Raila Junior, the son of opposition chief Raila Odinga, came out guns blazing and lashed out at The Standard newspaper over the publication's story on his father and President Uhuru Kenyatta.
On Tuesday, October 15, he blasted the daily for alleging that the handshake between the two statesmen had silenced critics of the government and made Kenyatta's administration untamable.
"Yesterdays’ critics have become today’s cheerleaders as the March 9, 2018 handshake blurs political lines – almost turning the House into a one-party chamber where government business is railroaded without opposition," The Standard reported.
The story irked Raila Junior who defended his father by stating that the handshake had created more benefits since its onset.
"Blaming economy woes on the handshake is preposterous. Our economy has not been doing well from way before, so is the unemployment rate. Economic solutions have to be sought beyond scapegoating," Odinga's lastborn retorted through a tweet.
According to The Standard, Kenyatta and Odinga were in bed and this was evident when MPs voted to raise the debt ceiling to Ksh9 trillion from Ksh6 trillion.
"With the opposition in Parliament virtually non-existent, and the civil society neutered to the bones, the public is on its own," the daily argued that Kenyans had no one to defend them anymore.
The newspaper's war with the Odinga family has waged on overtime. Eyebrows were raised on Monday morning, October 14, after the publication was forced to pull down its top story, hours to the paper's circulation.
The Standard had published a story that brought to light a court battle involving Odinga's wife and her late son Fidel Odinga's multi-million shilling property.
On Friday, September 27, Raila Junior also jumped to his mother's defence after a netizen attacked her. Ida was tagged in a fiery tweet arguing that her presence at a Bondo event was unwarranted.
