{"id":914278,"date":"2022-01-07T12:52:03","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T12:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/news\/2022\/01\/07\/buried-the-hatchet-ruto-malala-send-birthday-wishes-to-raila\/"},"modified":"2022-01-07T12:52:03","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T12:52:03","slug":"buried-the-hatchet-ruto-malala-send-birthday-wishes-to-raila","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/01\/07\/buried-the-hatchet-ruto-malala-send-birthday-wishes-to-raila\/","title":{"rendered":"Buried the hatchet? Ruto, Malala send birthday wishes to Raila"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"art-img row mx-md-0\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/yrkpifqdcxi4761d81d9882fcb.jpg\" class=\"img-fluid w-100\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"bg-light mb-3 p-3 row mx-md-0\">\n<p><strong>DP William Ruto, ODM leader Raila Odinga and Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala.<\/strong> [File, Standard]\n<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"card-text\">Political rivalry took a back seat on Friday when Deputy President William Ruto and Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala sent birthday wishes to ODM leader Raila Odinga.\n<\/p>\n<p>Ruto took to his official Twitter account to wish his 2022 presidential race rival who turned 77 today a happy birthday. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHappy birthday <em>Jakom<\/em>. May you be blessed with many more,\u201d wrote the DP.\n<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"dhUJMXEYdxg\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Raila Odinga&#039;s FULL SPEECH in stories, history and Song as he celebrated his 77th birthday at BOMAS\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dhUJMXEYdxg?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Unlike in his political rallies where he refers to Raila as m<em>tu wa kitendawili<\/em> [a\u00a0man of riddles], Ruto addressed Raila as <em>Jakom<\/em>, a respectful title used among the Luo to informally refer to people who enjoy prominence in social, political or economic settings.\n<\/p>\n<p>Another notable birthday wish for Raila was from Senator Malala\u00a0hot on the heels of their recent war of words.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHappy birthday former Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. May this day give you joy as you grow towards a more united, prosperous and peaceful Kenya,\u201d Malala wrote. <\/p>\n<p>Senator Malala had attracted the ire of Raila\u00a0after he threatened to block Bukhungu II rally in Kakamega over the organiser&#8217;s failure\u00a0to seek permission from ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi.\n<\/p>\n<p>Malala had claimed that\u00a0Kakamega County was an ANC zone and told the Bukhungu II conveners to hold the rally in either Kisumu or Siaya.\n<\/p>\n<p>Raila, however, hit back at Malala during the event, saying he [the senator] could not stop him from going or holding an event anywhere in the Western region.\n<\/p>\n<p>Raila added that he was \u201cmore Luhya\u201d than Malala and claimed that the senator\u2019s grandfather was a native of\u00a0Ugenya in Siaya County.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis grandfather was buried in Ugenya, Siaya County, while my grandfather is buried in Matungu, Kakamega, I am a Kenyan and the only Nabongo remaining,\u201d said Raila amid cheers from the crowd. <\/p>\n<p>Kirinyaga Woman Representative Wangui Ngirici was the first politician to wish Raila a happy birthday on Thursday, a day before his 77th birthday.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHappy 77th birthday,<em> jakom<\/em>,\u201d stated\u00a0Ngirici.\n<\/p>\n<p>Ngirici\u2019s wish was, however, treated as a political a message having recently ditched Ruto\u2019s UDA party citing betrayal\u00a0of her commitment to the party and favouritism towards\u00a0her opponent, Governor Anne Waiguru.\n<\/p>\n<p>Former Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama also wished the ODM leader happy birthday.\n<\/p>\n<p>Muthama, a former Raila ally who ditched NASA for UDA posted a picture of him with the ODM leader and wished him a happy birthday.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHappy Birthday<em> Jakom<\/em>. The Hustler Nation wishes you good health as you celebrate your special day,\u201d Muthama wrote on his Twitter.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.standardmedia.co.ke\/politics\/article\/2001433719\/buried-the-hatchet-ruto-malala-send-birthday-wishes-to-raila\">Source: The Standard Media Kenya<\/a> <a \"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DP William Ruto, ODM leader Raila Odinga and Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala. [File, Standard] Political rivalry took a back seat on Friday when Deputy President William Ruto and Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala sent birthday wishes to ODM leader Raila Odinga. Ruto took to his official Twitter account to wish his 2022 presidential race rival who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-914278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}