Mombasa businessman cum politician Suleiman Shahbal has come out to defend his handshake with ODM party leader Raila Odinga.
This is after a photo of him shaking hands with Odinga after hosting him for dinner last night in Mombasa went viral.
"It was a pleasure to host Odinga for dinner at Kilua, Mombasa County. We discussed matters of national issues, BBI, the referendum and the way forward for Mombasa County. An interesting evening," posted Shahbal.
The post received backlash from Kenyans who have since been avoiding handshakes following the government's guidelines on preventing the spread of Coronavirus (Covid-19).
Shahbal was forced to respond.
Through his facebook page Shahbal said he had forgotten about the guidelines but Odinga later reminded him.
"The leg-shake between Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and I was done in good humour to send an important message on Covid-19. However, the handshake with Odinga shows that life long habits can't be broken overnight; We're all human and forget at times. Baba immediately told me "no more handshakes!" posted Shahbal
On Saturday, Shahbal met Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and they did a leg shake and not handshake.
Shahbal vied for the Mombasa gubernatorial post in the last election but lost to Joho.
