Authors Malkiat Singh [in blue coat] and Lily Nyariki, Abdullatif Abdallah and Winnie Odinga, who represented the Odinga family as her late father, Raila Odinga, was posthumously inducted into the Kenya Publishers Association Hall of Fame, during the Nairobi International Book Fair on September 24, 2026. / ENOS TECHE
EALA MP Winnie Odinga has urged young people to question authority and think independently, saying even those they admire should not be placed beyond scrutiny.
“Question even the people you admire, including Raila Odinga. He spent his life questioning authority,” Winnie said.
She said making her late father, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, someone who could no longer be questioned would run contrary to the values he demonstrated during his lifetime.
“It would be a strange tribute to him if you turned him into somebody who could no longer be questioned,” she said.
Winnie was speaking at the Nairobi International Book Fair, where she represented the Odinga family as Raila was posthumously inducted into the Kenya Publishers Association Hall of Fame.
She challenged young people to read beyond academic requirements, saying knowledge was important in understanding their own history and experiences.
“Read because there are people who benefit when you do not know your own history,” Winnie said.
She said reading could also help young people recognise that others had experienced challenges similar to their own.
“Read because somebody somewhere has already felt that thing you're going through, that you think you've never faced before,” she said.
Winnie said young people should use knowledge to develop the confidence to question and think for themselves.
“Read because the easiest person to lead is the person who has never learned to question, and then think,” she said.
Her remarks came as Raila's contribution to literature and publishing was recognised alongside his long political career. He authored The Flame of Freedom, a memoir detailing his life and political journey.
Winnie also challenged young people to broaden their understanding of leadership, saying it was not necessarily tied to holding public office or a formal title.
“Not necessarily from Parliament or State House, not necessarily with a title, definitely not with a rifle. Lead wherever you are,” she said.
Reflecting on her father's life, Winnie said his example showed that leadership could sometimes require standing alone.
“My father's life taught me that sometimes leadership means standing at the front, and sometimes leadership means standing almost completely alone,” she said.
She said Raila's ideas and arguments continued to influence public discourse even after his death.
“Today, however, he is not alone. His words are here, his ideas are here, his arguments are definitely here, and judging by Kenyan politics, some of those arguments are not finished,” Winnie said.
Winnie said her father remained committed to Kenya and believed in the ability of Africans to envision a better future.
“Dad loved this country. He believed fiercely in its people, and he believed that Africans must have the courage to imagine something better than what we inherited,” she said.
She further urged Africans to tell and document their own stories, warning that failure to do so could leave others to define their history.
“A continent that doesn't write and share its own story eventually discovers that somebody else has written it for us,” she said.
