What Mzee told me after Raila left detention – Ida Odinga

 Charles Njonjo, Ida Odinga, former president Daniel Moi, Raila Junior, and his wife and ODM leader Raila in an undated photo of a past event. [File, Standard]

For years, ODM leader Raila Odinga’s wife, Ida, lived with pain and bitterness of untold proportions. 

The object of her displeasure was the ills the State had committed against her and her family soon after Raila was sent to detention by President Daniel Moi’s regime. 

Raila was, in 1982, charged with treason over the abortive coup and detained for six years. He was released in February 1988 but six months later detained again and released in June 1989.

He would later be jailed again in 1990 and finally released in 1991 when he fled the country for Norway. All this time, the State, in many ways, abused his wife’s basic rights and in the end, she lost her teaching job in unclear circumstances. 

“Those frustrations could make someone bitter with the ruling system,” says Ida.

But speaking during an interview at her Kisumu home yesterday, she eulogised Moi as a principled and well cultured leader. She revealed that they had long reconciled their differences.

“You cannot live with bitterness your entire life. You must learn to forgive and be free at heart. After 1993, we forgave each other with Moi and moved on,” she said.

She recalled how the former President apologised for what had befallen Raila.

Common good

“I was never happy at all with Moi until one day one of his close friends, Reuben Chesire, took me to his home and we both said sorry and forgave each other,” she said, adding that Moi had wanted them to forget the past and work together for the common good of Kenya. 

Today, Ida is happy that their differences were reconcilled when Moi was still alive and to date the Odinga and Moi families have remained good friends.

“Forgiving people isn’t an easy task. But as Moi said, Kama iko mtu nimekosea anisamehe (If there is someone I have offended I ask for their forgiveness). We followed his wise counsel,” Ida said.

She added: “When you forgive, you became free in your heart. Friendship flourishes. God will rest Moi’s soul in eternal peace. He was a man with a clean heart.”

Ida said the forgiveness principle is a powerful reminder of the forgiving nature of God traced in the book of Psalms — in which David states that God removes our sin from us as far away as the East is from the West. When you forgive, she said, God blots out your transgressions, and remembers your sins no more.

Past wrongs

”Once I decided to go all-in, I thought perhaps Moi needed to hear me out on this forgiveness call. I felt the need that I would have to reiterate the wrongs done to me, before we reconciled with Moi,’’ said Ida.

She said the late leader adored peace, love and unity. She also spoke of a man with great personal etiquette.

“He loved everyone,” Ida said, recalling that whenever they visited Moi either at Kabarak or State House Nairobi, he would welcome them with open arms.

She was elated that Moi, despite challenges and criticisms that rocked his reign, was a kind man who valued relationships. “In the spirit of national cohesion, let’s embrace his leadership virtues,”  she said yesterday.

Raila’s elder brother Oburu Oginga eulogised Moi as a humble and generous man.

Oburu, also East African Legislative Assembly MP, said Moi was a great friend of his father, former Vice President Oginga Odinga, despite their political differences. 

“The two became friends since Independence Day and they both served at Legco,” said Oburu, who also recalled days Jaramogi was in detention and Moi was the Home Affairs minister.

“It is Moi who wrote for us a letter authorising us to see Jaramogi in detention. He told us that he did not have a hand in our father’s detention,” said Oburu.

The former Bondo MP, who also served in the Moi regime as a planning officer, said the late former President believed in African socialism.

He said when Moi conceded defeat in 2002 without clinging onto power like other African leaders, he proved to the world that Kenya could manage its destiny.

He said: “When Uhuru Kenyatta, who was Moi’s ‘project’ was defeated by Mwai Kibaki in the 2002 elections, he accepted defeat without bloodshed and we respect him for that.”