Speaking during an interview with a local radio station on Sunday, March 29, Mwangi, who served as one of Raila’s long-time legal advisors, said the veteran opposition leader’s actions after the 2022 General Election suggested he was stepping away from active presidential politics.
Mwangi explained that throughout the years he worked closely with Raila, he had come to understand certain patterns that typically emerged whenever the ODM leader lost an election. According to him, Raila would often begin strategising early for the next political contest.
However, after the 2022 presidential election, Mwangi observed that the former Prime Minister behaved differently compared to previous election cycles.
“After the last election he behaved in a way that suggested he would not run again. There are things you would expect him to start doing or saying if he was preparing for another presidential run, but he did not,” Mwangi explained.
The lawyer said Raila usually began planning for future elections almost immediately after losing previous contests, often by strengthening political alliances and energising his supporters across the country.
But after the 2022 elections, Mwangi said those familiar political moves were largely absent.
He added that Raila also became noticeably less aggressive in political mobilisation compared to previous years, which further reinforced the belief among some of his close allies that he had no plans to seek the presidency again.
Mwangi also pointed to Raila’s evolving relationship with President William Ruto as another signal that the former Prime Minister might not have been preparing for another political contest against the current administration.
According to Mwangi, Raila was not known for building close political relationships with leaders only to turn around and fiercely challenge them shortly afterward.
“The way he was opening up to President Ruto and the kind of conversations they were having did not suggest that he intended to fight him politically in the next election,” Mwangi noted.
As Raila’s legal advisor, Mwangi also revealed that whenever the veteran politician intended to run for office, he would usually instruct his legal team to begin preparing documents related to political coalitions and campaign structures.
This time, however, Mwangi said such instructions never came.
“In the past he would tell us to prepare coalition names or legal frameworks for alliances. After 2022, that never happened,” he said.
Mwangi further observed that Raila had historically kept his supporters politically engaged even after electoral defeats through various national initiatives.
For instance, after the 2013 elections, Raila spearheaded the Okoa Kenya campaign aimed at mobilising citizens around governance reforms. Later, he backed the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) following the 2017 elections.
But after the 2022 contest, Mwangi said there was no similar large-scale political programme initiated to re-energise his support base.
“These were the signals that suggested he was thinking about the future differently,” Mwangi said.
The remarks have since sparked fresh discussion about Raila’s political plans in the years following the 2022 elections and the direction he may have intended to take had he remained active in national politics.
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