- Raila was giving his third attempt at the top seat five years after a controversial election that saw him share power with late former President Mwai Kibaki.
- Under the grand-coalition government, Raila served as the Prime Minister.
Image: FILE
To many, the 2013 Presidential election was for Raila Amollo Odinga to lose.
Raila was giving his third attempt at the top seat five years after a controversial election that saw him share power with late former President Mwai Kibaki.
Under the grand-coalition government, Raila served as the Prime Minister.
Facing Uhuru Kenyatta for the top seat meant he was somewhat a step ahead considering that the scion was his junior in government. Uhuru was then the deputy prime minister.
Raila led the CORD coalition alongside then Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka while Uhuru took charge of the Jubilee coalition with William Ruto, now president, deputising him.
After spirited campaigns that saw Kenya participate in the first election under the 2010 constitution, Kenyans voted. IEBC had to declare the results.
Before the outcome is announced to the masses, then IEBC chairperson Isaack Hassan had to brief several people on the outcome, as required by the law.
Among them is the sitting president, the head of the National Intelligence Service, the Chief Justice and the National Security Council
The IEBC boss is also required to brief the winner of the presidential election and the other presidential candidates before eventually making the final results knowns to the masses.
In his book titled Referee of a Dirty Ugly Game, Former IEBC Chair Isaack Hassan unpacks details of how the conversation of delivering the results to the two leading candidates unfolded.
Hassan delivered the victory message to Uhuru, a day before he called Raila.
He says the conversation with Uhuru was brief.
"I will be making the formal announcement of the final presidential results tomorrow, March 10, as the commissioners have announced the final tally from all the constituencies. And my congratulations, you have won the elections. You are the President-elect," Hassan told Uhuru.
Uhuru proceeded to thank Hassan for the message and lauded him for what he termed a good job.
But when it came to Raila, Hussein narrates the struggle he went through convincing the ODM leader to accept the results.
" Prime Minister, we are going to make the official announcement of the results tomorrow. The results from the total tallies show that Uhuru Kenyatta has won and you are runners up," Hassan delivered the dreaded news.
"It would be a good thing, and helpful for the country if you would concede early to allow the country to...," he went on but Raila cut him off.
" No, no, no... are you sure about that? You know my team was not happy that you chased them out of the tallying centre... You have not done the proper audit of the 100 constituencies we listed for the commission..." Raila said.
Hassan would interject him and remind him of his massive contribution to democracy.
He told Raila that an audit of the said 100 constituencies had been done noting that he had even sent him a letter after the completion of the exercise.
"Please do not spoil your legacy by rejecting what the people have decided," Hassan implored.
Thinking he had convinced him, Raila delivered another disappointment.
"The entire country expected that we would go for a second round, and now you are saying that Uhuru has won in the first round. It will be good for you and the commission if we went for a second round," Raila told Hassan.
Sensing that he could not convince him otherwise, Hassan went on to deliver the message to other presidential candidates.
But shortly after that, Hussein received a breaking news text message indicating that the media was heading to Raila's Karen home for a press briefing.
"I believed that it would only be a matter of time before he( Raila) gave his concession speech," Hassan said.
But half an hour later, Hassan received another text message saying the press briefing had been cancelled.
Hassan learnt much later that CORD leaders disagreed on the matter, insisting that Raila ought not to concede.
" They wanted to exhaust every avenue possible to them," Hassan said.
Hassan was advised not to go home but to sleep at the Bomas tallying centre for his safety by his security personnel.
But he could not sleep that night as the weight of the nation's fate weighed heavily on his mind.
He could barely eat and had panic attacks of impending doom. Anxiety was never far from him.
The following day at Bomas, Hassan declared Uhuru the winner having garnered a total of 6,173,433 votes.
By then, Uhuru had not arrived at the Bomas.
He arrived a few moments later surrounded by the trappings of power befitting a president, as Hassan put it.
On that day, CORD political leaders and their supporters were downcast as Hassan observed.
"They held a separate press conference as we made our announcement. Raila surrounded by CORD leaders, spoke in a sombre tone as he addressed the press. His brief speech was titled 'Democracy is on trial'," Hassan said.
Edited by Bosco Marita
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Image: FILE