RAILA ODINGA: An enigma in Kenyan politics
Book Review by Oseloka Obaze, September 23, 2006
Badejo writes with the ease of an academic and the verve of an African minstrel versed in traditional storytelling.
Conventional wisdom has it that an apple never falls too far for its tree. So, too, is the fate of those who enjoy great renown and historical pedigrees by virtue of their lineage and heritage. Raila Amolo Odinga, the veritable subject of Babafemi Babdejo’s book, Raila Odinga: An enigma in Kenyan politics is no less the proverbial apple.
Raila is the son of Honorable Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, a Kenyan nationalist, political icon, and its first Vice president on attaining independence. Like father like son, it is hardly surprising that Raila followed his father’s footsteps by immersing himself fully into the rabble-rousing and sometimes, raucous Kenyan partisan politics.
In this biography of a modern Kenyan politician, Badejo has illuminated vagaries that drive partisan politics in Africa by tying together, the unique life of one man, that of the Kenyan nation and the diverse lives of his varied interlocutors and compatriots. Raila is compulsively human, but in the context of his political undertakings and career, of which we may not have seen the denouement, his adjectival qualification as an enigma has intense and unquestionable merit and validity. Indeed, an insight into his persona and politics, qualifies anyone to cast him in those immortal words of Sir Winston Churchill: “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Another confirmation of Raila’s enigmatic bona fides can be drawn from those enlightening words of Franz Kafka, that “there are two cardinal sins from which all the others spring: impatience and laziness.” In this autobiography, one fact that comes across clearly, is that Raila Odinga is in every sense of the word an impatient man. On the converse, he is extremely far from being lazy.
Beyond the subject’s persona, Raila Odinga: An enigma in Kenyan politics is a book of introspection into critical facets of Kenyan politics and therefore, an introductory verse and great psychological insight to Kenyan ethnic groups, lore and traditional idiosyncrasies, all of which Raila personifies in different ways.
In order to present Raila Odinga creditably to his readers, Babafemi Badejo goes to his roots, x-raying and dissecting not just his persona and political credentials, but how these juxtapose with his tribal antecedents and heritage. As a scion of a key, but not politically dominant Luo tribe, the author presents in Raila Odinga, a picture of how tribalism drives partisan politics in Kenya – a phenomenon that is commonplace in Africa. What the book also reveals, is that political dichotomy is not so often ethnicity driven as it is personality driven. The subjugation of one’s tribe, as was the case with Odinga’s Luo tribe, was more often than not meant to stymie the probable challenge to the ruling political elite as well as their control of national resources and power. Invariably, imported ideology had its place too in the orchestration of such differences.
Badejo offers us a broad portrait with intense minutia of Odinga as a man defined by his history, ethnicity, and politics. His life was in many ways an epilogue to Kenya and Africa’s decolonization struggle into which he was born and for which, his father was a well-known pan-Africanist. He grew up in a nation that mirrored other African countries in several ways. Kenyan politics offered a clear symmetry to those of other African countries. Just as Nigeria had its Lord Luggard, Kenya had his Lord Delamare. Just as many countries of Africa fought political wars to gain independence, Kenya had its maquis –the Mau Mau movement, which clashed with the aims of colonial masters. And like many African nations, Kenya and its people were not spared from the East-West ideological divide and their respective demands for unfettered loyalty.
Badejo also highlights the ethnic imperative of partisan politics in Kenya, using various individuals as reference points. Similarities and differences among key pro-dependence politicians like Jomo Kenyatta, Tom Mboyo and Oginga Odinga, Raila’s father, seemed to have shaped, if not destined, the enigmatic persona that Raila assumed from childhood. The Catch-22 nature of Kenyan politics, the cross-carpeting, the making and unmaking of alliances and near absence of political loyalty were clearly fleshed out and captured in a nutshell by the observation that. “the assertion of ideological difference and personal leadership ambitions, accentuated the struggle between Tom Mboya and Oginga Odinga”
Whilst ethnicity did not always play itself out as tribalism, the undertones were always there and in many instances were made manifest. Raila, it seemed, was from the outset committed to setting such negative values aside. Nevertheless, he was a Luo, and “being a Luo was and still is, to have an identity”. As a person with pedigree and as a Luo, Raila’s personality “was an identity shaped by shared values born of a rich range of cultural practices and activities”. These salutary values also made him a markedly different and resilient politician – someone who “protested without fear”.
As one traverses this book, it becomes intensely obvious that the personality of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, especially his leadership traits and stubborn doggedness had impacted on the son. True to his Luo heritage, Raila mimicked his father in many respects. But he was also savvy in politics, inclined more towards what Nigeria’s elder statesman and politician Waziri Ibrahim, referred to as “politics without bitterness”. This trait was typically uncommon in African politics with its zero-sum-game tendencies. But it is even more revealing of the Raila enigma, when one considers that for all his father did towards Kenyan independence, which led to his becoming President Jomo Kenyatta‘s deputy, he was in the end sidelined, never to become President. This reality presents another symmetry albeit, one not presented in the book. Oginga Odinga’s nationalist role and eventually missing out on the big post closely resembles the fate that befell Chief Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria. So far, the same fate seems to have befallen Raila.
Beyond elucidating how ethnicity compelled or impeded individuals that were politically inclined, this book also shed light on the negative influence of ethnicity by illustrating its insidious nature when employed as a tool of intimidation and subjugation. Invariably, those who are in the minority politically or demographically bear the brunt. But more than anything else, the book laid bare the divisiveness of ethnicity in African politics where the concept of being in the opposition is tantamount to enmity. But there is also a salutary side to this: it was a combination of Kenyan political, cultural and ethnic realities that molded Raila into the enigma that he has become. But his family upbringing played a part too.
His tutelage under his father and others, meant that he was schooled early in life on the “tremendous organizing and mobilizing capacity of an astute politician.” He grew up to be assertive and courageous and particularly “impatient” like his father. From his mother, Mary Odinga, he drew certain strengths including his strong personality and gravitas. But what set him out as an enigma was that he seemed to be a bunch of contradictions given that he was very accommodating, but also an avowed non-conformist. This would explain why he would be very respectful and kind at home, but took exception to thanking his teachers for doing a job they were paid for.
Like most African countries, Kenya’s post-colonial and post-independence political environment was at best perfidious. Navigating it safely required deft abilities and adroitness. Raila has proven his mettles in this regard. Raila Odinga, for instance, is cast as being fixated on being a different brand of politician. This may be attributed to his having been sent off at the tender age of 16 to study in socialist East Germany, while in reality, having among his role models, the likes of Sir Winston Church, to whom he frequently compared himself, in a bid to validate some of his confounding and non-conformist political actions. Another fact that comes across clearly, is that as a child, Raila was positioned to learn from the successes and failings of older Kenyan politicians, his father included.
Hence, though Raila may not have set out to attain the personal objective of being an enigma, his claim to that distinction (which some see as dubious) has arisen from his political nimbleness and ability to dine with the proverbial devil and proactively engage his adversaries, even to the extent of forming alliances with them. Whether he did this for Raila or in the Luo or national interest remains open to study.
Raila Odinga’s critics readily contend that every one of his political acts is premised on Machiavellianism – and the end justifying the means doctrine. Many have noted how in 1992 he won a seat in parliament for the Lang’ata Constituency in Nairobi, as a candidate for FORD, only to abandon FORD in 1994 after his father’s death to assume a prominent leadership role in the National Development Party. Despite the political shift, he retained the Lang’ata Constituency seat and in the 1997 election, came in third in the presidential race. His critics find such deft political shiftiness rankling.
However, his critics fail to clarify, for instance, why Raila, who was instrumental to the ousting of President Arap Moi and the election of President Kibaki in 2002 and had supported a military coup against Moi’s government in 1982, would stay back in Kenya rather than go safely into exile. In making the latter hard choice, he languished in jail for a decade. Such a choice, surely is not expedient, nor an act of a coward politician averse to self-deprivation or inclined to self-preservation. They fail to acknowledge the courage it took and the fact that it showed commitment to Kenya’s wellbeing. Similarly, they refuse to contemplate the possibility that Raila may indeed be unique enough to rise above the fray of partisan politics, his Luo heritage notwithstanding.
If Badejo had set out to discover Raila Odinga, whom did he find? And what is it that makes Raila Odinga a certified enigma? In the book’s epilogue titled, “Who is Raila?” the various commentaries about him by his family and interlocutors affirm his bona fides as an enigma. Let’s contemplate these comments on Odinga:
He is not a thinker but makes friends around the world importing what has been done in other places without justification for Kenya … other than it had been done in Nigeria and South Africa.. ;
[Raila is] at once a personification of his family and community.. a psychosis and psychology forged by the Luo conviction that they are outsiders in the Kenyan State..;
[He] is a misunderstood individual.. a patriot and nationalist.
Paradoxically, it is the latter categorization that places Raila Odinga on the same pedestal with many of the world’s great thinkers and leaders as well as some great politicians of our times, from Albert Einstein to Bertrand Russell and from Kwame Nkrumah to Bill Clinton. In summary, as Davinda Lamba noted, “Raila is not unusual in Kenya”, nor indeed, in Africa and our globalized world.
Although self-preservation is the strongest human instinct, Raila has without doubt engaged in measures that may suggest that he threw caution to the winds. But some of these have been strategic political moves, which to some makes him suspect. Raila remains cognizant of these criticisms, and indeed responds to them. Conscious of the criticisms about being an opportunist and a carpet-crossing carpetbagger, he rebuts the view thus: “Although I have been criticized for changing political parties, I have maintained that at no time have we compromised our principles”. His use of the royal we is hardly incidental. Also in making this point, he draws a parallel between himself and Churchill, who once said: “I am what I have always been – A Tory Democrat. Force of circumstances has compelled me to serve with another party.”
As if to affirm his place and stand in history, Raila also validate his modus operandi with the Churchillian escapism, that: “Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; other change their principles for the sake of their party.” As Badejo documents for posterity, all of Raila’s political savvy has not made him immune to the vagaries of African and indeed Kenyan politics. Like his father, he too was stumped, when after helping President Kibaki come to office he was not rewarded commensurately, but dumped when Kibaki reneged on the quiet compact between them to assign him the Prime Minister portfolio. This reality was a harsh replay of what Jomo Kenyatta had done to Raila’s father, Oginga Odinga.
Badejo writes with the ease of an academic and the verve of an African minstrel versed in traditional storytelling. He captures with incisive precision, compassion and brutal candor, Raila’s whims, his near schizophrenic political persona and his human strengths, weaknesses and imperfections. In so doing he also unmasks character traits of the Kenyan political maquis. What Badejo also brings to the fore is that the bare-knuckle politics in which Raila has been immersed and has managed to survive, were by no means a measure of Kenya’s democratic credentials or its robustness. After all, former President Arap Moi had successfully reduced Kenya to a one-party state and as some would readily suggest, to being only a democracy in name.
This book is personal, historical, political — and if I dare say – sociological and anthropological. It is an eye-opening account and a visage into the hidden world of Kenyan politics, ethnicity, and public personalities. Also, it offers an insight and a riveting account of a man that has been dubbed an “intrepid politician.” Raila Odinga”s life and politics is still very much a work in progress. For now, he bestrides Kenyan politics like a bridge over troubled waters. Well anchored, his payday at the political helm in Kenya may yet come.
I have a theory about why MOST kikuyus demonize this GREAT man called AGWAMBO. I think it is because of how intelligent he is. They confuse his intelligence for cunning (which is a trait consistent with most kikuyus) so they fear him because he is from a different tribe. If he was a kikuyu he would be their Njamba. I need to make it clear that I am not luo, so my affinity for Raila is not based on his tribe (neither is my dislike for UK). My point in all this is that Kikuyus do not like Raila only because he is luo. There is no other trait in this man that deserves the wrath of their propaganda
Reasons Why Mudavadi’s Exit From ODM Will Be A Mistake On His Part and A Blessing For Raila and ODM
Samuel N. Omwenga, April 15, 2012
I first got wind of this “Mudavadi issue” back in August of last year when visiting with a friend in Nairobi, who had good reason to know what was afoot.
Following my return to the US, I posted a blog My Take On Prof. Makau Mutua Suggestion That Raila Should Drop Mudavadi in part because of what I learned from my friend and also in response to Prof. Makau Mutua who in his piece argued that Raila should drop Mudavadi and replace him with Paul Muite, a proposition I countered with the opposite view for the reasons on that blog.
In Why Raila Cannot Drop Mudavadi penned a shot time after that, I reiterated the case why Raila should not drop Mudavadi and did so in response to what was reported in the Standard headlined Raila Under Pressure To Drop Mudavadi.
I weighed in on the side of not dropping Mudavadi for reasons stated in the other blog referenced above.
Sometime after penning these blogs, I started smelling a rat and in Mudavadi Has No Good Reason To Challenge Raila For ODM Nomination, I made the case why Mudavadi should not challenge Raila for the nomination.
Following this post, a source very close to the the Raila campaign assured me not to worry about Mudavadi’s quest to challenge Raila and advised that I instead support the move, which I have cautiously done but the more I have done so, the more I continue to smell a rat.
Indeed, I had occasion to run into the DPM a couple or so months ago in the company of others and asked him if all was okay and he responded in the affirmative.
I am sure he knew exactly what I was asking him and that this was not a rhetorical question so I took his word for an answer.
Now I am at the point of being nauseated with increasing smelling of a rat.
According to the Standard and virtually every source I am talking to, Mudavadi is all but gone from ODM and will so announce on Saturday as the Standard reports.
Good and well.
In the Mudavadi Has No Good Reasons To Challenge Raila blog, I noted the following:
There is only one president who serves at a time, everyone must wait their turn no matter how long that takes.
The most important consideration every party member should look at and agree on is first, what does the party stand for and second, who is best qualified to lead the party in implementing those ideals.
Once that decision is made and the person to lead is selected, then out of loyalty, consistency, unity and continuity, it should be full throttle from everyone in the party until their leader is sworn into office as president.
That’s what ODM should do and if it does, all shall be fine in the end.
Otherwise, let those in disagreement speak now or never and if that means leaving the party, it’s better now than later if they have to be left with any credibility.
Such honesty and transparency is what is needed in all parties, rather than the scheming and conniving we are all too accustomed to at the expense of true democracy.
Were Mudavadi to leave, it will be obvious what he has been engaged in is nothing but usual scheming we have become so accustomed to hopefully not anymore to the extent the scheming is only intended to preserve or gain political power for the individual but nothing for the ordinary mwananchi or country at large.
It is with this in mind I have been prompted to think what Mudavadi’s exit means and have come to the conclusion his departure will be both a mistake on his part and a blessing in disguise for Raila and ODM for the following reasons:
Reasons why Mudavadi’s exit is a mistake:
1.He must now resign from the DPM position as well as seek reelection if the letter and spirit of the constitution means anything to him.
2.He will soon confirm what we have been saying all along that his quest to challenge Raila for the ODM nomination was not about “internal democracy;” far from it. Mudavadi is expecting nothing less than a coronation at New Ford Kenya or whatever party he ends up with and it’s a foregone conclusion he will be the flag-bearer for the party. Also, the manner in which he has staged managed his exit from ODM reveals a weakness in his leadership ability.
3.Having been resurrected by Raila and ODM, Mudavadi has successfully camouflaged his KANU ties many from the same era in ODM had long since broken and established their own new identity. He is now exposed again and no doubt Raila and ODM will remind Kenyans they rejected him before and he has not been fully indoctrinated to the reform agenda or otherwise fully freed himself of the KANU modus operandi.
4.Mudavadi has to establish a nationwide network of leading supporters who can have him survive Round I otherwise he will be cast and seen as a spoiler no different from Musyoka. It’s doubtful he would do the former.
5.He has a “Romeny problem” and that is he can easily be cast as someone born with a silver spoon in his mouth and with no sense of what ordinary people need. Compare that to Raila who notwithstanding his equally privileged background, he has proven he, in fact, does understand the needs of ordinary folks and has even made personal sacrifices so Kenyans can finally taste what we gained independence for. In fact, thanks to the battering and abuse he endures, most Kenyans see Raila as being one of them and may get quite a bit of sympathy votes from those who feel sorry for him because they, too, have been the victims of hate and vitriol. Mudavadi may get the he is a “non-polarizing” character but there are mountains to climb before getting to that easier part.
Why Mudavadi’s departure is a blessing:
1.Gives Raila free hand in picking a new VP running mate to balance the ticket better and rejuvenate the party.
2.Gives ODM the opportunity to focus on party building rather than managing infighting and wrangles related to the nomination process which will be a moot issue, if Mudavadi leaves.
3.Splits the opposition votes even more making it even that much easier for Raila to coast through Round I, if he doesn’t sweep it altogether.
4.Validates some of Raila’s supporter’s argument to-date that Mudavadi is a PNU/G7 project sent to spoil for Raila and ODm much the same way Musyoka did in 2007.
5.Has Raila breathing a sigh of relief knowing confident as he can be that he can beat Mudavadi anytime for the nomination under any rules, there is still that outside chance that a combination of luck and mischief could result in Mudavadi actually getting the nomination which for all practical purposes and intent will shut down the road to State House for Raila.
For all these reasons and more, Mudavadi will be wise to remain put in ODM and take whatever outcome awaits him there than walking away to a future of political uncertainty that awaits him elsewhere, if not walking into a future of political irrelevance altogether.
I certainly hope he does so otherwise waonane mbele na Raila and ODM kwa debe.
Gema gema mitakoni>Police ban Limuru 2B
I can’t help but wonder whether the government is using Nyayo tactics to suppress Limuru 2B in case it proves more popular than Limuru 2 of Uhuru and company. I am very suspicious of the Gema-influenced motivations of the Kibaki wing of the government. If this is an attempt to suppress a new, popular anti-Gema movement then the spirit of Limuru 2B will only increase in strength! They are scaring no one.
I would not be surprised if thugs are hired by Gema organizers to try to cause “chaos” so the government can have an excuse to clamp down on the Limuru 2B organizers. They would be very keen to prevent a meeting that has prominent Kikuyus as organizers because they want to present the myth that ALL Kikuyus are behind Uhuru. I have NO trust when it comes to Kibaki and Uhuru cronies.
==========
Daily Nation
Politics
•Organisers likely to clash with officers as they have vowed to go ahead with event
A confrontation is likely to erupt between police and organisers of a meeting set to take place in Limuru on Wednesday to counter recent gatherings by the Gema and Kamatusa groups.
This follows a ban on the political meeting, scheduled to take place at the Jumuia Conference Centre, by the police.
The organisers, led by former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga, however, said on Tuesday they will defy the police order and go ahead with the event as planned.
“We shall go there. Let the police tell us about the ban face-to-face,” said Mr Njenga in a statement read by his elder brother Njoroge Kamunya.
Police last evening cancelled the meeting, dubbed Limuru 2B, that is meant to counter earlier ones held by supporters of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto.
One of the convenors of the meeting, Mr Ngunjiri Wambugu, said he had been called by the Central police boss, Mr John Mbijiwe, who told him that the government had cancelled the meeting due to security reasons.
“As far as we are concerned, we have followed the law by notifying the police about this meeting. We cannot call off an event we have been organising for months due to purported security threats,” said Mr Wambugu.
Mr Wambugu said before Mr Mbijiwe called him he had received an e-mail from the Lari police boss Mr Joshua Opiyo Ligala, notifying him about the cancellation.
Mr Ligala said the police had discovered that there were plans by organised gangs to cause mayhem during the gathering.
On Tuesday, Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi, another convenor of the meeting, said leaders from across the political divide were set to attend the Limuru meeting.
He said the meeting was aimed at bringing together Kenyans from all regions to champion non-tribal alliances ahead of the coming general election.
Raila is no change to kenya, he is 67 years who has been involved in kenyan politics for a tens of years – last years often as a minister. Where was he in 2001? As the energy minister in MOIs cabinet. What did he do during that time? we don’t know everythin, but somehow he suddenly became a lot more richer while sitting as a minister… What we do know, is that he got the kisumu molasses plant very cheaply from the goverment.
He celebrated too early even before the actual announcement of the results without the slightest idea of what was cooking. To him victory had been secured. But the devil was in the detail.
By David Mwere
It is emerging that Prime Minister Odinga’s statement in the 2007 election period might have caused him victory and a place at the coveted State House.
The details of these events, unknown to the Kenyan public, are contained in the Memoirs of the Untold Story of Kenya’s Darkest Moment in its election history, by a former Commissioner at the defunct ECK. The memoirs, in their final stages, are set to be launched by next month.
These developments occurred between December 27-30th, 2007 the critical period that almost sent the country to the dogs.
It is also emerged that the post election violence was not caused by the announcement of presidential election results. Rather, it was caused by the monumental rigging that occurred and the Raila statement that caused panic among the elite Kikuyu business class.
And this is how the violence was ignited. After the closure of polling centers on the evening of December 27th, 2007 counting of votes started at the polling centers.
By 6PM the results from various centers had started trickling in at the national tallying center(KICC).Around midnight, there was every indication that Raila Odinga who was the ODM presidential candidate was enjoying unassailable lead against the incumbent, President Mwai Kibaki of PNU.
This leads was vindicated the following day and the better part of the day until evening.Sensing the outcome, the PNU strategists had to devise ways to counter ODM fortunes.
“When results started trickling in, they knew Raila was winning. They had to negotiate a safe exit,†says the commissioner in his works. The third and the last was to yield and accept defeat. It was agonizing but the mandarins had to find a way of swallowing their pride for their interests.
A decision was reached. The resolution was to extend an olive branch to Raila since it was clear that he had won the elections.
This was mooted to seek consensus. In the consensus building efforts with Raila, now the Prime Minster in the grand coalition government, a proposal was reached that (Raila) had to be approached with a message from the PNU side and the messenger was equally identified.
By this time, the memoirs reveal that President Kibaki was “busy” preparing to hand over the reins of power. The messenger, a senior official in one of the country’s security agency was sent to Raila with one message: how he would safeguard the interest of Kibaki’s associates. He also disclosed to Raila that he had won and preparations for handing over were in the works.
In his response, Raila is reported to have said that he will safeguard their interests the same way he will do to other Kenyans. This statement was just enough to cause him the presidency. The response was delivered in black and white and it did not conciliate Kibaki’s men.
A former minister, now deceased in Kibaki’s government is reported to have quipped:”This person (Raila) cannot protect our interest. We have to protect what we already have because this is not the guy to rely onâ€
What followed was an elaborate scheme to consolidate power by bringing it back to “its original place” The earlier option, overturning the was revisited and ut had to be sublimely backed by the gap on the media.
At this point, by time rigging started on the evening of December 28th, 2007.Calls by the ODM to announce the results on December 29th fell on deaf ears as the margin shrunk against Raila.
This raised eyebrows in the ODM.But the Orange Party was yet to see more. At one point former ECK Chairman Samuel Kivuitu complained in the public that his officers had switched off their phones and were “cooking†results.
His fears were substantiated when doctored figures especially Juja, Nithi, Molo, Kiambu constituencies etc, went beyond the number of registered voters. The mathematics at KICC was in Kibaki’s favour while Kivuitu’s day at the premise was marked by tight security from the elite GSU unit.
Fearing that ODM was mobilizing its supporters to State House, the PNU had to wind up the process of rigging in the wee hours of December 29,2007 as the lead titled towards Kibaki’s favour just before the results were “formally†announced on December 30.2007.
At this point the pressure for Kivuitu to announce the results had shifted from ODM to PNU.The ODM protestations at KICC did not help matters nor did the parallel announcement by Musalia Mudavadi, Raila’s running mate that his boss had won.
In these circumstances, Kivuitu was quickly bundled into Amos Kimunya’s car for State House under tight security. The ritual to announce President Kibaki the winner had been set and was to be brief without pomp and colour that accompanied the 2002 event when Kibaki was taking over from Daniel Arap Moi.
“The former Chairman publicly admitted to us that he never knew what he was doing during that day at State House. He has never gone back there. He says he was forced to announce the results.
“He has been seeking an appointment with the Prime Minister but is yet to secure one,” a line in the memoirs says of Kivuitu who is currently indisposed. What followed was anarchy in some parts of the country where ODM enjoyed fanatical support. The damage had already been done.
The violence spread to other parts of the country on the accounts of retaliatory attacks. The culmination of the violence was deaths, displacements of persons and animals and loses of property.
Raila: I am best in reforms, protecting new Constitution
Updated 10 hrs 25 mins ago
BY VITALIS KIMUTAI
Prime Minister Raila Odinga says his opponents’ main agenda is to block him from ascending to the presidency.
Raila said anti-reform agents had ganged up against him and were keen on curtailing full implementation of the Constitution.
“For the first time in our history, blocking one presidential candidate has become an entire election agenda,” Raila said.
He said the next General Election would be a two-horse race between reformers and anti-reformers.
“The horse of reform will run against the horse of reversal and negation, the horse of hope against that of despair,” Raila said.
Raila added: “This election is our best chance to make a clean break with the past. If we don’t then we must go back to the past.”
Raila was speaking in Nairobi when he launched his presidential campaign website on Wednesday night, which will enable him directly engage with voters on issues affecting the country through social media.
Revisionist agenda
The PM said the dreams of majority of Kenyans for a corruption free and democratic society would prevail. “Our dreams must not die. It should not die, it cannot die and it will not die,” Raila said.
He said that anti-reform agents who wanted to ascend to the presidency were telling Kenyans that it did not matter how the new Constitution was achieved and anybody could be trusted with it.
“Lately, we have heard revisionists telling us that it does not matter how much blood was shed, how many families were broken, how many people disappeared and how many young students went to jail and lost their dreams for university degrees so that this Constitution may be born,” Raila stated.
“They are telling us now that the reforms are here, anybody alive and in politics today is a reformer and can be trusted. I disagree. These are issues I want us to stay engaged on,” he added.
He said a significant majority of the people were keen to secure the democratic and governance gains that have come with the new Constitution – but anti-reforms forces were out to block them from achieving that goal.
“The Constitution is written with the blood, sweat and pain of many of citizens,” Raila said.
The PM revisited the incarceration he and many Kenyans who fought for constitutional change during the Kanu regime were subjected to at the Nyayo House torture chambers. With a crack in his voice, Raila said what went on in the torture chambers was “madness and unbelievable”.
“Each person who was taken there believed he or she was going to die. And many died,” Raila stated with dead silence from the crowd.
“We must remember the comrades who were killed, tortured, the children who were orphaned, the women who were widowed in the process.”
The website – Raila for President 2012 (www.raila 2012) – is complete with Twitter, Facebook, You Tube and a blog.
The site also contains the PM’s life history, his agenda for the country, a photo gallery, press releases and people will be able to e-mail him and get feedback.
As a break from similar sites launched by his rivals, Raila’s has a Kiswahili version to enable ordinary people understand his ideals and engage with him.
By mid Thursday, 14,742 people had liked the site which will be streaming live the activities of the PM until the polls. Raila said the website was designed to encourage and facilitate an expanded dialogue with voters and other stakeholders in the society.
“You will tweet and I will tweet back. We need to define the direction our country is taking,” he stated.
“Mine will be a ‘listening’ presidency. I want to hear your views, so that I know what you want, so that I can try to fulfill your needs, as you have expressed them,” Raila said.
He said he was ready to work with everybody in seeking to transform the country for the better.
GOOD COMMUNICATION
“At the same time, I can make you privy to my thinking on the urgent issues that affect us all. We need to reason together to define the country we want and the leadership that will take us to the land of our dreams,” Raila stated. He said ODM would be the party to beat.
“I feel proud to be associated with this movement. We can move together to make Kenya a great country,” he stated.
Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba said the PM will now be able to understand and embody aspirations of all Kenyans irrespective of their class in society. “It has brought down physical space and barriers for people to directly engage and dialogue with Raila,” Namwamba said.
You need to change your political strategy this time round in Eastern region to win their support.Watu huko wanakupenda,its only that they fear due to poor motivation from ur political Marshals in the area
my name is gerand maina.ile kitu ni ngesema. pm.don’t worrying for miguna miguna. akuna vile.wakati alipo aki fanya kazi kwa office ya pm.aku ya sema. hayo maneno si poa.tuna ku support. Kama. ata dr Mesoi ana ni jua kama maina.na former mp OMODI kasarani.na Peter kunguru. Margaret Wanjiru. reply
You are the leader these country has for ages longed for. many things are in shambles and looking for a man. the way Goliath stood for 40 nights and days calling for a man, one day a man came and his own word or prophesy came true. For 50 years as a nation: The rotten institutions have always called for a man so loud and clear we have heard the voices in all corridors of Our Nation, and here comes a man; Raila Amolo Odinga. like David who spent all his years in the forest, you have spend all your years behind the bars, fighting wolves, lions, zebras e.t.c. we can look behind and see a History and experience. But a time comes Like an Esther and David when the anointing drops and locates you from the bush. your time, moment has come. We are fully behind you, having cast our votes these morning we are waiting for the Lord’s approval. You are the Man, David of our year and generation.
RAILA ODINGA: An enigma in Kenyan politics
Book Review by Oseloka Obaze, September 23, 2006
Badejo writes with the ease of an academic and the verve of an African minstrel versed in traditional storytelling.
Conventional wisdom has it that an apple never falls too far for its tree. So, too, is the fate of those who enjoy great renown and historical pedigrees by virtue of their lineage and heritage. Raila Amolo Odinga, the veritable subject of Babafemi Babdejo’s book, Raila Odinga: An enigma in Kenyan politics is no less the proverbial apple.
Raila is the son of Honorable Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, a Kenyan nationalist, political icon, and its first Vice president on attaining independence. Like father like son, it is hardly surprising that Raila followed his father’s footsteps by immersing himself fully into the rabble-rousing and sometimes, raucous Kenyan partisan politics.
In this biography of a modern Kenyan politician, Badejo has illuminated vagaries that drive partisan politics in Africa by tying together, the unique life of one man, that of the Kenyan nation and the diverse lives of his varied interlocutors and compatriots. Raila is compulsively human, but in the context of his political undertakings and career, of which we may not have seen the denouement, his adjectival qualification as an enigma has intense and unquestionable merit and validity. Indeed, an insight into his persona and politics, qualifies anyone to cast him in those immortal words of Sir Winston Churchill: “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Another confirmation of Raila’s enigmatic bona fides can be drawn from those enlightening words of Franz Kafka, that “there are two cardinal sins from which all the others spring: impatience and laziness.” In this autobiography, one fact that comes across clearly, is that Raila Odinga is in every sense of the word an impatient man. On the converse, he is extremely far from being lazy.
Beyond the subject’s persona, Raila Odinga: An enigma in Kenyan politics is a book of introspection into critical facets of Kenyan politics and therefore, an introductory verse and great psychological insight to Kenyan ethnic groups, lore and traditional idiosyncrasies, all of which Raila personifies in different ways.
In order to present Raila Odinga creditably to his readers, Babafemi Badejo goes to his roots, x-raying and dissecting not just his persona and political credentials, but how these juxtapose with his tribal antecedents and heritage. As a scion of a key, but not politically dominant Luo tribe, the author presents in Raila Odinga, a picture of how tribalism drives partisan politics in Kenya – a phenomenon that is commonplace in Africa. What the book also reveals, is that political dichotomy is not so often ethnicity driven as it is personality driven. The subjugation of one’s tribe, as was the case with Odinga’s Luo tribe, was more often than not meant to stymie the probable challenge to the ruling political elite as well as their control of national resources and power. Invariably, imported ideology had its place too in the orchestration of such differences.
Badejo offers us a broad portrait with intense minutia of Odinga as a man defined by his history, ethnicity, and politics. His life was in many ways an epilogue to Kenya and Africa’s decolonization struggle into which he was born and for which, his father was a well-known pan-Africanist. He grew up in a nation that mirrored other African countries in several ways. Kenyan politics offered a clear symmetry to those of other African countries. Just as Nigeria had its Lord Luggard, Kenya had his Lord Delamare. Just as many countries of Africa fought political wars to gain independence, Kenya had its maquis –the Mau Mau movement, which clashed with the aims of colonial masters. And like many African nations, Kenya and its people were not spared from the East-West ideological divide and their respective demands for unfettered loyalty.
Badejo also highlights the ethnic imperative of partisan politics in Kenya, using various individuals as reference points. Similarities and differences among key pro-dependence politicians like Jomo Kenyatta, Tom Mboyo and Oginga Odinga, Raila’s father, seemed to have shaped, if not destined, the enigmatic persona that Raila assumed from childhood. The Catch-22 nature of Kenyan politics, the cross-carpeting, the making and unmaking of alliances and near absence of political loyalty were clearly fleshed out and captured in a nutshell by the observation that. “the assertion of ideological difference and personal leadership ambitions, accentuated the struggle between Tom Mboya and Oginga Odinga”
Whilst ethnicity did not always play itself out as tribalism, the undertones were always there and in many instances were made manifest. Raila, it seemed, was from the outset committed to setting such negative values aside. Nevertheless, he was a Luo, and “being a Luo was and still is, to have an identity”. As a person with pedigree and as a Luo, Raila’s personality “was an identity shaped by shared values born of a rich range of cultural practices and activities”. These salutary values also made him a markedly different and resilient politician – someone who “protested without fear”.
As one traverses this book, it becomes intensely obvious that the personality of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, especially his leadership traits and stubborn doggedness had impacted on the son. True to his Luo heritage, Raila mimicked his father in many respects. But he was also savvy in politics, inclined more towards what Nigeria’s elder statesman and politician Waziri Ibrahim, referred to as “politics without bitterness”. This trait was typically uncommon in African politics with its zero-sum-game tendencies. But it is even more revealing of the Raila enigma, when one considers that for all his father did towards Kenyan independence, which led to his becoming President Jomo Kenyatta‘s deputy, he was in the end sidelined, never to become President. This reality presents another symmetry albeit, one not presented in the book. Oginga Odinga’s nationalist role and eventually missing out on the big post closely resembles the fate that befell Chief Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria. So far, the same fate seems to have befallen Raila.
Beyond elucidating how ethnicity compelled or impeded individuals that were politically inclined, this book also shed light on the negative influence of ethnicity by illustrating its insidious nature when employed as a tool of intimidation and subjugation. Invariably, those who are in the minority politically or demographically bear the brunt. But more than anything else, the book laid bare the divisiveness of ethnicity in African politics where the concept of being in the opposition is tantamount to enmity. But there is also a salutary side to this: it was a combination of Kenyan political, cultural and ethnic realities that molded Raila into the enigma that he has become. But his family upbringing played a part too.
His tutelage under his father and others, meant that he was schooled early in life on the “tremendous organizing and mobilizing capacity of an astute politician.” He grew up to be assertive and courageous and particularly “impatient” like his father. From his mother, Mary Odinga, he drew certain strengths including his strong personality and gravitas. But what set him out as an enigma was that he seemed to be a bunch of contradictions given that he was very accommodating, but also an avowed non-conformist. This would explain why he would be very respectful and kind at home, but took exception to thanking his teachers for doing a job they were paid for.
Like most African countries, Kenya’s post-colonial and post-independence political environment was at best perfidious. Navigating it safely required deft abilities and adroitness. Raila has proven his mettles in this regard. Raila Odinga, for instance, is cast as being fixated on being a different brand of politician. This may be attributed to his having been sent off at the tender age of 16 to study in socialist East Germany, while in reality, having among his role models, the likes of Sir Winston Church, to whom he frequently compared himself, in a bid to validate some of his confounding and non-conformist political actions. Another fact that comes across clearly, is that as a child, Raila was positioned to learn from the successes and failings of older Kenyan politicians, his father included.
Hence, though Raila may not have set out to attain the personal objective of being an enigma, his claim to that distinction (which some see as dubious) has arisen from his political nimbleness and ability to dine with the proverbial devil and proactively engage his adversaries, even to the extent of forming alliances with them. Whether he did this for Raila or in the Luo or national interest remains open to study.
Raila Odinga’s critics readily contend that every one of his political acts is premised on Machiavellianism – and the end justifying the means doctrine. Many have noted how in 1992 he won a seat in parliament for the Lang’ata Constituency in Nairobi, as a candidate for FORD, only to abandon FORD in 1994 after his father’s death to assume a prominent leadership role in the National Development Party. Despite the political shift, he retained the Lang’ata Constituency seat and in the 1997 election, came in third in the presidential race. His critics find such deft political shiftiness rankling.
However, his critics fail to clarify, for instance, why Raila, who was instrumental to the ousting of President Arap Moi and the election of President Kibaki in 2002 and had supported a military coup against Moi’s government in 1982, would stay back in Kenya rather than go safely into exile. In making the latter hard choice, he languished in jail for a decade. Such a choice, surely is not expedient, nor an act of a coward politician averse to self-deprivation or inclined to self-preservation. They fail to acknowledge the courage it took and the fact that it showed commitment to Kenya’s wellbeing. Similarly, they refuse to contemplate the possibility that Raila may indeed be unique enough to rise above the fray of partisan politics, his Luo heritage notwithstanding.
If Badejo had set out to discover Raila Odinga, whom did he find? And what is it that makes Raila Odinga a certified enigma? In the book’s epilogue titled, “Who is Raila?” the various commentaries about him by his family and interlocutors affirm his bona fides as an enigma. Let’s contemplate these comments on Odinga:
He is not a thinker but makes friends around the world importing what has been done in other places without justification for Kenya … other than it had been done in Nigeria and South Africa.. ;
[Raila is] at once a personification of his family and community.. a psychosis and psychology forged by the Luo conviction that they are outsiders in the Kenyan State..;
[He] is a misunderstood individual.. a patriot and nationalist.
Paradoxically, it is the latter categorization that places Raila Odinga on the same pedestal with many of the world’s great thinkers and leaders as well as some great politicians of our times, from Albert Einstein to Bertrand Russell and from Kwame Nkrumah to Bill Clinton. In summary, as Davinda Lamba noted, “Raila is not unusual in Kenya”, nor indeed, in Africa and our globalized world.
Although self-preservation is the strongest human instinct, Raila has without doubt engaged in measures that may suggest that he threw caution to the winds. But some of these have been strategic political moves, which to some makes him suspect. Raila remains cognizant of these criticisms, and indeed responds to them. Conscious of the criticisms about being an opportunist and a carpet-crossing carpetbagger, he rebuts the view thus: “Although I have been criticized for changing political parties, I have maintained that at no time have we compromised our principles”. His use of the royal we is hardly incidental. Also in making this point, he draws a parallel between himself and Churchill, who once said: “I am what I have always been – A Tory Democrat. Force of circumstances has compelled me to serve with another party.”
As if to affirm his place and stand in history, Raila also validate his modus operandi with the Churchillian escapism, that: “Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; other change their principles for the sake of their party.” As Badejo documents for posterity, all of Raila’s political savvy has not made him immune to the vagaries of African and indeed Kenyan politics. Like his father, he too was stumped, when after helping President Kibaki come to office he was not rewarded commensurately, but dumped when Kibaki reneged on the quiet compact between them to assign him the Prime Minister portfolio. This reality was a harsh replay of what Jomo Kenyatta had done to Raila’s father, Oginga Odinga.
Badejo writes with the ease of an academic and the verve of an African minstrel versed in traditional storytelling. He captures with incisive precision, compassion and brutal candor, Raila’s whims, his near schizophrenic political persona and his human strengths, weaknesses and imperfections. In so doing he also unmasks character traits of the Kenyan political maquis. What Badejo also brings to the fore is that the bare-knuckle politics in which Raila has been immersed and has managed to survive, were by no means a measure of Kenya’s democratic credentials or its robustness. After all, former President Arap Moi had successfully reduced Kenya to a one-party state and as some would readily suggest, to being only a democracy in name.
This book is personal, historical, political — and if I dare say – sociological and anthropological. It is an eye-opening account and a visage into the hidden world of Kenyan politics, ethnicity, and public personalities. Also, it offers an insight and a riveting account of a man that has been dubbed an “intrepid politician.” Raila Odinga”s life and politics is still very much a work in progress. For now, he bestrides Kenyan politics like a bridge over troubled waters. Well anchored, his payday at the political helm in Kenya may yet come.
I have a theory about why MOST kikuyus demonize this GREAT man called AGWAMBO. I think it is because of how intelligent he is. They confuse his intelligence for cunning (which is a trait consistent with most kikuyus) so they fear him because he is from a different tribe. If he was a kikuyu he would be their Njamba. I need to make it clear that I am not luo, so my affinity for Raila is not based on his tribe (neither is my dislike for UK). My point in all this is that Kikuyus do not like Raila only because he is luo. There is no other trait in this man that deserves the wrath of their propaganda
Reasons Why Mudavadi’s Exit From ODM Will Be A Mistake On His Part and A Blessing For Raila and ODM
Samuel N. Omwenga, April 15, 2012
I first got wind of this “Mudavadi issue” back in August of last year when visiting with a friend in Nairobi, who had good reason to know what was afoot.
Following my return to the US, I posted a blog My Take On Prof. Makau Mutua Suggestion That Raila Should Drop Mudavadi in part because of what I learned from my friend and also in response to Prof. Makau Mutua who in his piece argued that Raila should drop Mudavadi and replace him with Paul Muite, a proposition I countered with the opposite view for the reasons on that blog.
In Why Raila Cannot Drop Mudavadi penned a shot time after that, I reiterated the case why Raila should not drop Mudavadi and did so in response to what was reported in the Standard headlined Raila Under Pressure To Drop Mudavadi.
I weighed in on the side of not dropping Mudavadi for reasons stated in the other blog referenced above.
Sometime after penning these blogs, I started smelling a rat and in Mudavadi Has No Good Reason To Challenge Raila For ODM Nomination, I made the case why Mudavadi should not challenge Raila for the nomination.
Following this post, a source very close to the the Raila campaign assured me not to worry about Mudavadi’s quest to challenge Raila and advised that I instead support the move, which I have cautiously done but the more I have done so, the more I continue to smell a rat.
Indeed, I had occasion to run into the DPM a couple or so months ago in the company of others and asked him if all was okay and he responded in the affirmative.
I am sure he knew exactly what I was asking him and that this was not a rhetorical question so I took his word for an answer.
Now I am at the point of being nauseated with increasing smelling of a rat.
According to the Standard and virtually every source I am talking to, Mudavadi is all but gone from ODM and will so announce on Saturday as the Standard reports.
Good and well.
In the Mudavadi Has No Good Reasons To Challenge Raila blog, I noted the following:
There is only one president who serves at a time, everyone must wait their turn no matter how long that takes.
The most important consideration every party member should look at and agree on is first, what does the party stand for and second, who is best qualified to lead the party in implementing those ideals.
Once that decision is made and the person to lead is selected, then out of loyalty, consistency, unity and continuity, it should be full throttle from everyone in the party until their leader is sworn into office as president.
That’s what ODM should do and if it does, all shall be fine in the end.
Otherwise, let those in disagreement speak now or never and if that means leaving the party, it’s better now than later if they have to be left with any credibility.
Such honesty and transparency is what is needed in all parties, rather than the scheming and conniving we are all too accustomed to at the expense of true democracy.
Were Mudavadi to leave, it will be obvious what he has been engaged in is nothing but usual scheming we have become so accustomed to hopefully not anymore to the extent the scheming is only intended to preserve or gain political power for the individual but nothing for the ordinary mwananchi or country at large.
It is with this in mind I have been prompted to think what Mudavadi’s exit means and have come to the conclusion his departure will be both a mistake on his part and a blessing in disguise for Raila and ODM for the following reasons:
Reasons why Mudavadi’s exit is a mistake:
1.He must now resign from the DPM position as well as seek reelection if the letter and spirit of the constitution means anything to him.
2.He will soon confirm what we have been saying all along that his quest to challenge Raila for the ODM nomination was not about “internal democracy;” far from it. Mudavadi is expecting nothing less than a coronation at New Ford Kenya or whatever party he ends up with and it’s a foregone conclusion he will be the flag-bearer for the party. Also, the manner in which he has staged managed his exit from ODM reveals a weakness in his leadership ability.
3.Having been resurrected by Raila and ODM, Mudavadi has successfully camouflaged his KANU ties many from the same era in ODM had long since broken and established their own new identity. He is now exposed again and no doubt Raila and ODM will remind Kenyans they rejected him before and he has not been fully indoctrinated to the reform agenda or otherwise fully freed himself of the KANU modus operandi.
4.Mudavadi has to establish a nationwide network of leading supporters who can have him survive Round I otherwise he will be cast and seen as a spoiler no different from Musyoka. It’s doubtful he would do the former.
5.He has a “Romeny problem” and that is he can easily be cast as someone born with a silver spoon in his mouth and with no sense of what ordinary people need. Compare that to Raila who notwithstanding his equally privileged background, he has proven he, in fact, does understand the needs of ordinary folks and has even made personal sacrifices so Kenyans can finally taste what we gained independence for. In fact, thanks to the battering and abuse he endures, most Kenyans see Raila as being one of them and may get quite a bit of sympathy votes from those who feel sorry for him because they, too, have been the victims of hate and vitriol. Mudavadi may get the he is a “non-polarizing” character but there are mountains to climb before getting to that easier part.
Why Mudavadi’s departure is a blessing:
1.Gives Raila free hand in picking a new VP running mate to balance the ticket better and rejuvenate the party.
2.Gives ODM the opportunity to focus on party building rather than managing infighting and wrangles related to the nomination process which will be a moot issue, if Mudavadi leaves.
3.Splits the opposition votes even more making it even that much easier for Raila to coast through Round I, if he doesn’t sweep it altogether.
4.Validates some of Raila’s supporter’s argument to-date that Mudavadi is a PNU/G7 project sent to spoil for Raila and ODm much the same way Musyoka did in 2007.
5.Has Raila breathing a sigh of relief knowing confident as he can be that he can beat Mudavadi anytime for the nomination under any rules, there is still that outside chance that a combination of luck and mischief could result in Mudavadi actually getting the nomination which for all practical purposes and intent will shut down the road to State House for Raila.
For all these reasons and more, Mudavadi will be wise to remain put in ODM and take whatever outcome awaits him there than walking away to a future of political uncertainty that awaits him elsewhere, if not walking into a future of political irrelevance altogether.
I certainly hope he does so otherwise waonane mbele na Raila and ODM kwa debe.
Gema gema mitakoni>Police ban Limuru 2B
I can’t help but wonder whether the government is using Nyayo tactics to suppress Limuru 2B in case it proves more popular than Limuru 2 of Uhuru and company. I am very suspicious of the Gema-influenced motivations of the Kibaki wing of the government. If this is an attempt to suppress a new, popular anti-Gema movement then the spirit of Limuru 2B will only increase in strength! They are scaring no one.
I would not be surprised if thugs are hired by Gema organizers to try to cause “chaos” so the government can have an excuse to clamp down on the Limuru 2B organizers. They would be very keen to prevent a meeting that has prominent Kikuyus as organizers because they want to present the myth that ALL Kikuyus are behind Uhuru. I have NO trust when it comes to Kibaki and Uhuru cronies.
==========
Daily Nation
Politics
Showdown looms as police ban talks
By BILLY MUIRURI bmuiruri@ke.nationmedia.com AND ANNE NJERI newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Tuesday, April 17 2012 at 22:30
In Summary
•Organisers likely to clash with officers as they have vowed to go ahead with event
A confrontation is likely to erupt between police and organisers of a meeting set to take place in Limuru on Wednesday to counter recent gatherings by the Gema and Kamatusa groups.
This follows a ban on the political meeting, scheduled to take place at the Jumuia Conference Centre, by the police.
The organisers, led by former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga, however, said on Tuesday they will defy the police order and go ahead with the event as planned.
“We shall go there. Let the police tell us about the ban face-to-face,” said Mr Njenga in a statement read by his elder brother Njoroge Kamunya.
Police last evening cancelled the meeting, dubbed Limuru 2B, that is meant to counter earlier ones held by supporters of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto.
One of the convenors of the meeting, Mr Ngunjiri Wambugu, said he had been called by the Central police boss, Mr John Mbijiwe, who told him that the government had cancelled the meeting due to security reasons.
“As far as we are concerned, we have followed the law by notifying the police about this meeting. We cannot call off an event we have been organising for months due to purported security threats,” said Mr Wambugu.
Mr Wambugu said before Mr Mbijiwe called him he had received an e-mail from the Lari police boss Mr Joshua Opiyo Ligala, notifying him about the cancellation.
Mr Ligala said the police had discovered that there were plans by organised gangs to cause mayhem during the gathering.
On Tuesday, Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi, another convenor of the meeting, said leaders from across the political divide were set to attend the Limuru meeting.
He said the meeting was aimed at bringing together Kenyans from all regions to champion non-tribal alliances ahead of the coming general election.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/S … index.html
Raila is no change to kenya, he is 67 years who has been involved in kenyan politics for a tens of years – last years often as a minister. Where was he in 2001? As the energy minister in MOIs cabinet. What did he do during that time? we don’t know everythin, but somehow he suddenly became a lot more richer while sitting as a minister… What we do know, is that he got the kisumu molasses plant very cheaply from the goverment.
He got well paid in joining hist party to Kanu…
The statement that cost Raila the presidency
He celebrated too early even before the actual announcement of the results without the slightest idea of what was cooking. To him victory had been secured. But the devil was in the detail.
By David Mwere
It is emerging that Prime Minister Odinga’s statement in the 2007 election period might have caused him victory and a place at the coveted State House.
The details of these events, unknown to the Kenyan public, are contained in the Memoirs of the Untold Story of Kenya’s Darkest Moment in its election history, by a former Commissioner at the defunct ECK. The memoirs, in their final stages, are set to be launched by next month.
These developments occurred between December 27-30th, 2007 the critical period that almost sent the country to the dogs.
It is also emerged that the post election violence was not caused by the announcement of presidential election results. Rather, it was caused by the monumental rigging that occurred and the Raila statement that caused panic among the elite Kikuyu business class.
And this is how the violence was ignited. After the closure of polling centers on the evening of December 27th, 2007 counting of votes started at the polling centers.
By 6PM the results from various centers had started trickling in at the national tallying center(KICC).Around midnight, there was every indication that Raila Odinga who was the ODM presidential candidate was enjoying unassailable lead against the incumbent, President Mwai Kibaki of PNU.
This leads was vindicated the following day and the better part of the day until evening.Sensing the outcome, the PNU strategists had to devise ways to counter ODM fortunes.
“When results started trickling in, they knew Raila was winning. They had to negotiate a safe exit,†says the commissioner in his works. The third and the last was to yield and accept defeat. It was agonizing but the mandarins had to find a way of swallowing their pride for their interests.
A decision was reached. The resolution was to extend an olive branch to Raila since it was clear that he had won the elections.
This was mooted to seek consensus. In the consensus building efforts with Raila, now the Prime Minster in the grand coalition government, a proposal was reached that (Raila) had to be approached with a message from the PNU side and the messenger was equally identified.
By this time, the memoirs reveal that President Kibaki was “busy” preparing to hand over the reins of power. The messenger, a senior official in one of the country’s security agency was sent to Raila with one message: how he would safeguard the interest of Kibaki’s associates. He also disclosed to Raila that he had won and preparations for handing over were in the works.
In his response, Raila is reported to have said that he will safeguard their interests the same way he will do to other Kenyans. This statement was just enough to cause him the presidency. The response was delivered in black and white and it did not conciliate Kibaki’s men.
A former minister, now deceased in Kibaki’s government is reported to have quipped:”This person (Raila) cannot protect our interest. We have to protect what we already have because this is not the guy to rely onâ€
What followed was an elaborate scheme to consolidate power by bringing it back to “its original place” The earlier option, overturning the was revisited and ut had to be sublimely backed by the gap on the media.
At this point, by time rigging started on the evening of December 28th, 2007.Calls by the ODM to announce the results on December 29th fell on deaf ears as the margin shrunk against Raila.
This raised eyebrows in the ODM.But the Orange Party was yet to see more. At one point former ECK Chairman Samuel Kivuitu complained in the public that his officers had switched off their phones and were “cooking†results.
His fears were substantiated when doctored figures especially Juja, Nithi, Molo, Kiambu constituencies etc, went beyond the number of registered voters. The mathematics at KICC was in Kibaki’s favour while Kivuitu’s day at the premise was marked by tight security from the elite GSU unit.
Fearing that ODM was mobilizing its supporters to State House, the PNU had to wind up the process of rigging in the wee hours of December 29,2007 as the lead titled towards Kibaki’s favour just before the results were “formally†announced on December 30.2007.
At this point the pressure for Kivuitu to announce the results had shifted from ODM to PNU.The ODM protestations at KICC did not help matters nor did the parallel announcement by Musalia Mudavadi, Raila’s running mate that his boss had won.
In these circumstances, Kivuitu was quickly bundled into Amos Kimunya’s car for State House under tight security. The ritual to announce President Kibaki the winner had been set and was to be brief without pomp and colour that accompanied the 2002 event when Kibaki was taking over from Daniel Arap Moi.
“The former Chairman publicly admitted to us that he never knew what he was doing during that day at State House. He has never gone back there. He says he was forced to announce the results.
“He has been seeking an appointment with the Prime Minister but is yet to secure one,” a line in the memoirs says of Kivuitu who is currently indisposed. What followed was anarchy in some parts of the country where ODM enjoyed fanatical support. The damage had already been done.
The violence spread to other parts of the country on the accounts of retaliatory attacks. The culmination of the violence was deaths, displacements of persons and animals and loses of property.
To be continued in the next issue.
Source: The Sunday Express, issue no. 1777
Still love u
Raila: I am best in reforms, protecting new Constitution
Updated 10 hrs 25 mins ago
BY VITALIS KIMUTAI
Prime Minister Raila Odinga says his opponents’ main agenda is to block him from ascending to the presidency.
Raila said anti-reform agents had ganged up against him and were keen on curtailing full implementation of the Constitution.
“For the first time in our history, blocking one presidential candidate has become an entire election agenda,” Raila said.
He said the next General Election would be a two-horse race between reformers and anti-reformers.
“The horse of reform will run against the horse of reversal and negation, the horse of hope against that of despair,” Raila said.
Raila added: “This election is our best chance to make a clean break with the past. If we don’t then we must go back to the past.”
Raila was speaking in Nairobi when he launched his presidential campaign website on Wednesday night, which will enable him directly engage with voters on issues affecting the country through social media.
Revisionist agenda
The PM said the dreams of majority of Kenyans for a corruption free and democratic society would prevail. “Our dreams must not die. It should not die, it cannot die and it will not die,” Raila said.
He said that anti-reform agents who wanted to ascend to the presidency were telling Kenyans that it did not matter how the new Constitution was achieved and anybody could be trusted with it.
“Lately, we have heard revisionists telling us that it does not matter how much blood was shed, how many families were broken, how many people disappeared and how many young students went to jail and lost their dreams for university degrees so that this Constitution may be born,” Raila stated.
“They are telling us now that the reforms are here, anybody alive and in politics today is a reformer and can be trusted. I disagree. These are issues I want us to stay engaged on,” he added.
He said a significant majority of the people were keen to secure the democratic and governance gains that have come with the new Constitution – but anti-reforms forces were out to block them from achieving that goal.
“The Constitution is written with the blood, sweat and pain of many of citizens,” Raila said.
The PM revisited the incarceration he and many Kenyans who fought for constitutional change during the Kanu regime were subjected to at the Nyayo House torture chambers. With a crack in his voice, Raila said what went on in the torture chambers was “madness and unbelievable”.
“Each person who was taken there believed he or she was going to die. And many died,” Raila stated with dead silence from the crowd.
“We must remember the comrades who were killed, tortured, the children who were orphaned, the women who were widowed in the process.”
The website – Raila for President 2012 (www.raila 2012) – is complete with Twitter, Facebook, You Tube and a blog.
The site also contains the PM’s life history, his agenda for the country, a photo gallery, press releases and people will be able to e-mail him and get feedback.
As a break from similar sites launched by his rivals, Raila’s has a Kiswahili version to enable ordinary people understand his ideals and engage with him.
By mid Thursday, 14,742 people had liked the site which will be streaming live the activities of the PM until the polls. Raila said the website was designed to encourage and facilitate an expanded dialogue with voters and other stakeholders in the society.
“You will tweet and I will tweet back. We need to define the direction our country is taking,” he stated.
“Mine will be a ‘listening’ presidency. I want to hear your views, so that I know what you want, so that I can try to fulfill your needs, as you have expressed them,” Raila said.
He said he was ready to work with everybody in seeking to transform the country for the better.
GOOD COMMUNICATION
“At the same time, I can make you privy to my thinking on the urgent issues that affect us all. We need to reason together to define the country we want and the leadership that will take us to the land of our dreams,” Raila stated. He said ODM would be the party to beat.
“I feel proud to be associated with this movement. We can move together to make Kenya a great country,” he stated.
Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba said the PM will now be able to understand and embody aspirations of all Kenyans irrespective of their class in society. “It has brought down physical space and barriers for people to directly engage and dialogue with Raila,” Namwamba said.
You need to change your political strategy this time round in Eastern region to win their support.Watu huko wanakupenda,its only that they fear due to poor motivation from ur political Marshals in the area
my name is gerand maina.ile kitu ni ngesema. pm.don’t worrying for miguna miguna. akuna vile.wakati alipo aki fanya kazi kwa office ya pm.aku ya sema. hayo maneno si poa.tuna ku support. Kama. ata dr Mesoi ana ni jua kama maina.na former mp OMODI kasarani.na Peter kunguru. Margaret Wanjiru. reply
Amongst the statehouse aspirant odinga is far much better compared to the trible kingpins who chest thump to be helping initing kenyans.
You are the leader these country has for ages longed for. many things are in shambles and looking for a man. the way Goliath stood for 40 nights and days calling for a man, one day a man came and his own word or prophesy came true. For 50 years as a nation: The rotten institutions have always called for a man so loud and clear we have heard the voices in all corridors of Our Nation, and here comes a man; Raila Amolo Odinga. like David who spent all his years in the forest, you have spend all your years behind the bars, fighting wolves, lions, zebras e.t.c. we can look behind and see a History and experience. But a time comes Like an Esther and David when the anointing drops and locates you from the bush. your time, moment has come. We are fully behind you, having cast our votes these morning we are waiting for the Lord’s approval. You are the Man, David of our year and generation.