Raila in US: Trump's administration has abandoned Kenya

Veteran politician Raila Odinga on Thursday questioned the commitment of the United States of America towards supporting democracy in developing countries, particularly Kenya.At the Center for strategic and International Studies, Odinga said the US’s has given the ongoing crisis a wide berth despite the opposition showing evidence of outright impunity by the government.“Among the other great setbacks in Kenya is the disappointing role of our partners. They were with us during the struggle for pluralism,” he said adding that US also offered help during the 2007 crisis.Having successfully petitioned nullification of Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory, Odinga boycotted repeat presidential polls on grounds that electoral body, IEBC was greatly dented.In his view, Odinga said, America through its envoys went on to give a clean bill of health for presidential repeat polls which the opposition had boycotted.“But US and other pro-democracy friends chose to avert their gaze from the unfolding electoral lawlessness, and continued against all the evidence to support a deeply tainted electoral process,” he said.Specifically, Odinga faulted US ambassador Robert Godec for giving October repeat poll a clean bill of health despite IEBC chairman confessing that he was unable to guarantee a free and fair poll.