Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has refuted claims suggesting that the late Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), General Francis Ogolla, was involved in efforts to overturn President William Ruto’s victory in the August 2022 polls.
In 2023, President Ruto alleged during a joint media interview at State House in Nairobi that General Ogolla had attempted to overturn his presidential victory. However, during General Ogolla’s burial ceremony at Obama K’Ogello Primary School in Ngi’ya, Siaya County, Duale supported former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s remarks on Saturday, asserting that Ogolla was a man of integrity who would not interfere with election results.
The Defence Minister recounted how Ogolla was reluctantly sent to the national tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi on August 15, 2022, by unidentified individuals. He noted that General Ogolla had questioned why he needed to be at Bomas since he was not a member of the National Security Advisory Committee (NSAC).
“General Ogolla went to NSAC and Bomas, he shared text messages with me… one read “Go and represent me at NSAC because of prior commitments… When he went to NSAC, the directions General Ogolla was given with other colleagues was to go to Bomas, and as a reputable soldier, the General asked and sent a text message to his bosses and asked, what am I going to do in Bomas and this has happened?”
“I had a discussion with him from 7 pm to 9:30 pm in my house. His security and driver can confirm. When he convinced me is when he got an opportunity to relay and talk to the president those three messages at the end of the discussion,” Duale said.
“Raila Odinga was very right and I came today to qualify his statement, that General Ogolla, a man he knows, would not have gone to Bomas. Some of the people who sent him there are here. Let us not create a false narrative about General Ogolla.”
