Nasa's deported adviser says Supreme Court judges courageous

Mr John Aristotle Phillips, executive director of Washington-based Aristotle Inc. Mr Phillips was deported from Kenya. FILE PHOTO | COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • Mr John Aristotle Phillips says the judges demonstrated great courage.
  • He was deported alongside his colleague, Andrew Katsouris, the following day.

NEW YORK

The US-based National Super Alliance (Nasa) consultant who was deported from Kenya days to the August 8 election has termed the Supreme Court ruling “a victory for the Kenyan people and democracy worldwide.”

Mr John Aristotle Phillips, an advisor to Raila Odinga's presidential campaign told the Nation on Friday that the judges demonstrated great courage, “given the lengths to which those in government have gone to cling to power.”

“This past election was a massive fraud,” he declared.

Mr Phillips, the head of the Washington-based firm Aristotle Inc, was forced from his Nairobi residence on August 4 by about a dozen armed men in civilian clothes. Mr Phillips said he was made to watch “torture videos” as the men drove him to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

CHANGE

He was deported alongside his colleague, Andrew Katsouris, the following day. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said the two consultants had violated the terms of their visas.

“Kenyans respect, more than ever, Raila Odinga’s tenacity, his moral compass and his willingness to fight for them even when all seems lost,” Mr Phillips said on Friday.

“Change is coming to Kenya and judgment day is exactly 60 days from today,” he said.

Aristotle Inc specialises in collecting copious data on voters and electoral patterns as a means of helping its clients devise campaign strategies.

The two consultants had been in Kenya for nearly two months while working for Mr Odinga's presidential campaign.

Mr Phillips declined to specify the nature of that work or to indicate how much his firm was being paid for its services.