Raila Odinga Quotes

Musalia [Mudavadi] was created by [Daniel Toroitich arap] Moi and given his seat after his father's death since Musalia's was one of Moi's key men and a beneficiary of the grand corruption of the day. I am aware of this but I recognize that I cannot get perfect partners, and truly my friends; there is an election to be won.

The stone throwing and house burning is no longer a face of Kenya . Kenya is now a destination for investment and tourism.

At independence Kenya's economic indicators were equal to those of South Korea, but 45 years down the road, Korea's economy is 40 times that of Kenya. The mediocrity of leadership is across the continent .

You cannot have free and fair elections while one party controls completely and monopolizes the instrument of power and .. Tsvangirai is in and out of police cells almost on a daily basis, when people are being arrested, people are being beaten up.

I congratulate the outgoing Nigeria President Mr Goodluck Jonathan for his grace in conceding defeat.

Gone are the days when African leaders used to misrule their people and the rest of Africa was quiet under the guise of what was called non-interference.

You don't want to live in the past. Everything in life is in the future. You don't want to continue to be buried in the past.

You cannot forget the past but you can forgive it.

Since the Moi era, or 'error' as I call it, prime jobs have been stuffed with semi-literate Kalenjin herdsmen. I imagined that Mwai Kibaki would correct this but in fact he maintained many of them, and those he sent home were replaced by his kleptocratic tribesmen.

Sometimes people like to take risks.

Musalia [Mudavadi] has a much weaker character in person than [Musikari] Kombo, and you know the joke about humble Luhya servants as cooks and watchmen...Anyway, jokes aside, Luhya disunity is a blessing for us and I would never have wanted it any other way.

The mediocrity with which Africa has been ruled is responsible for its underdevelopment.

Had the Luhyas united, my plans would have been impossible to fulfil .

It is a big embarrassment that a leader can say on the eve of an election that he cannot hand over power to an opponent, that he can only hand over power to a member of his political party.

I think it is its time for the leaders of Africa to say to President Mugabe that the people of Zimbabwe's deserve a free and fair election.

In the US after the Great Depression, they invested heavily in infrastructure to create a lot of employment. In Germany after the war there was the Marshall plan for roads, rail, housing, energy, water and so on. That created massive employment after the devastation of the war and helped them to rebuild the country.

It is my view that it is a big embarrassment for Africa . It is hypocritical for African leaders to talk about democracy and human rights and to be silent when these things are happening in Zimbabwe .

If someone like Musalia [Mudavadi ] ruled Kenya, he would not be able to effect the radical changes I talk about.

The Vision 2030 is aimed at transforming Kenya from a struggling third-world economy into a second world economy - We do believe that it is a realizable objective; we don't believe that it is utopia. We know that it has been done in some.

My view is that the time has come for the international community to act on Zimbabwe in the way that it did in Bosnia. I do not think that we are going to get free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.

I will not interfere with the courts at all. For now,[William] Ruto is a political necessity, but you know in politics we do have blind loyalties and if we are to win this battle, we have to use all options available.

The matter of bringing in corrupt leaders was started by [Mwai ] Kibaki, and in truth, do not be surprised if you find that the likes of William Ruto find themselves behind bars after the elections, because he has cases pending against him.

The changes I envisage and that I have promised to address within my first 90 days in office are; Dismantling the cabals of tribalism that are choking our country and resulting in runaway corruption and frustration for the people of Kenya.

We cannot build county councils based on one single constituency. It doesn't make sense because it does not have a sufficient revenue base to be able to provide the services that county councils are required to provide.

The economy is best revived through heavy investment in infrastructure.

What has happened in the past is a lot of good policies have been developed on paper, but you find they are not implemented. So there is a disconnect between rhetoric and practice.

With Uhuru [Kenyatta] running against [Mwai] Kibaki, the Kikuyus will be divided for sure.