KENSOM (KENYA SOMALI CONSORTIUM)

RAILA DAY FOR STATE HOUSE

SPECIAL EDITION: KENYA ELECTIONS: ODM's march to the STATE HOUSE

The Orange Democratic Movement Pentagon stood witness to the dignified turnout of the multitude that supports the party’s bid for State House. In a bus dubbed the Pentagon, a tribute to the bond that binds its top five leaders, including the deputy captain Mr Musalia Mudavadi, they arrived to an ecstatic reception at Uhuru Park, Nairobi.

Mudavadi had, two days earlier, referred to the rally as ‘The Thunder.’ It lived up to its billing with passionate speeches that attracted thunderous applause.

The turn out compared well to the solemn occasion on December 30, 2002, when President Kibaki, who was addressing a rally in Nakuru’s Afraha Stadium, took the oath of office.
The word on every lip then was Rainbow, for that was the catchword for the National Rainbow Coalition that whitewashed Kanu.

On Sunday, it was Orange. Images of whole orange, ODM’s symbol, stood out on shirts, posters, cars, walls and placards.

Ecstasy reigned. The electrifying mood soared when Mr Raila Odinga, the star of the day, and his wife Ida, were referred to as the incoming First Family, and separately as the President-in-waiting, and the First Lady-to-be.