The death of the former Prime Minister of Kenya, Raila Amolo Odinga, this week, brought memories of our days at university watching the evolving shift from single to multi-party politics, across Africa, with Kenya leading the charge.
In 1992, then president Daniel arap Moi appeared to be under intense pressure from a group called the Forum for Restoration of Democracy (FORD). The group was promising in terms of leadership potential, for it had young activist lawyers such as Paul Muite and James Orengo, working with some elderly politicians such as Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Martin Shikuku, Kenneth Matiba, Charles Rubia, Masinde Muliro and Gitobu Imanyara. It was the first united opposition we were seeing in the Kenyan political landscape since 1982, when the country became, by law, a one-party state under KANU.
We studied closely the biting political communication at the opposition rallies, the dramatic scenes of demonstrations to Kamukunji, the arrests, trials, imprisonments and the reaction of then 28-year-old KANU government to this onslaught.
We were young and smitten by a popular youthful government in Uganda. The National Resistance Movement (NRM) had restricted multiparty politics, and we were not sure what signalling effect Kenyan politics would send to Kampala.
Five years prior, on December 14, 1987, Kenya and Uganda had amassed troops at their respective borders in preparation for a possible fight. We had held our breath, given that Uganda was just coming out of a difficult period of scarcity, where essential goods were rare. Kenya was our key supplier and outlet to the world for almost everything!
Lo and behold, the opposition splintered before our eyes into FORD-Asili led by Mr Kenneth Matiba and FORD-Kenya led by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. Shockingly, as if the first split wasn’t lesson enough, more splits happened largely on tribal lines. What was a large, united and promising opposition with elders, women and youth, lost to president Moi, who pressed home his advantage twice in 1992 and 1997. The Kenya opposition scenario almost became a script for many new opposition parties built at the end of the Cold War in 1989, in Africa. They all seemed to have much heat but little light on unity and how to acquire and hold power.
Regardless, what followed as a permanent fixture in the next 33 years was the late Raila Odinga, a towering figure in the hearts and minds of East Africans. It is not an exaggeration to argue, as an outsider to Kenya politics, the country would have been unstable without his steadying hand.
I watched him stand next to former president Uhuru Kenyatta, after a disputed 2017 election, and say, ‘.we are all sailing on one ship. We must all come together to scoop out the water that has been sipping in or we shall all capsize.’
It was a very reassuring image of a statesman setting down his wishes for the greater good of his country and the region. And boy, did he do it well! I saw him many times, from the post-election violence of 2007 through to the last one in which he ran against President William Ruto in 2022. He always returned to the scene to pull the country from the brink, courageously calming the storms, standing head-to-head with his opponents, in pursuit of the greater interest of Kenya.
For many in the region, we think he kept Kenya calm and united because an unstable Kenya is unthinkable, for it would disrupt trade, transportation and culture as a few weeks of 2007 post-election violence showed. Raila Odinga reconciled differences and kept his country growing, even if he never led from the top as president. This makes one wonder: what would Kenya look like had he been given a chance to lead?
We will never know because this is a conjectural question; one we cannot answer without speculating. But as an active participant in all administrations after Moi, one can see his hand in the good public works when he was prime minister, the unrelenting fight for democracy and the yearning to lead the Africa Union. The larger question that perhaps young people in Kenya should answer, is: who will fill these big shoes given the realignment that is taking place with this loss? I suppose there are many young people who will surprise us and raise to the occasion to emulate Raila and answer this question firmly.
Our condolences to Mama Ida Odinga, the family, President Ruto, the government and the people of Kenya.