What you need to know about Raila Odinga’s peace-making legacy
Kenya’s fourth president Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga shake hands after agreeing a political truce on March 9, 2018. Mr Kenyatta publicly supported Odinga’s candidacy for the presidency in the 2022 elections. PHOTO | FILE
Dar es Salaam. Raila Odinga, the veteran Kenyan politician whose life was defined by negotiation, alliances and unrelenting ambition, passed away during a morning walk in Kerala, India. Known as Baba—the father of the people—Odinga was both revered and criticised for his extraordinary skill in brokering deals that reshaped Kenya’s political landscape.
For more than five decades, Odinga pivoted between outsider and insider, opposition and government, with remarkable fluidity. His latest manoeuvre came after Kenya’s youth-led Gen Z protests.
Though not the spark behind the movement, he emerged as the mediator, brokering a “broad-based government” deal that placed his ODM allies in President William Ruto’s Cabinet, cementing his enduring influence.
Born in 1945 to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kenya’s first vice-president and Mary Juma, Raila was steeped in politics from childhood. Educated in East Germany as a mechanical engineer, he returned home to teach, run a business and advocate for his father’s release when political detentions intensified.
His own ordeal began in 1982 when, after a failed Air Force coup, he was imprisoned without trial for six years at Kamiti Maximum Prison—a period that turned him into a national symbol of resistance.
With the reintroduction of multiparty politics, Odinga won the Lang’ata parliamentary seat in 1992 and made his first presidential bid in 1997, finishing fourth. In a move that shocked many, he joined President Daniel Moi’s government, demonstrating his early mastery of pragmatic politics.
He held the Energy Ministry and chaired the parliamentary committee on constitutional review, cementing both influence and networks that would serve him for decades.
Mastering the art of alliances
Odinga’s career was marked by high-stakes alliances. After Moi bypassed him for the presidency in favour of Uhuru Kenyatta, he returned to the opposition, helping build the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) that ended KANU’s 40-year rule in 2002.
Though denied the prime ministership he expected, Odinga destabilised Kibaki’s first term from within, displaying his capacity to leverage positions of influence.
The 2005 constitutional referendum and subsequent 2007 elections saw Odinga consolidate power through the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). When the 2007 polls descended into chaos, he accepted the Kofi Annan-mediated deal that made him prime minister in a grand coalition with Kibaki—a government formed out of crisis rather than consensus.
It was within this fragile coalition that Kenya achieved the 2010 Constitution, a milestone Odinga had long championed.
Despite losing the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections—the latter annulled by the Supreme Court—Odinga remained a central figure.
In 2018, he orchestrated the famous Handshake with President Uhuru Kenyatta, recalibrating Kenyan politics and giving birth to the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), a constitutional reform effort that ultimately failed in court but further solidified his role as kingmaker.
A legacy of negotiation
Odinga’s final years were defined by strategic manoeuvring rather than pursuit of the presidency. His deal with Ruto reflected both risk and pragmatism: a former opposition leader now defending policies he once criticised. To critics, it was capitulation; to supporters, a demonstration of political survival.
Throughout his life, Raila’s influence transcended simple election outcomes. He normalised protest politics, strengthened constitutional institutions and proved that negotiation could achieve outcomes beyond raw power.
He shaped Kenya’s civic consciousness, teaching that political engagement requires both principle and pragmatism.
Yet, his story was also personal. His wife, Ida and children endured absences, detentions and political battles alongside him. Friends and allies saw a man capable of charm, calculation and unwavering loyalty—a tactician who could move seamlessly from street protest to boardroom diplomacy.
Enduring imprint
Raila Odinga’s life defies tidy categorisation. He was hero and tactician, broker and reformer, populist and establishment figure. His fingerprints are on Kenya’s 2010 Constitution, on coalition politics and on the protests that forced state accountability.
He did not leave behind a perfect democracy, but he left a louder, more assertive Kenya—one in which citizens knew their voices mattered.
Odinga’s story was never about the presidency alone. It was about leverage, resilience and the enduring power of negotiation. Even in death, Raila Odinga remains a lesson in the art of political deal-making—an institution unto himself.
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