Raila: An enigma’s political journey

By ABDIKADIR SUGOW

A shrewd strategist and an enigmatic personality, Raila Amolo Odinga has come a long way in his political career and is now on the verge of attaining the height of his ambition.

The next two months will be the most crucial in the long political journey that started when he was born to the doyen of opposition politics – Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Mary Ajuma Odinga in Maseno, Nyanza Province, on January 7, 1945.

Interviews with close associates and confidantes, including those who were allied to his late father, reveal in Raila a character with a fierce determination to succeed in every mission.

While opponents portray him as a desperate adversary who would stop at nothing to achieve his political ends, Raila maintains that he has never compromised his principles.

They confide that his vision is founded on the political umbilical cord that ties him to his father and other Kenyan freedom fighters who struggled and fought for Kenya’s independence.Raila never hesitates to make hard decisions, even if it means breaking friendships, alliances and even reconciling with opponents, like Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, with who he has forged an alliance in the presidential race.

Few would have imagined that they would ever come together again into a partnership like the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) that appears to have placed Raila within sniffing distance of State House.

His power to inspire strong sentiments among supporters and opponents alike has drawn admiration and envy in equal measure.Supporters cast him as a noble warrior “Agwambo” in the common cause, fighting for democracy, transparency, and accountability, while his opponents refer to him in almost rabid overtones in their attempts to counter his mastery of the political chess game.

Raila sprung into prominence after a relatively quiet tutelage under his father Jaramogi, an enduring link that would plunge him into the murky world of the one-party era in which Kenyans lived in trepidation.

After the abortive August 1, 1982, coup attempt, in which the Odingas were suspected of involvement, Raila was denied the right to a fair trial, subjected to torture and degrading treatment and detained for nine years in three stints.

The harsh injustice meted out to him earned Raila a reputation for bravery as he carved out for himself the image of a man who is always ready to sacrifice for the sake of others.

Released on June 21, 1991, Raila joined his father and other radical figures of the 1990s ‘Second Liberation’ after independence in the quest for the repeal of the law banning alternative political parties.

The law was repealed on December 10, 1991 and three weeks later, the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (Ford), which Jaramogi and Raila helped to create, was registered as a political party.

From then on, Raila’s political skills resourcefulness and chameleonic ability to reposition both himself and his allies to take full advantage of changing political currents started being noticed. He won the Lang’ata parliamentary seat as a Ford candidate in 1992.

Jaramogi’s death in January 1994, left Ford fractured and Raila quit to lead the National Development Party (NDP) and retained the Lang’ata seat in a by-election. In the 1997 election, Raila was third in the presidential race.

After the election, Raila performed a daring political stunt, aligning and then merging his party with then President Moi’s ruling Kanu party.

Just before the 2002 General Election, Raila led a rebellion in Kanu, thwarting Moi’s plot to maintain Kanu hegemony and nominating Uhuru Kenyatta as his preferred successor.

Leading the Kanu rebels who included Kanu stalwarts like the late Prof George Saitoti, Moody Awori, Kalonzo Musyoka and Joseph Kamotho, Raila engineered a dramatic political coup with his famous “Kibaki Tosha” call that saw Kibaki elected as Moi’s successor under the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) that vanquished Kanu.

After Kibaki broke a pre-election gentleman’s agreement to grant him the position of Prime Minister and other promises, Raila turned his attention to the constitutional reform and the mobilisation of democratic forces in the country.

He launched aggressive campaigns for a ‘No’ vote in the 2005 referendum on constitutional reform. The famous “Banana ‘Yes’ versus Orange” referendum campaign battle gave birth to and the name of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) that Raila leads.

The resounding defeat of the Kibaki-led Banana team at the referendum earned Raila the sack from his Cabinet position alongside other Orange campaigners, including Kalonzo.

They would acrimoniously part company with Musyoka after a protracted tussle for the Orange party in 2007 before the tumultuous and disputed 2007 presidential elections that led to an unprecedented violence in Kenya in which 1,300 people died and over 300,000 were displaced.

Raila and allies maintain that Raila was robbed of victory in the 2007 elections after which Kibaki was hurriedly sworn in and Musyoka, who came a distant third in the presidential race, was named his Vice-President in a “half-government”.

The post-election violence led to a political stalemate that was only resolved under international mediation led by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

A negotiated settlement under the National Accord led to the formation of a Coalition Government in which Raila became Prime Minister as he accepted the other half of Government, which he commonly refers to as nusu mkate (half-loaf).

By agreeing to work in a coalition with Kibaki, Raila once again demonstrated his political acumen of going for the jugular in political battles and making a strategic retreat or change of tact as necessary.