Raila Odinga: An Enigma in Kenyan Politics by Babafemi A. Badejo

KEYNOTE SPEECH BY DR. TOM N. NAMWAMBAH (PhD),
DURING THE LAUNCH OF HON. ENG. RAILA ODINGA’S
AUTOBIOGRAPHY HELD AT NAKUMATT-JUNCTION, NAIROBI
ON JULY 13TH .2006.

"WHO IS RAILA?"

Honourable Ministers, Honourable Assistant Ministers, Members of parliament, Distinguished members of the bar, Honourable Ambassadors and High Commissioners, scholars of high repute, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

I thank you with gratitude for the high honour given, with appreciation for the solemn obligation assumed- I thank you.

Our hearts should expand and rejoice on this day, which calls to memory the good intentions of those men and women that so much value and cherish knowledge, freedom and human liberties. It is a day that calls to memory the conquest achieved by knowledge over ignorance, willing cooperation over blind obedience, opinion over prejudice, new ways over old ways, good over evil, honesty over mischief and deception.

Reasonable is it to rejoice on this day, and useful to reflect thereon; so that we rejoice for real, and not any imaginary, good; and reflect on the positive advantages that we envisage coming, and on those which it is us and the generations after us to acquire.

Honourable guest. Some of the most glowing and deserving tributes ever paid to an individual have been to one of the greatest sons of Africa- Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. The United Nation Secretary General – Kofi Annan observes:

“People often ask me what difference one person can make in the face of injustice, conflict, human rights violations, mass poverty and disease. I answer by citing the courage, tenacity, dignity and magnanimity of Nelson Mandela. I cite his lifelong struggle against apartheid, and his steadfast refusal to compromise his beliefs during long years of incarceration. I cite his inspired leadership, upon his release……..”

The words of Kofi vibrate and echo on this day as they did when President Nelson Mandela led the rest of South Africa to dismantle the chains and fetters of apartheid. It is indeed interesting how history captures and draws parallels. Hon. Raila has answered to all calls of history; after years of in detention, Jatelo walked, not driven, from jail. He was not free, since for him, like Mandela there is no freedom for one man without the freedom of all, and that freedom remains UNACHIEVED today. He moved from a small prison to a larger one whose bars are truncheons, whose walls are poverty, contempt, insincerity, indignity and the denial of common humanity.

As Kenya stands on the alter of judgement, the historical law of challenge and response has indeed chosen time for Kenyans to walk through the Hells gates, defying the schedules, making the oppressive authorities and apparatchiks feel, for once, the powerlessness, the frustration, that they routinely inflict on others. Raila has neither exulted in his release, nor complained of his years of deprivation. He has remained steadfast.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we gather here today not to attest our loyalty and pledge our allegiance to a system annihilating its own people and resources; a system devoid of consistency, goodwill and benevolence – an insensitive to context and incessantly backtracking system. That is not our course.

As we renew our mutual fidelity to a nation we cherish and love most, it is fitting that we should pause, and seek to take account of the meaning of our cost and suffering as a nation. Kenyans will no longer sit back and wallow in an ocean of deception and intimidation.

When the great sons, men and women of this great nation led the onslaught against the oppressive colonial system in this country; wasn’t the issue as Kenyans, whether we should be divided between those who command and those who serve; between those who use others at their will and those who must submit, between extremes of the “haves” and the “have-nots”, between the venom snakes and the snake rattlers that succumb to incessant biting; whether the measure of a man’s or woman’s power to shape his own destiny should be the force at his disposal.

Our nation founded upon answers to these questions need a path that determines appropriate answers to the questions raised.

One of the great scholars of this nation, Prof. Francis Imbuga once observed in his masterpiece- Betrayal in the City, that “..we have killed our past and its busy killing our future”. Yes! We dwell in times of great perplexity and beset by far- reaching problems of social, industrial, economic and political import.

Mistakes of the past continue to haunt our nation today. We incessantly err upon every occasion because we have chosen to live by deception. We err because we lack commitment and purposive judgement of our duty to the nation. We shall however not greatly err if upon every occasion we consult the genius gadfly of our nation. We shall not falter nor swerve from the path of national righteousness if we live by the moral genius of the great Kenyan commoner.

My views may not be in consonance with some of you but the person of Hon. Raila that I know has definitely answered to the call of our nation’s ideals- Amollo is Kenya’s voice of reason, a courageous captain, an isle of ingenuity and above all, Kenya’s bacon of Hope.

Let it be known today that those men and women who have offered their lives for the sake of this country know that patriotism is not the fear of something but the valuable love they have for their nation. It is for this love that Hon. Raila has persistently stood as gadfly for the innocent and the voiceless Kenyans. It is for the same love that he has refused to sit unconcerned while the liberty and freedom of Kenyan people is invaded and trampled upon. It is with commitment to the ideals of nationhood that he has never watched in silence upon public robbery and plunder of our nation. It is on the bases of benevolence that he exposed the existence of mamluks amidst peace loving Kenyans. He couldn’t have done otherwise.

Distinguished guests. The political establishment in this country has received most of what Hon. Raila has said or stood for with a sneer of incredulity. But as a patriot that he is, Agwambo has endured being called unimaginable names- a propagandist, evasive debtor, alarmist, just a Luo etc. Nevertheless, as events unfold, the immediate future is now unveiling the yielder of virtues of honesty and love for the nation. We are making history here today. Tinga, the humble one, amid the aversion of nearly all who surround him, has forgotten what an approving voice sounds like because he engulfed in an environment of scowl. But his vision for the nation is resolute, his commitment to creating a Kenya of equals; a Kenya that transcends ethnic boundaries; a Kenya as beautiful as its people and its nature reserves, a Kenya we all hope for has continued to grow and glow. Raila is a voice of the voiceless, a shield to the defenceless, a patriot, a Pan-Africanist, our hope. I salute you in unlimited words.

THANK YOU!!!