Cabinet Secretary for Defence Aden Duale has cleared the air over General Francis Ogolla's involvement in the election exercise at the Bomas of Kenya on August 15, 2022.
Before he was appointed Chief of Defense Forces, President William Ruto said he sanctioned the appointment despite Ogolla's presence at Bomas.
During his military memorial service at Ulinzi Sports Complex, Raila Odinga defended General Ogolla over claims of any involvement at the presidential election tallying centre.
Duale opened up about the conversations he had with the late CDF over his presence at Bomas and explained how the general found himself there despite not being a member of the National Security Committee.
"The Prime Minister yesterday made a statement, and I want to qualify that statement because General Ogolla was close to me, particularly when he was the Vice Chief of Defense Forces.
"When the whole issue of Bomas on August 15 was hanging over his head, he told me and the family that he even lost weight because that thing was disturbing him.
"As Vice CDF, he was not a member of the National Security Committee. So how did General Ogoola go to the NSAC and to Bomas? He shared with me text messages from his superiors and members of the National Security Committee then," Duale told the mourners in Ng'iya Village, where General Ogolla will be laid to rest.
According to the Defence CS, Duale revealed that Ogolla went to Bomas reluctantly after he was instructed to do so.
"When he went to NSAC, he was given instructions to go to Bomas, and as a respectable soldier, he asked and sent a text message to his bosses and asked, 'What am I going to do in Boma?'
"He was told, 'It has been decided, you go'. I am narrating what he told me.
"Some of the people who sent him to Bomas are here; they are known and are members. Let us not create a false narrative about General Ogolla," he added.
Before his elevation to the CDF post, Duale said he had a conversation with General Ogolla just as he did with President William Ruto.
"When the president yesterday said he had one-on-one discussions with General Ogolla, he gave me permission to have one-on-one discussions with General Ogolla on a Monday from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in my house.
"When he convinced me, he got an opportunity to talk to the president and relay that statement," the former Garissa Town Member of Parliament continued.
President's order
To avoid such circumstances as were witnessed in Bomas happening in the future, Duale revealed the measures the president has put in place.
"For it not to happen again, the president has directed that members of the NSAC; the IG, the DG NIS, the Head of Public Service, PS Interior, PS Defense, CDF, PS Foreign Affairs, PS Treasury, and the Solicitor General, can never again delegate the attendance of that membership to their juniors.
"Because tomorrow, another member of the NSAC will commit the same crime. So Raila Odinga was very right, and I came today to qualify his statement that General Ogolla would not have gone to Bomas," he concluded.
