Oketch Salah (left) and Raila Odinga (right) in a past photo.
Political strategist Pauline Njoroge has publicly questioned businessman Oketch Salah’s claims of a close relationship with the late ODM leader Raila Odinga, intensifying an ongoing public exchange sparked by remarks from Winnie Odinga.
The debate began after Winnie Odinga, speaking during a Citizen TV interview on Tuesday, cast doubt on Salah’s repeated assertions that he was a close associate of her father.
While acknowledging that she had met Salah before, Winnie suggested that his continued public claims warranted scrutiny, remarking that he should be “taken to Mathare or DCI headquarters” to explain himself.
Salah later issued a response on social media, saying he chose silence out of respect for Raila Odinga’s widow, Mama Ida Odinga.
However, he insisted that his account of spending Raila’s final moments with him was genuine.
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“Those moments were real, painful and lived,” Salah said, adding that he would address the matter further in an upcoming interview.
Pauline Njoroge, a known political commentator, weighed in by questioning the timeline and depth of Salah’s alleged association with Raila.
In a pointed post, Njoroge asked whether anyone could produce photographs of Salah with Raila dating back more than a year.
She argued that Salah appeared briefly in Raila Odinga’s inner circle, built a visible public association, and is now leveraging that proximity to gain political capital.
Njoroge questioned why what she described as a short window of access is being repackaged as long-standing family and political closeness, at times appearing to suggest greater intimacy than that of Raila’s own children.
"Does anyone have a photo of Oketch Salah with Baba that is more than a year old? Who is this guy really, and why is such a short window of access now being repackaged as long-standing family and political closeness, almost claiming more closeness to Baba than his own children? What’s the motive?" Pauline Njoroge stated.