NASA Leader Raila Odinga Shamed by London Magazine

National Super Alliance (NASA) leader Raila Odinga has been blasted by The Economist, a weekly magazine-format newspaper in London.

The newspaper ran an article on Wednesday,  Raila Odinga takes a gamble by threatening to boycott Kenya’s electionthat sought to examine Kenya's political state after the withdrawal of Odinga from the October 26 fresh election.

The writer stated that it was evident the NASA leader did not plan to contest the election and was running a 'bare-bones' campaign.

"It had already been clear for several weeks that Mr Odinga did not plan to contest the election.

"His coalition of parties, the National Super Alliance (NASA), had been running a bare-bones campaign," read the article in part.

[caption caption="Raila Odinga"][/caption]

It further alleged that Odinga's trip to Britain was to drum up support for his withdrawal from the international community.

"The candidate himself had made plans to travel to Britain and possibly America two weeks before the vote—prime campaigning time—presumably to drum up international support for his withdrawal," it read.

The article went ahead to analyse Odinga's move to withdraw from the election indicating he probably thought the whole process would be halted and a fresh nomination exercise ordered.

"Yet the announcement still contained a surprise. This is because instead of proposing a straightforward boycott, Mr Odinga seems to be hoping that by standing down he will force the courts to halt the election altogether and order a new one in the future after the parties have nominated new candidates.

"By walking away, Mr Odinga seems to be gambling on his ability to threaten chaos to push President Uhuru Kenyatta to negotiate but the trouble with that strategy is that Mr Odinga is running out of money.

[caption caption="NASA Leader Raila Odinga"][/caption]

The writer also warns Odinga that his supporters may grow tired of going to the streets every week and may eventually stop the protests. 

"Although protests occasionally gum up the centre of Nairobi, even his most partisan supporters will not stay on the streets indefinitely.

The worst outcome, for Mr Odinga and Kenya, is that his bluff is called and the election goes ahead without him," read the piece.