{"id":9940,"date":"2026-01-07T19:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T19:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/9940\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T19:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T19:54:10","slug":"we-saw-the-hand-of-friendship-ida-odingas-special-gratitude-to-ruto-global-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/9940\/","title":{"rendered":"We saw the hand of friendship! Ida Odinga’s special gratitude to Ruto, global leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mama Ida Odinga at her Karen home on January 7, 2026\/EZEKIEL AMING’A<\/p>\n

Mama Ida Odinga has expressed special gratitude to President
\nWilliam Ruto and the government for the support extended to her
\nfamily during the \u201cdifficult\u201d period of bereavement after the
\ndeath of Raila Odinga.<\/p>\n

Ida said the gesture demonstrated goodwill and national unity at a
\ntime of mourning.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the family\u2019s Karen home when a delegation of ODM and
\nUDA leaders paid her a courtesy call, Ida thanked Ruto for what she
\ndescribed as decisive and compassionate leadership that enabled the
\nsmooth repatriation and burial of her husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish to sincerely thank President William Ruto and the entire government that he
\nmobilised and deployed in service to our family. On that day, Mr
\nPresident, we truly saw the hand of friendship,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ida noted that the government\u2019s swift action made it possible to
\ntransfer the body from India to Kenya within record time, allowing
\nburial arrangements to be concluded in accordance with his wishes and
\ncultural timelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt the positive way of government at your direction and we
\nare grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also extended appreciation to India\u2019s Prime Minister
\nNarendra Modi, for what she termed personal and executive
\nintervention that ensured the repatriation process was handled with
\ndignity and respect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply grateful to our friend, the Right Honourable
\nNarendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, whose personal support
\nensured that his friend was accorded the respect he deserved,\u201d she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n

Ida further acknowledged the solidarity shown by several African
\nand regional leaders, including retired President Uhuru Kenyatta,
\nformer Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Ghanaian President Nana
\nAkufo-Addo, former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, and African
\nDevelopment Bank President Akinwumi Adesina.<\/p>\n

She also paid tribute to the medical team that attended to the
\nfamily during the period, describing their service as dedicated and
\ncompassionate.<\/p>\n

The remarks were made as political leaders from across the divide
\njoined the Odinga family to celebrate Raila\u2019s 81st birthday, an
\noccasion that was marked with reflection, prayer and thanksgiving
\namid the recent loss.<\/p>\n

Ida further extended appreciation of medical team that attended to
\nRaila locally and abroad including the hospitals where he was
\nadmitted to.<\/p>\n

She also had special mention to Raila\u2019s staff whop served him in
\nvarious capacities noting they were dedicated to him both in life and
\nin death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mama Ida Odinga at her Karen home on January 7, 2026\/EZEKIEL AMING’A Mama Ida Odinga has expressed special…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6984,80,5091,2204,1223,785,98,100,101,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-9940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kenya","8":"tag-ida","9":"tag-kenya","10":"tag-modi","11":"tag-odm","12":"tag-raila","13":"tag-ruto","14":"tag-star-news","15":"tag-star-news-kenya","16":"tag-the-star","17":"tag-the-star-newspaper"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}