How quickly things change, especially in Kenya’s political landscape.
Barely seven months after insulting President Kenyatta, embattled Paul Ongili alias Babu Owino has clearly changed his art of war in order to save his fledgling political career.
In the spirit of national reconciliation, the Embakasi East MP on Wednesday heeded to the President’s calls for leaders to join him in owning up to the mistakes they made during last year’s electioneering period that left the country polarised and deeply divided along political and ethnic lines.
Owino, whose political career is on the line after his election was nullified by the High Court, reached out to the President during his State of the Nation address.
After Uhuru said; “let us shake hands…”, Babu Owino walked to the podium, shook hands with President Kenyatta and in a rare show even bowed before the man he called ‘mtoto wa mbwa’ last September.
Asked about the highlight moment during the State of the Nation Address, Babu said; “He (President Kenyatta) extended his hand towards where I was seated and I told myself, this is the opportunity to reconcile our differences. Our differences were ideological never personal.”
He was also full of praise for the President. When asked to rate the President’s State of the Nation Address out of 10 he said “I will give him a 10.”
That was not all. Outside Parliament, they shook hands again in what Babu described as a “golden handshake between the current president and the future president.”
Here’s how that went down.
