BWIRE: Raila Baba often forgotten as key Pan-Africanist we must honour

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga./FILE

I physically rubbed very close shoulders with Raila Odinga only once in my life, but I can confidently say I believed in him. Even though he was a different thing at different times, I cast my vote for him over and over.

I knew he had the pan-African spirit many never had. The rest about him, I saw only in the media, through the lenses of others. While many viewed him in awe and pride, others viewed him in disgust and confusion, about him as a person but mostly about his political stance.

While I voted for Raila in every single election with so much hope, the outcome of all the elections he contested left us, his followers and some fanatics, in total confusion, persisting to date.

Just as his life was enigmatic when he could breathe and we jumped, so his death was enigmatic. He exited the stage just like the enigma he was, the pan-African he was and there wasn’t even a signal to let his fanatical fans and fanatical haters know when that day was nigh.

We journalists tend to write the obituaries of prominent people way before they die, but as enigmatic as Raila’s life was, I’m certain no journalist was very ready with the perfect obituary. That’s because he played the stage of power in a powerful way so that nobody would or could second-guess his next move, including his death.

Raila was more than an agent and broker of power, and most of what he gave Kenya will outlive him forever. I wish to eulogise him from the very front for being a pan-Africanist. Pan-Africanism is a movement that emerged after Ethiopia’s victory over Italy in the Battle of Adwa in 1896. African leaders then came together to form the Organisation of African Unity, and that was no mean feat, either. Pan-Africanism is a concept that stood on the shoulders of Raila and those like him. In fact, he is a giant who was not celebrated enough as a pan-Africanist.

Raila, the true epitome of pan-Africanism in Mama Africa, was a force to reckon with; in fact, he almost seemed immortal. So what could we have done differently in terms of celebrating him as a pan-Africanist? Our one-off articles and political statements will be written in the weeks to come, and then the fanfare will subside. How do other countries truly celebrate their heroes who champion African unity, democracy and sovereignty?

We need all the best lessons to enshrine him as the major figure we never properly recognised. The government needs to set up a Vice-President Joseph Murumbi-like Museum, perhaps to highlight Raila’s role in national and continental struggles, multipartyism, peace deals through handshakes, AU reforms amongst others. He, in fact needs to be honoured with the likes of Thomas Sankara, Kwame Nkurumah, and Julius Nyerere.

The government can also involve the African diaspora, and not only Kenyans. Celebrations are often nationalised, but his send-off also needs the Africans, Caribbeans, African-American activists and even Afro-Latin Americans. Celebrations of Raila can span key African cities. Many Africans are truly affected. This can also be a moment to push some of the pan-African policy agenda he which he truly believed.

To his own disappointment, after never reaching his own presidential goal, he could only align himself with the presidency, so much so that in his last years after the 2022 general election, he suddenly became an ally to the UDA party, which many ODM followers strongly opposed.

This made President William Ruto, his victorious election rival, a fan among former opponents. I personally wish he had never vied in the last election; he could have even gone in a more dignified way, truly like other pan-African kings such as Nelson Mandela. I’m only glad that he died while in the good books of the government of the day.

Bottom line: you were a human being, Raila, and you truly fought lots of fights in your 80 years that inspired many things, including the democracy we enjoy and the Gen Z movement. Easy to criticise, but can we sustain? 

May you rest in power, Baba. We will find it hard to have another you and the wealth of past, present and possibly future information you have carried with you. Indeed, when an old man dies, a library burns to the ground. Jowi Jowi!