Historical rivalry that keeps our political fires burning

President Uhuru (left) with Raila Odinga

When Kenya was on the brink of independence in the 1960s, one man coined a slogan that would shape the direction of politics in the country to this day.

“Uhuru na Kenyatta” came from Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, one of the elected members of the Legislative Council (Legco) – as Parliament was called then – and became the rallying point.

The famous slogan was electrifying because many Kenyans not only believed Jomo Kenyatta was Kenya’s natural leader but also that many in the outgoing colonial government wished the country would take a different political path.

The two men would, in the independence elections of 1962, craft a winning team that would form the government that would usher the country to freedom.

So it was natural that in 1963, when the Union Jack was lowered and the new black, white, red and green Kenyan flag raised, the two men would take the helm as Kenya’s number one and two.

But their fallout was spectacular, fuelled by the cold war antagonists and the tribal flavouring that the departing colonial masters had bequeathed the country.

Convinced Jaramogi was after his seat, Jomo hardened and plucked crucial functions and powers from the vice president’s Home Affairs docket, driving the former to resignation only a few years after independence.

In 1969, Jaramogi’s three-year-old Kenya People’s Union (KPU) party was banned and he was placed in detention. He would subsequently remain a marked man - all his attempts to return to the Kenya African National Union (Kanu) party nipped in the bud. Only the 1991 return to multi-party democracy would restore his claim to legitimate politics.

Political heirs

Fast-forward to 2001, when their sons and political heirs, Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, would work together under Kanu – the independence party that outgoing President Daniel arap Moi planned to rejuvenate into a formidable national outfit.

In the changes that would usher out the Kanu old guard represented by the likes of pugnacious Secretary General John Joseph Kamotho and vice president George Saitoti, Raila would become the new secretary general and Uhuru one of the party's vice presidents.

But just like the apparently impregnable political union their fathers had crafted at independence, the union between Uhuru and Raila under Kanu at the turn of the century would crash with a thud, with political ramifications whose rumblings can still be heard today.

Raila and Uhuru effortlessly managed to remove the Kanu caliphs of the 1980s and 1990s.

As Cabinet ministers in the outgoing Moi government in 2001, they received Elder of the Order of the Golden Heart (EGH) decorations, seemingly for their work in scattering the Opposition forces.

In August 2001, a committee of eight was formed to work out the merger details between Kanu and Raila's National Development Party (NDP). Kanu was represented by Uhuru, Musalia Mudavadi, Julius Sunkuli and William Ruto, while Raila, Adhu Awiti, Orwa Ojode and Oburu Oginga represented NDP.

“Thanks to the lobbying by the Young Turks (meaning the teams led by Raila and Uhuru), Saitoti, Kamotho and Nicholas Biwott had been left out,” writes Peter Thatiah in Hard Tackle: The Life of Uhuru Kenyatta.

In a fitting example of instances in which the two family scions produce perfect results, the task force worked quickly and recommended the dissolution of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the two parties and replacement with a joint task force – possibly the team that they co-headed.

It did not happen because that move was seen as likely to present legal complications that would have threatened even the seat of the Kanu president, who was a member of NEC.

But Mr Thatiah offers a perfect conclusion of why the task force headed by the heirs of the two political families did its work with speed. He attributes it squarely to their coveting the new big seats that would be created by a new party structure.

“They all wanted the Kanu old guard out,” says the writer.

The Kanu-NDP merger that happened at Nairobi's Kasarani Stadium on March 18, 2002, was preceded by an agreement in which the Kanu Young Turks led by Uhuru entered a deal with Raila’s NDP to back each other’s candidates to defeat the Saitoti-Kamotho-Biwott axis.

“It was a win-win situation for both factions, even though they didn’t like each other,” writes Thatiah. “It was akin to a Texas bad guy meeting a Mexican bad guy at the border, one holding a briefcase with piles of dollars and the other with a briefcase bulging with white sachets – a case of throw your stuff and I throw mine.”

Furious walkout

Of course, this new-found unity didn’t last long because Raila led a furious walkout that brought Kanu to its deathbed when Uhuru was abruptly endorsed as successor by the outgoing Moi.

Raila’s move dealt a severe blow to Uhuru’s dream and in the same breath successfully revived Mwai Kibaki’s dream to succeed the man he had deputised for 10 years.

When Kibaki won an overwhelming mandate to be the third president of Kenya in the December 2002 elections, the Odinga-Kenyatta rivalry had played another major episode. Raila's "Kibaki Tosha" declaration is widely accepted as as what buried Uhuru’s 2002 State House dream.

In the (Banana vs Orange) constitutional referendum of 2005, the two would again find themselves campaigning together against the proposed draft that was supported by Kibaki and his cronies.

They and their allies, many of them disillusioned with Kibaki's government either as sidelined insiders like Raila or mainstream Opposition like Uhuru, would mount a formidable campaign against the (Amos) Wako draft and deal Kibaki a devastating political blow that was felt in the disputed 2007 elections.

Raila and his cronies would leave the Cabinet after the Government lost at the referendum and subsequently line up to convert the Orange movement into a political party for the 2007 polls. But rather than join his new-found allies in a new outfit, a new twist of the famous rivalry would see Uhuru joining the Kibaki re-election campaigns.

Kibaki was declared winner of the disputed election that would be followed by regrettable bloodletting, international intervention and International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments against Uhuru and five other Kenyans.

ICC troubles

Uhuru and his eventual deputy, Ruto, blamed Raila for their ICC troubles.

Keeping the bitterness from the 2007 elections fallout alive while serving under the internationally negotiated grand coalition government under Kibaki, the two rivals from the political family dynasties would find themselves working together again to successfully campaign for the 2010 constitutional referendum.

When Uhuru and the five went to the Hague for their ICC trials, it would be Raila and his cronies who would demand their sacking from the Kibaki government. Although he lost his Treasury Cabinet portfolio, Uhuru hung precariously onto his Deputy Prime Minister’s post until the end of the coalition government because this was a negotiated post.

The bile from the ICC is largely credited for the emotions that made Uhuru and Ruto emerge victorious in 2013 to succeed Kibaki.

But the two sons of the scions of Kenya's independence now find themselves tangled in yet another spasmodic squabble after the 2017 presidential election and subsequent successful petition.