detectives at the directorate of criminal investigations headquarters in Nairobi.

Mr Owalo said he faced a big team of investigators when he visited the headquarters at about 4pm.

Earlier, he expressed fears that the Jubilee government has hatched a plan to silence critics.

Mr Owalo was the head of Mr Odinga’s presidential secretariat ahead of the March 4 General Election and also served as a personal assistant to the former PM. He still coordinates Mr Odinga’s activities including organising his local and international events.

“I am deeply perturbed to have received a call from one Mr Cheruiyot this morning summoning me to CID headquarters to ‘clarify certain issues. I informed him that my lawyer, Siaya Senator James Orengo, will get in touch with him to arrange an appropriate time for the same,” he said.

Mr Owalo also seemed to link the summons to an article that was published in a local newspaper.

The called for the immediate dissolution of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. He described reports linking him to the plot as utter nonsense.

“This is cheap propaganda being peddled by the Jubilee Government...to divert the attention of Kenyans from the myriad challenges it is facing, including the on-going teachers’ strike and the Makueni by-election nomination fiasco,” Mr Owalo posted on his Facebook page.