On July 15, 2023, President William Ruto, bringing along the massive trappings of power that go with his office, descended on Kanyipir village in Karachuonyo Constituency, Homa Bay county.
The occasion was the thanksgiving ceremony for Interior PS Raymond Omollo. In this opposition stronghold, locals were thrown into a spin on whether to support one of their own, who had landed a key government appointment, or shun the whole show in keeping with political party lines.
Not surprisingly, they chose the former. On his official X (formerly Twitter) handle, and in one act of absolute modesty, PS Omollo thanked the President for visiting his “little-known village”, a reference that many might not agree with, over a year down the line.
In many ways, that village has become famous over the period that its most famous son has held this critical role in the overall security infrastructure of the nation, and will probably never be “little-known” again.
When Omollo was appointed Principal Secretary for Interior, in the early life of this government, pessimistic commentators were quick to dismiss him as a diversity hire, a sort of flower girl, in an otherwise grand Kenya Kwanza political marriage.
But clearly, there is no chance that the President would choose a crucial security docket to assuage any affirmative action hangovers. In the bigger scheme of things, even Presidents who seek a foothold on difficult vote bases do not offer security appointments to rank outsiders.
By the foregoing score, the perceived outsider had, for all practical purposes, been an insider hiding in plain sight. There is an important element of the appointment that had probably escaped everyone’s attention; that the new PS was one of very few people of Luo ancestry who had been close allies of the then DP Ruto, long before the latter became President.
That PS Omollo has the President’s ear is no longer in doubt. Neither is the growing feeling in the grassroots that he means well and has had all along.
Within the politically conscious Luo Nation, power has always been a fleeting occurrence, with major highs and horrible lows.
In the seasons preceding the national accord government, where the ODM boss, Raila Odinga, was Prime Minister, the other time that the community likes to refer to with nostalgia is when the late Hezekiah Oyugi was a powerful Internal Security PS in President Moi’s office.
Oyugi wielded influence in a manner that left no doubt where power dwelled. His style has become the subject of legend and unending myths.
Understandably, comparisons have been drawn between Oyugi and Omollo. To be fair, Oyugi reigned during the single-party era, when the total display of power in its raw, abrasive form was a norm, while Omollo finds himself serving in an entrenched multiparty democracy with tighter scrutiny and accountability from independent institutions.
Be that as it may, the similarity between the two men, when it comes to their desire to uplift the community, is rather striking. In fact, Omollo currently runs an empowerment programme for widows and young people across the land, which has been hailed as a silver bullet within the community as a major solutions provider.
There is a quality around power and influence that tends to separate the truly powerful from the pretenders. Some of the most powerful individuals in any government tend to be self-effacing and almost shy about displaying it.
We are still regaled with old anecdotes of powerful figures from the past, like former intelligence chief James Kanyotu, or indeed the total man himself, Moi’s confidante, Nicholas Biwott.
It takes a great dose of self-esteem, to sit in a powerful government office, while letting others ride the limelight, but quietly remaining firm and indomitable in both service delivery and credible action. I find PS Omollo fitting this description perfectly.
He exercises amazing decorum and remains polite to all, even deep in the grassroots during village meetings. Within the past few months, and especially as the saga surrounding the ongoing impeachment process of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has been unfolding, the country has been thrown into an early campaign mode.
With it, there has emerged talk of succession in different regions of the country. Among the Luo, of course the impending exit of long-time kingpin Raila Odinga has ensured that the region is in the cusps of its own succession intrigues.
With Raila set to both move to Addis Ababa as African Union Commission chairperson and to skip the 2027 ballot, excitement is in the air over how regional dynamics will pan out.
It is not just confined to possible presidential candidates in the next general election, but the possibility of producing a running mate, should the region opt to back someone else in 2027, especially if this latter choice ends up being to back Ruto for a second term.
What I find interesting is that even though he currently has the widest grassroots reach through the provincial administration and intelligence networks, Omollo’s name is hardly thrown about as a contender, testament to how the Interior ministry’s top technocrat has shunned politics. As they say however, still waters run deep, and I suspect there are aces yet to be brought to play.
The national security docket was created for calm heads and loads of emotional intelligence. It also requires people who enjoy great chemistry and relationship with the commander in chief.
The PS and his CS, Kithure Kindiki, have delivered this calming effect and tackled national security issues without the fuss and drama prevalent in other ministries.
Indeed, when President Ruto dissolved his Cabinet in the aftermath of the devastating Gen Z riots, PS Omollo was left as the highest-ranking official in the ministry, navigating that challenging period.
There have been whispers that Omollo has played a leading role in helping the President to set up the broad-based government and seeking medium-term stability from a shaky period. The rumour may not be too far-fetched, given the tools at the PS’s disposal.
If that is true, then the grassroots message he has been carrying, in which he has beseeched his community to look beyond the divide and seek economic empowerment by working closely with government, has found an expert driver in him.
Those who have worked closely with the PS aver that no matter what you may accuse him of, his sincerity and honesty are never in any doubt. The impeachment motion against Gachagua has moved to the Senate, the actual trial chamber where most of the action will be.
Speaker Kingi has already designated October 16 and 17 as the two days in which to conduct the hearings. If, as expected, the DP ends up being impeached, and the search for a new DP gets underway, President Ruto will most likely get a chance to carry out more changes in government and infuse more competent and more trustworthy people into his administration, ahead of the delicate electoral cycle coming up in 2027.
Whatever role PS Raymond Omollo gets to play in that new dispensation, I can state without fear of contradiction that he is one of the President’s most consequential and forward looking servants and will be a key cog into the next phase of this government.