Renowned Professor Peter Kagwaja has confessed to leading the strategy team that was mandated with crafting anti-Raila Odinga campaign messages in the run up to the 2013 General Election.
During an interview with a local TV station on Tuesday, October 26, the political analyst stated that he was the brainchild behind the demonising messages that were popularised among voters in the Mt Kenya region.
Kagwaja explained that the then Jubilee Alliance was in need of a boogieman to win the elections, stating that the succession of former President Mwai Kibaki was vital for the region.
"Our past was not good. We defeated Raila Odinga on the basis of negative politics. Him playing negative politics and UhuRuto playing negative politics. Basically polarizing the country. They were just building a bad legacy."
"If there are people who are guilty as charged, ask Kiraitu Murungi and me (Kagwanja). I was the one who was the strategist for this,” he revealed.
In addition, Kagwanja disclosed that he conceptualized names that were labeled to the former Prime Minister, further stating that they directed politicians to make the statements in the rallies.
"We invented those names. We may not have uttered them ourselves, but we ensured that they were uttered," he divulged.
However, the strategist distanced the President from the team's activities, stating that the Head of State had no issue with Raila's candidacy.
"It is not Uhuru Kenyatta who invented the insults for Raila. Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila were very good buddies, you can remember that from the 2005 referendum," he stated.
The political analysts also went ahead to express his remorse adding that the duo (Kiraitu and Kagwaja) apologised to Raila after the handshake between the ODM leader and the President in 2018.
"We needed the devil to win those elections and we have told Raila Odinga that we are sorry and he has forgiven us. He did forgive Kiraitu Murungi," he stated.
In a separate event on September 2, Meru Governor, Kiraitu Murungi, publicly apologized to Raila revealing that he was part of a team that had crafted a strategy to demonise the ODM leader in the Mt Kenya region in past elections.
“In order for us to retain our presidency in the General Election of 2007 during Kibaki’s campaign and 2017 during President Uhuru's candidature, we came up with some fictitious narratives that damaged Raila’s reputation in the region,” narrated the Governor.
