The Trip to DC was an quick After thought to save face after Dec 12 Rally aborted. No doubt he knew about this conference months back. The parallel rally had not been thought out. Perhaps when his co-leaders thought it out last minute, they decide that it was not a wise idea. Raila the flag bearer was going bear the brunt of the fiasco. It was a good excuse though. He came out of the mess gracefully - Joe Biden invited me! Let's see where he picks up from when he returns...that was just a punctuation, same as the now delayed/stale promised trip to Canaan or the paused "nobody can stop Reggae".