Raila Odinga Health Update: Former Prime Minister Of Kenya Blames Rivals For Spreading Ill Health Rumours

Kenyan politician Raila Odinga dismisses rumors about his failing health as baseless propaganda fueled by political rivals. Despite recent absence from public events, his spokesperson denies any health issues, attributing the speculation to political disinformation.

Raila Amolo Odinga Health update: Raila Odinga, who is a Kenyan politician and former prime minister, has dismissed all the allegations about his failing health. According to him, these were only rumours that were forced by the rivals, and he even called it as baseless propaganda. It all started with his absence from public events, and that too, he was not absent for so long. Although he seems in the limelight most of the time, but he was seen on last Friday and on September 22.

According to the Raila secretariat attested that he left on Friday evening on a monitored flight among the various trips he has made abroad this year, and he insisted this trip could not be taken to indicate an indisposition on his part.

The spokesman, Dennis Onyango, did not reveal where he was going, what his mission was, and when he was supposed to be back. There have been reports that he had visited the United States of America yet The Star could not independently confirm this. His absence after a public party appearance on September 22 and failure to show up at major parties has spawned speculation on his health. Besides that, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has put off celebrating its 20th anniversary, originally planned to be done in the month of October in Mombasa, without providing any clear statement of why the celebration is being pushed forward.

Rebuttal and accusations

Onyango in his statement condemned the rumours and said that there was a combined disinformation system organised by his opponents. He understood select leaders such as Kalonzo Musyoka , Rigathi Gachagua, and Eugene Wamalwa to be sowing fake stories and employing media houses and even bloggers to spread the fake news, sometimes with fabricated pictures portrayed as breaking news. The spokesperson reasoned that the same gimmick was employed several months ago.

Onyango also vindicated Odinga on his disclosing his health. He noted that the previous prime minister had publicly reported past medical events such as a hospital procedure in 2010 when serving as prime minister and a Covid-19 hospitalisation in 2021 when running oppositionally, and pointed out that the same would be done in a case of present health issue.

Wiper party surfaced very fast and denied the charges raised by ODM terming it as a theatre of politics.In its response, Wiper stated that Kalonzo Musyoka had no ill will with Odinga and dismissed any relation between Kalonzo and the health allegation as a diversion tactic on the internal progress of ODM and finally, it allied with a government headed by President Ruto.This is not the first occasion when health status of Odinga has become a community discussion issue. In 2010, he had a rare surgery to remove the fluid in his brain and later on in the past, he had back surgery in Dubai and fought the COVID-19 in 2021.

The fact that he is long out of the public eye combined with the fact that the party ceremonies have not yet resumed, has only fueled speculation and a move that is being allotted by his staff as mostly political in nature and misplaced.