Raila attends funeral in Kiambu
Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader Raila Odinga on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, attended a funeral service in Kiambu.
The former prime minister was attending the funeral of his family’s long-time friend Lewis Wilkinson Kimani Waiyaki.
“Burial of the late Kimani Waiyaki in Muthinga, Kiambu County. The late was a former detainee and town clerk for Nairobi City. May his soul rest in eternal peace,” Raila stated in a post shared via his official X account.
Raila used the funeral event to clarify a few issues, including his recently signed deal with the ruling Kenya Kwanza government.
He also criticised some of the President William Ruto-led government policies, including the Social Health Authority (SHA), the housing levy, and the high taxation of Kenyans.
Raila on deal with Ruto
However, he clarified that some of the issues cannot be solved from outside, thus his decision to sign a joint working framework with the Kenya Kwanza administration.
“Hatutaki wananchi wetu wazidi kuumia. Mambo ya matibabu ikona shida. Hii mambo ya SHA haifanyi kazi, mpaka irekebishwe. Hii mambo ya ushuru wananchi wanatozwa ni juu sana ata hii ya manyumba izi. Mpaka irekebishwe. Haiwezi kurekebishwa kama unakaa Kando, mpaka uingie ndani uwaambie Fanya hii na hii na hii na uweke watu wako wafanye,” Raila said while justifying the working relationship his ODM party has with the Kenya Kwanza administration.
News about Waiyaki’s death broke out on March 3, 2025. He was Nairobi City’s first town clerk after the City Council of Nairobi was created by an act of Parliament, Cap 265 of the Laws of Kenya, to provide services to residents of the city, after the country gained independence in 1963.
Who is Waiyaki
In 2015, Waiyaki, who was a brother to Wambui Otieno, the woman who made headlines after marrying a 25-year-old man in 2003 when she was 67, moved to court seeking over Ksh280 million as compensation for wrongful ten months detention during President Jomo Kenyatta’s regime.
He claimed that he was abducted from a rented cottage at Rubaga in Kampala, Uganda, in March 1968 by the Special Branch of the Kenya police.
The former Kenya People’s Party Union (KPU) member claimed that the officers teamed up with about 20 others from the Uganda Research Bureau to kidnap him after raiding his place of residence, ransacking it, and taking him to secret locations, including forests, while subjecting him to torture.
He also claimed that he was shuffled between various locations under very inhumane conditions, often at the back of a truck while being handcuffed, naked, soaked in rain, deprived of food and water, and locked up in solitary confinement.
