Image: SAM ATANDI / X
Azimio leader Raila Odinga has affirmed that he will not retire soon as many people have claimed.
Speaking on Sunday, Raila said that he will not seek permission to retire from anyone.
“Some people have been saying that they will take me back to Bondo. I want to tell them I know the way to Bondo better than them. That is my home and I know it better than anybody else,” Raila said.
“The day I decide to go back to Bondo, I will not seek permission from anyone. I will find my way there. Certainly, that time has not come; I am still here, so let them shut up.”
His sentiments come amid calls from some leaders for the Azimio Boss to hang his boots.
A section of his allies have however trashed the reports.
Siaya Senator Oburu Oginga early September, denied endorsing Raila’s successor, saying he has no such powers.
Oburu said he has not anointed any politician to take over the mantle from Raila as the next Luo political kingpin.
Oburu stated that there was no political vacuum which needed to be filled by anyone.
In an interview in Kisumu, the Siaya senator said Raila was firm, politically fit, overwhelmingly good and in charge.
Embakasi East MP Babu Owino on his part opined that discussing Raila’s successor is ‘treason’.
He said that discussion about who will succeed Azimio leader Raila Odinga is off the table for him.
The MP said he would steer clear of the discussion because Raila is still around and he is still his leader.
“Raila is someone I respect so much, someone I love with my soul. I love Raila to death. I resonate with his ideologies that is why I have never wavered or moved to any side, except Raila’s side” he said.
He added that people are allowed to talk about succession and suggest names but what still remains, is that Raila is the leader.
“I can never discuss succession politics when Baba (Raila) is still there because he is my leader, that amounts to ‘treason’,” he said.
Some of the leaders whose names have come up as possible successors of Raila are MPs Babu Owino, Opiyo Wandayi (Ugunja), Governor Gladys Wanga (Homa Bay) and former Governor Evans Kidero (Nairobi
