Let's make Raila our president; this is our Mandela moment
By Dr Vincent Ongore
So much has been said and written about the person of Raila Amolo Odinga, good and bad, and his suitability or otherwise for the presidency of our country, Kenya. In recent times, so much dirt has been heaped on this son of Jaramogi by his opponents, one would think he is the devil incarnate. There's an old African saying that goes something like "only trees that bear good fruits get stoned (I am not sure how it exactly goes)."
Raila has endured all manner of abuses and falsehoods purveyed against him, oftentimes by people he has personally nurtured in politics. That's the nature of our politics and politicians: raw, unsophisticated, abrasive, ungrateful, forgetful, thankless, and untruthful.
Today, I turn my pen on Raila the person: his virtues, contributions, and vision for Kenya, East Africa and Africa. One may wonder why I am not addressing his weaknesses in order to bring out a balanced view of the person who's very likely to be our next President. Every politician who falls out of favour with Raila talks about his weaknesses, real or imagined.
So, rather than waste time discussing things that are neither here nor there, I choose to first debunk some of the falsehoods, misrepresentations, misconceptions and innuendo that Raila has had to endure and take in his stride like the pedigree statesman that he is.
[caption id="attachment_12933" align="alignnone" width="1280"]
File image of ODM leader Raila Odinga. |Photo| Courtesy|[/caption]
First, Raila organized a coup de tat against the government of Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi in 1982. Moi took over the presidency upon Mzee Kenyatta's demise in 1978 against all odds. The cabal of gatekeepers that surrounded the Kenyatta Presidency, the Kiambu Mafia, had planned, through the 'Change the Constitution' movement, to block Moi's ascendancy to the presidency in the event of Mzee's death. Moi was the Vice President and constitutional heir to the throne.
On Attorney General, Charles Njonjo's advice, Mzee Kenyatta scuttled the movement. Njonjo himself had underestimated Moi's ability to hold onto power. He thought Moi would be a passing cloud, to pave the way for him to be president. He was wrong. So, when Moi took over against that background, he immediately became insecure. He started galvanizing power by spoiling the police and provincial administration with huge perks, powers and privileges so he could use them to terrorize any opposition to his regime, real or imagined. Moi embarked on a reign of terror against any form of political opposition, students, academia, outspoken clergy, civil society, and literally everyone who had a divergent opinion, however noble. So, Moi actually fermented and inflicted the coup upon himself.
Raila, like any other right-thinking Kenyan, supported the coup in principle. In other words, he was sympathetic to the coup. Kenyans were suffocating under Moi's dictatorship. This is where there has been a deliberate effort by Raila's detractors to confuse Kenyans. Raila didn't organize the coup, rather, he was sympathetic to it.
This is attested to by the fact that no evidence has ever been adduced in a court of law to link Raila to the coup attempt. He was never jailed for it. He was instead detained without trial since the government didn't want to countenance an embarrassing episode in court of a pseudo-trial without evidence against the accused. If Raila's detractors have any evidence that can sustain trial against him in a competent court of law, they would really be of great help to this country by bringing the speculations to their logical conclusion.
In 1983, a Commission of Inquiry, known as the Njonjo Commission, was established under Justice Cecil Miller, to investigate Njonjo's conduct with respect to the coup attempt. The Commission delivered a guilty verdict against Njonjo. Moi publicly forgave him, but banished him from active participation in politics. Njonjo didn't venture back to politics until his death early this year. I don't know why people keep ignoring documented facts, and instead choose to besmirch Raila's character.
Second, is the accusation regarding party hopping. Raila was in KANU because Kenya was a de jure one party state. Everyone was by default a KANU member. He later schemed to join it with the intention of scuttling KANU's stranglehold on every aspect of citizens' life. He did it with clinical precision. Later, he changed parties as and when it became necessary either because he saw a scheme to lock him out or he simply couldn't achieve his political ambitions under the existing party structures. That applies to every politician with ambition.
[caption id="attachment_14572" align="alignnone" width="965"]
File image of ODM Leader Raila Odinga. |Photo| Courtesy|[/caption]
His fiercest opponent and critic has severally taken him on on this matter of party hopping without showing fidelity to historical facts. The critic has moved from KANU, to ODM, to URP, to Jubilee, and currently UDA. So, the accusation is driven more by the need to gain political mileage than any fundamental principle.
The third accusation is that Raila is power-hungry as evidenced by his previous four unsuccessful stabs at the presidency. All sane politicians know that they are in politics for the sole purpose of gaining power. Power is the permanent interest in politics. In any case, those who are accusing Raila of being power-hungry are currently fighting tooth and nail to gain power.
I don't think there's anything wrong with looking for power. What matters is what one wants to do with it. Raila has demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that he needs power to build bridges across ethnic groups, and transform the country for the better.
That brings me to the fourth and most laughable of all the accusations, that at 77, Raila is too old to be president. Surprisingly, some of the most vocal critics are the very ones who, only the other day in 2008, were prepared to kill in order to defend Mwai Kibaki's second presidential term against the ODM's onslaught. Kibaki was exactly 77 in 2008. So, what changed when it came to Raila's turn?
The last, but by no means, least, among the accusations is that Raila is not sufficiently educated to run the affairs of the state. This accusation is premised on the fact that Raila left Kenya to pursue further studies in Germany in 1962 at Class 7. That's a fact.
The accusers insist that there's no way someone can leave Kenya without sitting Primary School exams and later attain higher academic qualifications in a foreign country. This is a weird, if not silly, accusation. Kenya has diplomatic staff all over the world. Don't their children go to school in those countries? What about diplomats in Kenya? Don't their children attend school in this country?
This lie was repeated so much that I almost believed that Raila was a holder of a Diploma in Welding until I started visiting Germany either as a scholar or guest. I learnt, to my consternation, that Diplom is not a Diploma, but the German equivalent of a British MSc. So, Dip-Ing (Diplom Ingenieur) is a Master of Science in Engineering. In Law, it's called Dip-Mag (Diplom Magister). It's the British equivalent of LLM (Legum Magister).
[caption id="attachment_12831" align="alignnone" width="1024"]
From left: Deputy President William Ruto, ODM leader Raila Odinga, ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi, and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka. |Photo| Courtesy|[/caption]
In 1962, Raila joined Haider Instut to complete the ten years of schooling required before college. Having completed Year 7 in Kenya, he did 8, 9 and 10 in 1962, 1963 and 1964. He joined college later in 1964, and completed the 6 years (including language) and graduated with a Diplom-Ing (Production Engineering) from Universitat Magdeburg.
Why should Kenyans doubt the genuineness of a degree from a German institution? The institution was later merged with others to create Otton von Guerrick Universitat in 1993. Raila's name is indicated as one of their most prominent alumni. For doubting Thomases, please check the University website or hop into an aeroplane and visit Germany. It's just eight hours from Nairobi, preferably by Lufthansa.
Something else that we need to appreciate is that Raila is a very magnanimous politician. He has at one time or another come to the aid of each and every one of those who are now criticizing him most. Moses Kuria is on record as saying that when he had financial challenges during his university days, Raila chipped in to help him complete his Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Nairobi.
Kenyans will remember that when Wetangula was facing impeachment proceedings in Parliament arising from the sales of government properties in Tokyo and Lagos, it was Raila who mobilized his ODM troops to save Weta's career.
In 2002, Mudavadi was Moi's Vice President at a time when the country was at a watershed moment, and KANU's exit from power was imminent. Raila pleaded with him, in vain, to decamp to the opposition. He was defeated at the polls by the then little known Akaranga. Mudavadi remained in the political cold until 2007 when Raila returned to Vihiga to plead with elders to return him to parliament. Raila made him a Deputy Prime Minister, thus sidestepping William Ruto who had brought a lot more votes to the ODM basket. That marked the beginning of the evident bad blood between Ruto and Raila.
Raila is obviously very mature, focused, accomodating and global in outlook. He is a household name in the East African region and Africa at large for very good reasons. His links with leaders across the globe is something he gladly inherited from his father, Jaramogi. At the regional level, it's his sway over President Tshishekedi that brought DRC to the EAC. The entry of DRC with its huge resources and population is a significant boost to the economic fortunes of EAC.
As the head of AU infrastructure development, Raila has done a sterling job, negotiating infrastructure facilities for interconnecting Africa and opening up opportunities for communication, and movement of goods, services and people across the continent. This is a gentleman with a huge dream to transform Kenya and Africa. How I wish that we could reverse the 24 years wasted under Moi and hand them to Raila.
Let Kenyans ignore Raila haters and consider the evidence that is available everywhere around us. When the NARC government was bent on harassing Moi on account of his alleged misdeeds while in power, it took Raila who had suffered 9 years of detention without trial under him to stop the witch hunt. What more evidence of magnanimity do the haters want to see?
My fellow Kenyans, this is our Mandela Moment. Let's seize it for a better nation.
Thank you.
The author is a senior lecturer at the Technical University of Kenya.
File image of ODM leader Raila Odinga. |Photo| Courtesy|[/caption]
First, Raila organized a coup de tat against the government of Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi in 1982. Moi took over the presidency upon Mzee Kenyatta's demise in 1978 against all odds. The cabal of gatekeepers that surrounded the Kenyatta Presidency, the Kiambu Mafia, had planned, through the 'Change the Constitution' movement, to block Moi's ascendancy to the presidency in the event of Mzee's death. Moi was the Vice President and constitutional heir to the throne.
On Attorney General, Charles Njonjo's advice, Mzee Kenyatta scuttled the movement. Njonjo himself had underestimated Moi's ability to hold onto power. He thought Moi would be a passing cloud, to pave the way for him to be president. He was wrong. So, when Moi took over against that background, he immediately became insecure. He started galvanizing power by spoiling the police and provincial administration with huge perks, powers and privileges so he could use them to terrorize any opposition to his regime, real or imagined. Moi embarked on a reign of terror against any form of political opposition, students, academia, outspoken clergy, civil society, and literally everyone who had a divergent opinion, however noble. So, Moi actually fermented and inflicted the coup upon himself.
Raila, like any other right-thinking Kenyan, supported the coup in principle. In other words, he was sympathetic to the coup. Kenyans were suffocating under Moi's dictatorship. This is where there has been a deliberate effort by Raila's detractors to confuse Kenyans. Raila didn't organize the coup, rather, he was sympathetic to it.
This is attested to by the fact that no evidence has ever been adduced in a court of law to link Raila to the coup attempt. He was never jailed for it. He was instead detained without trial since the government didn't want to countenance an embarrassing episode in court of a pseudo-trial without evidence against the accused. If Raila's detractors have any evidence that can sustain trial against him in a competent court of law, they would really be of great help to this country by bringing the speculations to their logical conclusion.
In 1983, a Commission of Inquiry, known as the Njonjo Commission, was established under Justice Cecil Miller, to investigate Njonjo's conduct with respect to the coup attempt. The Commission delivered a guilty verdict against Njonjo. Moi publicly forgave him, but banished him from active participation in politics. Njonjo didn't venture back to politics until his death early this year. I don't know why people keep ignoring documented facts, and instead choose to besmirch Raila's character.
Second, is the accusation regarding party hopping. Raila was in KANU because Kenya was a de jure one party state. Everyone was by default a KANU member. He later schemed to join it with the intention of scuttling KANU's stranglehold on every aspect of citizens' life. He did it with clinical precision. Later, he changed parties as and when it became necessary either because he saw a scheme to lock him out or he simply couldn't achieve his political ambitions under the existing party structures. That applies to every politician with ambition.
[caption id="attachment_14572" align="alignnone" width="965"] File image of ODM Leader Raila Odinga. |Photo| Courtesy|[/caption]
His fiercest opponent and critic has severally taken him on on this matter of party hopping without showing fidelity to historical facts. The critic has moved from KANU, to ODM, to URP, to Jubilee, and currently UDA. So, the accusation is driven more by the need to gain political mileage than any fundamental principle.
The third accusation is that Raila is power-hungry as evidenced by his previous four unsuccessful stabs at the presidency. All sane politicians know that they are in politics for the sole purpose of gaining power. Power is the permanent interest in politics. In any case, those who are accusing Raila of being power-hungry are currently fighting tooth and nail to gain power.
I don't think there's anything wrong with looking for power. What matters is what one wants to do with it. Raila has demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that he needs power to build bridges across ethnic groups, and transform the country for the better.
That brings me to the fourth and most laughable of all the accusations, that at 77, Raila is too old to be president. Surprisingly, some of the most vocal critics are the very ones who, only the other day in 2008, were prepared to kill in order to defend Mwai Kibaki's second presidential term against the ODM's onslaught. Kibaki was exactly 77 in 2008. So, what changed when it came to Raila's turn?
The last, but by no means, least, among the accusations is that Raila is not sufficiently educated to run the affairs of the state. This accusation is premised on the fact that Raila left Kenya to pursue further studies in Germany in 1962 at Class 7. That's a fact.
The accusers insist that there's no way someone can leave Kenya without sitting Primary School exams and later attain higher academic qualifications in a foreign country. This is a weird, if not silly, accusation. Kenya has diplomatic staff all over the world. Don't their children go to school in those countries? What about diplomats in Kenya? Don't their children attend school in this country?
This lie was repeated so much that I almost believed that Raila was a holder of a Diploma in Welding until I started visiting Germany either as a scholar or guest. I learnt, to my consternation, that Diplom is not a Diploma, but the German equivalent of a British MSc. So, Dip-Ing (Diplom Ingenieur) is a Master of Science in Engineering. In Law, it's called Dip-Mag (Diplom Magister). It's the British equivalent of LLM (Legum Magister).
[caption id="attachment_12831" align="alignnone" width="1024"] From left: Deputy President William Ruto, ODM leader Raila Odinga, ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi, and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka. |Photo| Courtesy|[/caption]
In 1962, Raila joined Haider Instut to complete the ten years of schooling required before college. Having completed Year 7 in Kenya, he did 8, 9 and 10 in 1962, 1963 and 1964. He joined college later in 1964, and completed the 6 years (including language) and graduated with a Diplom-Ing (Production Engineering) from Universitat Magdeburg.
Why should Kenyans doubt the genuineness of a degree from a German institution? The institution was later merged with others to create Otton von Guerrick Universitat in 1993. Raila's name is indicated as one of their most prominent alumni. For doubting Thomases, please check the University website or hop into an aeroplane and visit Germany. It's just eight hours from Nairobi, preferably by Lufthansa.
Something else that we need to appreciate is that Raila is a very magnanimous politician. He has at one time or another come to the aid of each and every one of those who are now criticizing him most. Moses Kuria is on record as saying that when he had financial challenges during his university days, Raila chipped in to help him complete his Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Nairobi.
Kenyans will remember that when Wetangula was facing impeachment proceedings in Parliament arising from the sales of government properties in Tokyo and Lagos, it was Raila who mobilized his ODM troops to save Weta's career.
In 2002, Mudavadi was Moi's Vice President at a time when the country was at a watershed moment, and KANU's exit from power was imminent. Raila pleaded with him, in vain, to decamp to the opposition. He was defeated at the polls by the then little known Akaranga. Mudavadi remained in the political cold until 2007 when Raila returned to Vihiga to plead with elders to return him to parliament. Raila made him a Deputy Prime Minister, thus sidestepping William Ruto who had brought a lot more votes to the ODM basket. That marked the beginning of the evident bad blood between Ruto and Raila.
Raila is obviously very mature, focused, accomodating and global in outlook. He is a household name in the East African region and Africa at large for very good reasons. His links with leaders across the globe is something he gladly inherited from his father, Jaramogi. At the regional level, it's his sway over President Tshishekedi that brought DRC to the EAC. The entry of DRC with its huge resources and population is a significant boost to the economic fortunes of EAC.
As the head of AU infrastructure development, Raila has done a sterling job, negotiating infrastructure facilities for interconnecting Africa and opening up opportunities for communication, and movement of goods, services and people across the continent. This is a gentleman with a huge dream to transform Kenya and Africa. How I wish that we could reverse the 24 years wasted under Moi and hand them to Raila.
Let Kenyans ignore Raila haters and consider the evidence that is available everywhere around us. When the NARC government was bent on harassing Moi on account of his alleged misdeeds while in power, it took Raila who had suffered 9 years of detention without trial under him to stop the witch hunt. What more evidence of magnanimity do the haters want to see?
My fellow Kenyans, this is our Mandela Moment. Let's seize it for a better nation.
Thank you.
The author is a senior lecturer at the Technical University of Kenya. What's Your Reaction?
