Inside the Uhuru Kenyatta - Raila Odinga power pact

President Uhuru Kenyatta with ODM leader Raila Odinga at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi City County during the Jubilee Party's National Delegates Conference. [Standard]

Sixty years after their fathers walked the country into independence, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader and ODM leader Raila Odinga yesterday presented a united front, setting the stage for possibly forming a government together like their parents did.

What began as a handshake on March 9, 2018, climaxed into a political union preceded by choreographed party meetings that now offers Raila a strong chance in his fifth stab at the presidency.

Yesterday, President Kenyatta’s and Raila’s political parties endorsed a marriage to form Azimio Coalition that the son of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta hopes will to eventually catapult Odinga’s son to State House.

Yesterday, Raila attended the National Delegates Congress (NDC) of the president’s party at Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) and later Uhuru attended the Orange party’s event at Kasarani Stadium.

The two sons of the first president and former first vice president took the opportunity to paint the journeys of their rivalry and their quest to unify the country.  

Uhuru and Raila’s political camaraderie relives the earlier days of their fathers as captured by historians where the two were not only close politically but had a chemistry that took them through a decade of political dalliance from 1957 to 1967.

Secretly recorded conversations between Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga during a United Kingdom trip to fund-raise for Kanu in 1962, depict a strong bond of friendship between the two leaders who later bitterly fell out.

Accomplished businessman

In the book The Reds and the Blacks published in 1967, after Jaramogi resigned as the vice president, William Attwood notes that the doyen of Opposition was roped into politics by Mzee Kenyatta who found him an accomplished businessman in the early 1950s.

It is perhaps Jaramogi’s business acumen and organisational skills that endeared Kenyatta to him.

Attwood says Jaramogi lent Kenyatta money at the time of the struggles and in return, Jomo schooled him about politics.

The Kenyatta and Odinga fall-out that saw Jaramogi resign as the vice president created a nasty political rivalry that was passed from fathers to sons later.

It will be for historians to evaluate the impact of the rivalry and give an award of best performance to either Jaramogi and Kenyatta or their sons.

The Uhuru-Raila rivalry prior to the handshake of 2018 almost led the country to ruin.

The two politicians may have borrowed the words of wisdom from former South African president the late Nelson Mandela, who said: “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.” 

At the handshake, the two vowed that “no Kenyan blood would be shed again because of politics.”

Notably, the two were unconsciously acknowledging that the rivalry between the two families had caused Kenya enough problems.

Pundits have pointed out that though wrapped as a coming together to end a five-decade pursuit of power, there lies their raw attempt to control the political space in Kenya.

The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) fronted by Uhuru and Raila pushed for the expansion of the Executive which included the creation of Office of Prime Minister, two deputies and other positions.

BBI would have created the position of the premier which some Kenyans believed was meant for Uhuru.

The position was to be reserved for the leader of the party with the majority in Parliament.

In its two-day NDC, Jubilee resolved that Uhuru continues as the leader of Jubilee Party, which is the anchor party through which ten other outfits can access the Azimio la Umoja Coalition that will sponsor the Raila presidential bid.

During the Sagana One meeting at the Sagana State Lodge in November 2019, the Head of State said that BBI was not meant to benefit him politically and immediately turned around to say that he would not mind an Executive position after his term. 

“There is a lot of speculation on the BBI, they have said that Uhuru wants to be the prime minister. I would not mind,” he told his 6000 guests at the State Lodge as he drummed up support for the BBI document.

Two months after the famous handshake, talks of President Kenyatta being young started.

Francis Atwoli, the secretary general of Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) while addressing Labour Day celebrations at Uhuru Park, said Uhuru was still young to quit politics just because the Constitution does not allow him a third term.

“If we don’t amend this Constitution to accommodate all Kenyans, where will President Uhuru Kenyatta go after 2022, yet he is a young man? He will end up making others uncomfortable,” Atwoli said.

He insisted that the country need to revisit the Bomas Draft of 2005 in a referendum to allow for the assimilation of the president in government after 2022 elections. 

Next month, the Supreme Court will determine the fate of BBI that has twice been rejected by the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

Depending on the outcome of the apex court, BBI could still offer the sons of Jomo and Jaramogi an opportunity to work together for five years in one government like their fathers did between 1963 and 1967. 

Will the Uhuru, Raila political ‘bromance’ birthed by their handshake deliver a government run by the two?

It will be interesting to watch the unfolding political events that will shape Kenyan politics.