Raila died intestate, leaving ODM in a state of confusion

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga. [File, Standard]

A great political patriarch has fallen, and the house he held together is now discovering how much of its order was borrowed from his pulse.

Raila Amolo Odinga did not leave behind a successor. He left behind exposure — a movement so emotionally organised around his presence that in his absence, every appetite once disciplined by his authority came rushing to the surface at once. His departure did not produce silence. It produced derangement: A scramble, a market of grief, counterfeit fidelity, and improvised legitimacy.