By NATION AFRICA

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National Super Alliance presidential flagbearer Raila Odinga has renewed his calls to voters to abstain from sex on the eve of the General Election.

Mr Odinga has likened the election to a war, saying sex before the day warriors go to battle is a bad omen that could result in defeat.

ABSTAIN

“We are going into a war and we must fully conserve our energies before the day of battle which is August 8,” he said in Homa Bay, in western Kenya, on Monday.

“None of us should have sex on the eve of the polls.”

He especially asked men to abstain from sex, saying it would result in some of them failing to vote on August 8.

Women, he said, should not consent to lovemaking with their husbands on the night of August 7.

“All women should deny their husbands conjugal rights on the eve of voting,” he said.

VIGILANCE

“This will ensure that we wake up early to vote and remain vigilant throughout the day until the results are tallied and announced.”

It was not the first time the Orange Democratic Movement leader was discouraging sex at polls.

During the official launch of Nasa campaigns in Kakamega, also in western Kenya, on June 3, Mr Odinga told his supporters to wait until the results of the poll are announced to enjoy celebratory sex.

“Dear ladies, tell your men to hold their horses until after the election and then you can have sex to celebrate our victory,” he said to the amusement of the crowd.

DISTRACTION

He also made a similar call during a June 23 campaign tour of in Bungoma County in western Kenya.

In Homa Bay, Mr Odinga said August 7 and August 8 are days men should not sleep in their beds.

“Young men will sleep outside the house. When the day comes, no man should sleep with a woman,” he told the crowd in Dholuo.

He urged his supporters to wake up early and desist from activities likely to distract them from voting.

MISHI MBOKO

"If he moves closer to you, don't even look at him. Tell him we have a war to fight. Let us have intercourse after we get the presidency," he said in his mother tongue.

Mr Odinga is not the first politician to discourage sex on election day.

During mass voter registration in January, Mombasa Women Representative Mishi Mboko declared sex boycott in opposition strongholds.

Speaking at Jomo Kenyatta showground in Mkomani, in the coastal region, Ms Mboko said sex was a powerful weapon to make reluctant men rush to register as voters.

"As women who are committed Nasa supporters, this is the strategy you should adopt,” Ms Mboko was quoted as saying on January 17.

WEAPON

“It is the best since quick and effective results are guaranteed. Deny them sex until they show you their voter's card.”

She, however, excluded her husband of the sex ban as he had already registered as a voter.

"My husband already knows his patriotic duty as a citizen determined to effect change through the election and has already registered to vote. He will be spared the boycott," she said.

If the opposition is to oust ruling Jubilee from power, Ms Mboko said, some sacrifices had to be made.

“I’m sure many (men) will go and register as they cannot survive without it.”