• Ignore Raila at your own peril. He is many things in one; kingmaker, risk taker, mobiliser, peacemaker and tolerant.
• Like previous overtures, the political acrobat bears negative tags when he reaches out to a rival during a crisis.
Image: PCS
Like father, like son seems to aptly apply to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and his son Raila.
The opposition leader and former Prime Minister, just like his Independence vice president father, grabs media headlines more than any other leader in the country today.
After the 2022 general election, in which he narrowly lost the presidency to William Ruto, many concluded that his career was over and writers were busy penning his political obituary. That was not to be. He is now a candidate for the chairmanship of the African Union Commission.
The ODM leader, and a principal in the Azimio coalition, saved the day when Gen Z held President Ruto hostage with weekly demos that started with protests against the infamous Finance Bill, 2024.
The Bill was withdrawn and the Cabinet reconstituted after Raila’s intervention.
Unfortunately, most politicians don’t see merit in his career-saving decisions, downplay his statesman efforts, and label Raila a traitor and opportunist, to name but a few. Those are the words from hypocrites, political merchants and turncoats across the political divide.
Ignore Raila at your own peril. He is many things in one; kingmaker, risk taker, mobiliser, peacemaker and tolerant. Like previous overtures, the political acrobat bears negative tags when he reaches out to a rival during a crisis.
The reconciliation between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila, who had sworn himself as the People's President, was unexpected after weeks of post-election acrimonious exchanges, bickering and name-calling in a toxic political atmosphere in 2018.
Raila holds no grudge against rivals and even the heartless dictator of our time benefitted from his reconciliatory gestures. Presidents Mwai Kibaki and Daniel Moi in their graves silently can testify that they benefitted from an opponent’s benevolent gestures. He signed a post-election violence peace agreement with Kibaki and shared power in a grand coalition government.
Who could imagine that Raila would forgive Moi, who detained him three times for nine years? However, with a slim majority of four members in a hang parliament and impeachment a possibility, Moi reconciled with Raila when other opposition figures declined.
Raila folded the National Development Party (NDP) purposely to boost the then-ruling party Kanu's numerical strength to engender peace in a volatile situation. NDP became the proverbial sacrificial lamb in the cooperation deal.
Without fear of contradiction, I dare say that Raila, since entry into active politics at the beginning of the Nineties after a stint as a political prisoner, has been in the news for negative reasons more often than his peers. Now, he is in the news as an unreliable coalition partner because of a decision made that quelled ugly protests.
Even obvious lies of plots against the government and rivals have been manufactured and sold to desperate willing buyers without question. Why? Three times a political prisoner, imaginary or real narratives about destabilisation of government are taken as gospel truth.
Raila enjoys a near-fanatical following which explains why he is a lucrative political commodity. He has contested the presidency five times, been a runner-up in four and a distant fourth in his first attempt.