It is said in politics, there are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests. When Raila defeated the 2007 PNU presidential candidate and subsequently the candidate sworn as our third president, the country nearly plummeted into a civil war we avoided only by the grace of God.
Bitter as Raila was with then President Mwai Kibaki, one cannot say the bitterness developed into hatred to the extent the two men would want to kill each other. That is why the ODM leader worked with his international network, especially those in the United States, to find a peaceful solution and we did.
Having been one of the ODM chief’s allies who worked around the clock for several months in Washington to help Raila and Kenya find the solution we ultimately did in the formation of a coalition government, it was the highlight of my life driven by the same passion driving the Gen Zs today. The same passion that drove Raila and everyone else who was involved in the second liberation, which was in turn a passion motivated by those who led in the struggle for independence - the first liberation.
Fast forward to 2010, all was forgiven after the passage and promulgation of the constitution.
Right after passage of the constitution, I met then Minister of Finance Uhuru Kenyatta at the then Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s residence in Karen. It was the second time I met Uhuru, having earlier been introduced to him by my political mentor, Simeon Nyachae, during the 2005 G7 consultative meeting at Safari Park. I attended the meeting as a US-based observer arranged by the World Bank.
This second meeting with Uhuru informed me on what I have always known about Raila and Uhuru and that is, much as they called each other names, Uhuru dutifully had Raila rigged out in 2013. As I and many others have said and history will record accordingly, neither candidate won the requisite 50 per cent plus vote.
Also, the ODM leader did so poorly compared to 2007 such that the system did away with round two. As I have also stated, had the system allowed round two to take place, Uhuru would have cleanly won over Raila.
Following the dismissal of Raila and Africog’s petitions challenging declaration of Uhuru as president, I wrote a column condemning the dismissal as the country’s worst akin to that of an infamous American case known as Dred v Scott, where the Supreme Court of the United States astonishingly holding that blacks were inferior to whites. When the former Attorney General Charles Njonio read the column, he reached out to me through this paper and we later became good friends.
Awful as the dismissal of Raila’s petition was, a case can still be made that he did not become enemies with Uhuru. Rather, he went back to the drawing board, hopping to floor Uhuru in 2017 election, and he did. So badly such that the Supreme Court had no choice but to nullify the polls.
Did enmity develop between Uhuru and Raila following the repeat election that Raila boycotted, saying the same rigging machinery was in place? Yes.
However, thanks to intervention by outside forces, the two had the famous or infamous handshake–depending on one’s political leaning.
Everyone, except for the Kenya Kwanza leader and his team, assumed or took it for granted that the former premier would win the 2022 election and finally be sworn-in.
When the Supreme Court affirmed the declaration of William Ruto as our fifth president, everyone was waiting to see what Raila will do next.
It was assumed Ruto would easily serve two terms with the backing of Mt Kenya. No one saw the revulsion against him as has happened. So dire a development such that Raila, who was hated in Mt Kenya like nobody else, suddenly became a darling in the eyes of the many haters of yesteryear.
Raila had a choice: save Ruto and smooth his way to the AU chairmanship with a say in the Kenya Kwanza government or save Mt Kenya to an unknown outcome.
It was an easy decision.