Wamalwa would then state that ‘those who love Raila would probably follow him, while those who hate him will fear him.’ He introduced the dogma of ‘Raila mania, Raila phobia.’ The creed is still sending political shockwaves across Kenya.
Just like the late Mzee Moi, Raila has bestridden Kenya politics like a colossus. During the sunset times of his era, Moi sought Raila’s collaboration to scuttle the unity of the opposition. Moi was hunting down the opposition. Ironically, the hunter became the hunted.
Raila divided KANU into two factions and in later times he managed to split the ruling Jubilee Party. Raila dissolved his LDP Party to join KANU because he thought that Moi would settle for him as his apparent heir to the throne.
When Moi settled for Uhuru Kenyatta, Raila led a battalion of KANU diehards to leave the Party and dubbed themselves as ‘Liberal Democrats.’ Raila’s exodus from KANU left the Party dangling between life and death.
Raila Odinga is one person who cannot go down alone. It’s either you (government) walk together, at his pleasure, or he will prove troublesome and cause discomfort to the government. When Mwai Kibaki came into office and betrayed him, denying him the position of Prime Minister, Raila became the president’s sworn rival.
Kibaki had played with Raila’s imagination. Raila was promised a position that was not in the constitution.
Raila opposed the 2005 constitutional referendum and successfully defeated the government, when Kenyans voted against the document that was popularly referred as the ‘Wako draft.’ Kibaki, then, sacked Raila and his ‘orange brigade.’
The son of the first Kenyan Vice President would then contest against Kibaki in 2007. The electoral outcome was questionable and Raila contested the outcome. Most Kenyans lost their lives after the emergence of post-election violence in some parts of Rift Valley, Nyanza and Central region.
The international community intervened and a peace deal was brokered. The Kofi Anna led team successfully resolved the sharing of government positions between then then ruling PNU Party and ODM. Raila Odinga would then serve as a Prime Minister in the government of Mwai Kibaki. By then Raila’s ODM Party was the majority in Parliament.
When Uhuru Kenyatta came into power, Raila’s popularity started waning. He unsuccessfully petitioned Uhuru’s 2013 win. In 2017 he successfully petitioned Uhuru’s second presidential win, when Chief Justice David Maraga nullified the presidential results.
The nullification of Uhuru’s win was a new lease of Raila’s political life. He boycotted the repeat elections and called for the disbandment of the Independent Election and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). Raila had lost trust with the electoral body, citing bias.
After a series of streets protests, opposition leader Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta unexpectedly walked down the stairs of Harambee House, at the full glare of the media, and shook hands. The handshake was magical as the two political titans were sworn enemies and coincidentally their fathers, Jomo Kenyatta and Oginga Odinga, were also political nemeses.
History will always repeat itself. Just like the KANU-LDP merger that split KANU, the handshake has divided Jubilee. As Raila seeks to make his fourth presidential stab, William Ruto remains his major headache.
2022 might be Raila’s final presidential attempt, due to his advancing age, and he will not go down alone. Probably, Ruto will be the biggest causality. Uhuru’s successor might emerge from the woods. It would probably go to somebody who is neutral and devoid of tribal bigotry. Most political pundits argue that Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi mighty be the best bet to succeed Uhuru.
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