Prime Minister Raila Amollo Odinga is arguably the most talked about politician in Kenya today. His supporters follow him with a cultic commitment, giving him the solid backing often reflected in opinion polls.
Some observers agree he is one of the most controversial and influential politicians in Africa because of his long history of struggle for political power.
For close to two decades, Raila – a front-runner in the Kibaki succession race – has illuminated Kenya’s political arena with slices of high drama as he pursues his childhood dream of ascending to the country’s highest political office – the State House.
At 68, Raila is making his third and last stab at the presidency amid a chequered political career that has seen him weather tough political storms.
Old television footage showing him diving for cover under the tumbling tables during chaotic Ford- Kenya elections in 1996 at the Thika Stadium and stories of how he once dressed like a Catholic nun to escape arrest after the 1982 abortive coup, portray a man whose political past is enigmatic.
In one of his rarely told stories, Raila once gave a vivid description of how he used a battered, leaking boat to escape to Uganda through Lake Victoria with security agents in hot pursuit.
So sophisticated is Raila’s political life that even some of his allies rarely understand him. In excerpts from Raila’s autography –Raila Odinga: An Enigma in Kenyan Politics, former Gem MP Joe Donde describes Raila as a double-faced politician.
Double-faced
“Raila is a double-faced human being that is difficult to understand. As Wamalwa (Kijana) used to say, if you talk to Raila, you have to know what Amolo is thinking and yet it is the same person. Knowing Raila from the 1950s, it is safe to say that what he says is not what he does on the ground.”
In the same book, Cabinet minister Dalmas Otieno is quoted as describing Raila as the best propagandist in Kenya. “No other person can match him. His communist training has helped him. He is able to create an expectation and make people feel it is real.”
Most observers, however, agree that unlike his opponents in the presidential race, Raila wields a magic wand. He is a master of political satire and cuts the figure of a hardened war general, who has fought and won many political battles.
His stage antics, calculated flowery language, and the use of parables have endeared him to the masses.
Raila has a rare gift of the garb. His versatility on stage, the use of proverbs, and deep understanding of the people’s expectations has put him above the rest. He knows what his audiences want to hear,” says Kisumu-based lawyer Cleveland Ayayo. He adds: “While other politicians bore their listeners with long, dry and winding speeches on what they want to do, Raila spices his speech with useful and exiting anecdotes. He sings and dances for his listeners.”
In his native Nyanza, Raila is held in awe. His supporters who were astounded by his political maneuvers named him Agwambo (the mysterious one). They also call him Jakom (Chairman). He has recruited his wife Ida into his political high voltage club and is now often by his side in his campaigns.
His close and intricate network with elders – some of whom he inherited from his late father Kenya’s first Vice-President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga – has helped him to consolidate his power.
Luo politicians, who have tried to resist his influence in the region, have themselves faded into oblivion. He has a well-knit private and official intelligence network, running deep into the villages that help him gauge the country’s political temperature.
Raila burst into the limelight in 1982 when he was arrested and detained for allegedly taking part in the abortive coup at around the same time his father Jaramogi was also put under house arrest.
He has been detained three times – in 1982, 1988, and in 1990.
This handed the Odinga family lots of sympathy from Kenyans who believe in change and reforms.
In 1992, he joined the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (Ford), which had been founded by his father. He held various positions in the party before it was split into Ford-Kenya and Ford-Asili.
He won the Langata parliamentary seat for the first time in the same year. But it was after his father’s death in 1994 that he sharpened his political life as he fought for the control of the party his father founded.
He resigned from the party to start the National Development Party after failing to wrestle it from former Vice-President Kijana Wamalwa.
In 1997, he contested the presidency for the first time and finished third after retired President Moi and the then DP chairman Mwai Kibaki.
Raila later entered into co-operation with Kanu that led to the merger of the two parties and his subsequent appointment as Minister for Energy. B
he later led a mass walk out of Kanu after the then President Moi picked Uhuru Kenyatta as his preferred successor in 2002. The team that included Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, Raila, and the late Internal Security Minister George Saitoti later regrouped to kick ruling party Kanu out of power.
The same team again walked out of the National Rainbow Coalition Government and formed the Orange Democratic Movement. He vied for president in 2007, but failed to oust President Kibaki in the controversial election that sparked widespread violence.
Odungi Randa, who lived with Raila from childhood, describes him as an intelligent man who draws his strength from consultations with his supporters.
“He is a go-getter who rarely gives up on a good fight,” he says.
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