Raila writes his wishes for Kenya on Jerusalem Wall

National Super Alliance (Nasa) presidential candidate Raila Odinga on Tuesday visited the sacred Western Wall in the biblical city of Jerusalem in Israel.

Mr Odinga posted several pictures of him pasting his wishes for Kenya on the wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, on his official twitter handle under the title, 'Letter from Jerusalem'.

The veteran opposition leader is in the Jewish nation to attend the Africa-Israel conference at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Writing on his twitter handle, Mr Odinga stated; “This week I travelled to the Holy Land to deliver an address on Democracy, Religion and Peace in Africa. While in Jerusalem I visited the western Wall. Few know my history with this Holy Site.”

The western wall is the pulpit of the Temple of Solomon and is said to have been built over 5000 years ago, he went on.

SACRED SITE

“This site is sacred to all three [Abrahamic] religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity and to me it is a very strong symbolism of strength and unity.

"The story goes that you write your wish on a piece of paper, stick it on the wall and say a prayer and the message goes directly to God,” Mr Odinga continued.

He said he had religiously observed this tradition of writing down his wishes for Kenya during his time in detention.

“For those of you who may not know, detention is a miserable place with time mostly spent alone. You are completely alone for 23 out of 24 hours of the day,” he stated.

He recounted how it would take him as many as six months to exchange letters with his loved ones during his time in detention.

CALL FOR ACTION

“With a lot of time on my hands, I used to write down the many wishes I had for the people of Kenya. Every time I visit, I take one of those wishes and place it on the wall,” he stated.

Addressing the conference at Hebrew University of Jerusalem earlier this week, the Nasa leader challenged religious leaders to pick up from where the likes of Archbishops Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Janani Luwum and Bishop Festo Kivengere of Uganda, and Kenyans including the late Alexander Muge, the late Henry Okullu, Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki and David Gitari left off and speak out for their followers.

Mr Odinga lamented that religious leaders are not speaking out as firmly and loudly as they should on corruption and bad leadership, which he said are compromising the lives of followers.