Kochi, Feb 12 (IANS): Raila Odinga, the former Kenyan Prime Minister and a likely presidential candidate in the forthcoming Kenyan elections, who was in Kerala with his family for his daughter's ayurvedic eye treatment, said he will request Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting with him in Delhi on his way back home, to help spread ayurvedic eye care across the world which helped his daughter regain eyesight.

He was speaking at a function hosted in his honour on his departure from Nelliakkattu Mana in Ernakulam district, after meeting promoters of Sreedhareeyam Ayurvedic Eye Hospital & Research Centre, where his daughter is undergoing treatment for her eye illness.

He also said if he were to be the President of Kenya, one of his priorities would be to set up a Sreedhareeyam Eye Hospital in Nairobi.

He turned emotional when he explained the ordeals through which his daughter underwent at various cities of the world for her treatment with no results.

Rosemary Odinga, his daughter, said when she came for the first time to Koothattukulam in 2019 for treatment, her eyesight was almost nil.

"Now I can even read the messages I receive on my phone and me and my family are indebted to Sreedhareeyam for it," she said.

Odinga lost her eyesight due to a tumor in 2017 and the family sought a cure for it in countries including South Africa, Germany, Israel and China.

They came to Sreedhareeyam for the first time in 2019 when they heard about its ayurvedic eye care facilities and started treatments under Narayanan Namboodiri, Chief Physician, Sreedhareeyam and his team.

Within four months, she regained her eyesight and had gone back to Kenya. Now, she visited Koothattukulam again with her family to thank Sreedhareeyam and for follow up treatments.

The family came here on February 7, 2022 and stayed here for 5 days and while the former PM has left for Delhi his daughter will stay back at Sreedhareeyam for treatment till Feb 28.