Sasha Mbote, a businesswoman who snapped a photo with ODM leader Raila Odinga in 2017, has spoken out about how the photograph damaged her life in Zanzibar.
Sasha was speaking with YouTube video producer Lynn Ngugi during an interview in which she described how the two met in the Park Hyatt Hotel in Zanzibar.
The hotelier and spa owner returned to the hotel after a long day at work, where she observed Odinga and approached him.
“I screamed Oh my God! Baba! He stood up and shook my hand and he introduced me to his people. I told him my parents will not believe that I met you, can I please take a picture with you?”
“Jimi Wanjigi said bring your phone, he is your Baba, Baba wa Kenya. I brought my phone and he took the pictures. Baba asked where I was sitting and he told me to join them,” Sasha recalled.
She went on to say that Odinga’s security told her not to post the images till he was out of the country.
She went on a 700-kilometer trip to Arusha after sharing the images on social media.
When she turned on her phone, the torrent of texts rendered it inoperable for a moment.
The images were distributed by Kenyan media outlets, claiming that Odinga had been seen with a masseuse in Zanzibar, stoking rumors that she was the former Prime Minister’s side chick.
“I always tell people this, if my mother and father doubted my dignity, I would have killed myself. As much as I was putting up a face, I was broken inside,” she said.
Due to threats that she had been hired by Odinga’s competitors to smear his image, the hotelier was afraid to return to the country.
Sasha was also wanted in Zanzibar, where she was accused of insulting indigenous traditions and ideas.
