The day I learnt Raila Odinga is Kenya's shrewdest political tactician

Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka chats with Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga during the burial of Mama Dorcas Ajwang in Wando Homa bay county. [File, Standard]

Being the last Sunday of 2024, let me join Kenyans to reflect on the country’s politics, which hit a high note in the year and in fact in June when the country nearly tipped over.

The year has had its fair share of surprises both on events and the moves by political personalities some emerging victorious in a rather surprising way.

In my last piece on this paper, I reflected on the many firsts of President William Ruto. Today, I reflect on the man who now works closely with President Ruto and who his multitude of supporters refer to as Baba. Raila Amolo Odinga.

I will begin this tale this way.

When the year started, the Kenya Kwanza government was a solid house struggling to keep its 2022 campaign promises to the people. It was politically intact with the top leadership working together despite a few revelations by hard-nosed journalists that there was a growing gap between President Ruto and then Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua. This paper was in the forefront of that, which was good journalism.

Azimio remained the opposition coalition encompassing ODM, Wiper and Jubilee while the top political debate was the National Dialogue talks that had been launched to end 2023 protests against the cost of living.

By the time we close the year, however, in the next two days, all political observers read new alignments in the coming year especially after the Ichaweri visit, which we are learning could have been negotiated by the man who lives and eats political strategy -- Raila Odinga.

The handshake at Ichaweri was the culmination of a converging of interests between the country’s three most tactful politicians, who, political tact is written on their hearts and flows in their veins. President Ruto, retired President Uhuru Kenyatta and the former Prime Minister.

These men needed not study politics in class as I and my classmate Rigathi Gachagua did. They were born with it in their hearts and veins. They seem to get the practical aspect of it by inspiration as did the English Kings and Queens of the Tudor Dynasty. That dynasty has been described as England’s most politically smart Royal House; From Henry VII the father of the Tudor’s to Elizabeth 1 the one who closed the dynasty after lifting England above Spain making it the most powerful kingdom in its time.

As we close this year, the man who studied politics with me in class -Gachagua, watches from the sidelines as the man who did not study it -Raila, continues to be a go-to for political solutions. And there is the reason.

I was District Officer in Muhoroni, my first posting in the provincial administration when Baba’s name was listed among troublesome individuals of the country.

He had just returned from self-exile during the height of the push for party pluralism. His father Jaramogi was the one leading opposition -- he and Kenneth Matiba.  We the DOs, young as we were, rich with book knowledge from University, of course stood with the government of the day whose ruling party was Kanu.

As a young DO, I did not engage with Raila since he concentrated his focus in Nairobi -- despite his name bearing strong consequences in Luo Nyanza. I was also to be posted in districts that were distant from the center of opposition politics for the next 20 years until 2012 when I left the civil service and got into politics.

My interaction proper with Kenya’s political enigma, as espoused by Nigerian lecturer Babafemi Badejo, in Raila Odinga: An Enigma in Kenyan Politics, was when I was Speaker of the Senate. That was when I learned, as my classmate Gachagua learnt this year, that Raila is Kenya’s top power broker and leading political operator.

It was at a time when the Senate was facing challenges clearing the Division of Revenue Bill 2020 which had failed nine times on the floor of the House.

The bone of contention was what was called the Third Basis for Revenue sharing among Counties which, in the eyes of some senators, was going to disadvantage the counties they represented. President Uhuru Kenyatta came down on me hard -- Kabisa! Uhuru has a temper, the one that Joe Khamis wrote about in his Politics of Betrayal, that it reminded him of his father Jomo Kenyatta.

Despite the easy manner that Kenya’s fourth president spots; a friendly carefree demeanour, Uhuru is a tsunami and can smother stuff on its path, on a bad day.

Uhuru had believed that as Speaker, I was doing little or nothing to close discussions on the 2020 Division of Revenue Bill. He wanted it passed to remove any delays that county governments may experience in receiving funds.

And so one time I received a call from the current Busia governor who was then cooling his heels outside authority after he missed the 2017 gubernatorial election in Busia, Paul Otuoma. He told me that Baba was relaxing at his humble abode in Karen and wanted to watch the ongoing premier league at my official residence which was in his neighbourhood. The residence was adjacent to Otuoma’s home. I told Otuoma that I was finishing up on an official matter and will head home.

When I arrived at the residence, I found Baba seated in my living room sipping his favourite glass of Jack Daniels. I had not had a close tete-a-tete with the enigma as this.

Raila is some sort of an encyclopedia of Kenyan political history since the arrival of Hugh Chumley Delamare, and the beginning of colonialism through to this day. His recollections are laced with dates and years, the ups and downs of the country. Baba left my residence at 1am.

The following day I broached the challenge I was facing in convincing President Uhuru that discussions at the Senate on the Division of Revenue Bill were a hot potato which my office could not shape into what he wanted.

Raila listened keenly and then called Uhuru who picked on the first ring. From then on, I did not receive heat from the President. There followed more interactions with Baba.

As we close 2024, I should say the man loves this country and will act accordingly in the interest of Kenya and those who serve it with all their hearts.