I’ve no apologies for kicking out Raila, says trader

The hotelier who kicked ODM presidential hopeful Raila Odinga out of her premises has no apologies to make over the incident.

Ms Lucy Weru, the proprietor of Karatina Tourist Hotel, instead asked Mr Odinga to apologise to her for “storming her hotel and inconveniencing other guests.”

“I urge Mr Odinga to apologise to me because he inconvenienced my guests by storming into my hotel and turning it into a stadium without notice,” said the mother of eight.

Ms Weru claimed that the ODM team had not informed the hotel management they would have lunch there. “I was called by one of my workers who informed me that a group of about 60 people including Mr Odinga had checked in and turned the hotel into a conference room. I felt so bad when I found Raila addressing a crowd inside the hotel and I decided to chase them away.”

Ms Weru who described herself as a respectable old lady who deserves respect from Kenyans, accused some people of condemning her “yet they have not established the truth about the matter.”

“I am not involved in the day to day running of the hotel, and those criticising me without facts should shut up.”

The trader whose daughter is married to President Kibaki’s son, said the drama would not affect the Head of State’s campaigns for a second term.

Misguided beliefs

“President Kibaki does not even know who owns this hotel so there is nothing to affect his campaigns,” she said 

However, Mr Odinga yesterday said he had forgiven her. He distanced the President from the ejection though he was the hotelier’s relative.

“In the spirit of brotherhood in our nation, I have completely forgiven Ms Weru for her misguided beliefs and actions,” Mr Odinga said.

The Lang’ata MP said they were directed into the establishment by one of the managers, before they took their seats and “felt very much at home.” 

“Suddenly, a lady whom I now know to be Ms Lucy Weru, mother-in-law of President Kibaki’s son David, and the new owner of the establishment, entered the room and loudly demanded to be told who had allowed these strangers into her establishment,” Mr Odinga said.

“It was clear that she had been told I was there. She was extremely rude and I pleaded with he but she refused to listen and began to shout hysterically,” he said at Nairobi’s Serena Hotel.

The MP noted that the Karatina hotel was a public establishment and termed the move primitive, reminiscent of the colonial era and racism in US and South Africa’s apartheid.

Although the management reserves the right to admission, he said “we had already been admitted and in fact been directed to our seats by one of the managers.”

He said if they were not admissible, they should have been repulsed at the gate.

“The whole scene was frighteningly reminiscent to me of the colonial days, when Whites Only and Africans and Dogs Not Admitted notices adorned the door ways of many establishments,” he added.

And like Martin Luther King who dreamt that one day America would wake up and realise all men were equal, the MP he said he, too, dreamt of the day when Kenyans will no longer judge their countrymen on the basis of ethnicity.

New spirit

“May the spirit of Waiyaki wa Hinga, Harry Thuku, Dedan Kimathi and JM Kariuki descend upon those ethnic chauvinists who have not yet seen the light, and liberate them from their negative ethnicity, and imbue them with a new spirit of nationhood,” he said.

Mr Odinga said he used to visit the hotel whenever he was in the town and was unaware it had changed hands from his friend, Mr Peter Kuguru.

He noted that their ejection, though a storm in tea cup, had caused tension in most parts of the country and appealed for calm. Such incidents, he said, should not be repeated because only a minority of Kenyans were tribal chauvinists. 

The MP said the ejection would not hinder his campaigns in Central Kenya.