When Raila Junior peeled back Orange stalwarts’ covers

What you need to know:

  • There are times he has taken a perspective different from that of the political side his father leads. 
  • In the tweet, Junior  opposed how party director of elections Junet had handled the arrest of Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi.

Raila Odinga Junior did not see much of his father growing up. In fact, the elder Odinga says his 41-year-old third-born child saw him for the first time when he was nine.

When Mr Odinga was sent to prison in 1982 over accusations of being part of the attempted coup on the repressive Daniel arap Moi regime, Raila Junior was barely three years old — too young to recognise and “see” his father who had then risen to deputy director at the Kenya Bureau of Standards.

When Mr Odinga was released on February 6, 1988, Raila Junior had for six years got used to not seeing his father around, only the canny image of him in his elder brother Fidel and his sister, Rosemary and their ever-present mother, Ida, who had since been thrown out of Kenya High School, where was a teacher, shortly after her husband's detention.

The reunion, particularly for Raila Junior, was short-lived, as Mr Odinga was re-arrested six months later, to be released in June 1989, then arrested again in July 1990 and released in June 1991, after which he fled to Norway.

Multiparty democracy

Mr Odinga would return to the country shortly after the reintroduction of multiparty democracy and, with every election, he rose to an enigma whose word is as good as law in many of the regions he has fanatical support.

In those regions, and in the 15-year-old Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party launched against the backdrop of a spirited opposition of a “mutilated Constitution” movement, there is an unwritten rule: Raila, Baba, the enigma of Kenya's politics, is not to be questioned. At least not in public by those close to him.

And there is a reason for this: One word from the political giant and your goose is as good as cooked. Few, therefore, dare try to question or criticise him.

But not Raila Junior, the boy who didn’t see much of his father, now a grown man an opinion of his own. There are times he has taken a perspective different from that of the political side his father leads.  For instance, in September 2018, the National Super Alliance took the unexpected step of rallying behind President Uhuru Kenyatta on the contentious issue of introducing value added tax on fuel.

Nasa, which was expected to oppose the tax, had a change of mind after a meeting with Mr Odinga. Shortly after, Raila Junior tweeted his opposition to that stance.

Scathing criticism

“Unfortunately as a Kenyan citizen, I am unconvinced by the statement put out by Nasa on the VAT on fuel,” he wrote. “None of the conditions they’ve put up are measurable and even if they were they are nowhere near closing the deficit on the debt.”

And so, when Raila Junior tweeted again last week with a scathing criticism of ODM, it was a stinging indictment of the party his father has built and nurtured on social justice ideals. Those ideals, Raila Junior believes, had been abandoned and it was time to go back to the basics.

“We as ODM need to find our way back to basics. We are not just about private jets and slay queens whilst abusing rival politicians,” Junior told his 200,000 Twitter followers.

 Twitter users read the talk of private jets as an attack on Suna East MP Junet Mohamed and Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho, who visited Mr Odinga at a Dubai hospital where he underwent a minor surgery on his back.

ODM, Junior said, “has a development agenda clearly outlined in our manifesto” as he urged leaders to focus on “service delivery, democratic space, protecting private citizen rights.”

Though Raila Junior would later clarify that his comments were not targeted at any leaders as he apologised for “any misunderstanding caused,” he kept the stinging tweet up, exciting his father’s critics and leaving those in his circles in a difficult position.

ODM chairman John Mbadi was asked about the comments in a Citizen TV interview and he avoided rebuking the party leader's son — whose comments had made front page news — only saying he had a right to his opinion and that his views do not represent those of the party.

Protect Mr Sudi's right

In the tweet, Junior also opposed how party director of elections Junet — his father's bosom buddy, said to have his ear and almost absolute trust — had handled the arrest of Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi. He believes it is Junet’s job as the Minority whip to protect Mr Sudi's right to say what he wants, even if he does not agree with him.

 Mr Sudi was on Monday charged with hate speech at a Nakuru court and a section of ODM politicians as well as those allied to President Uhuru Kenyatta called on Deputy President William Ruto to apologise over the remarks made by the Kapseret lawmaker and his Emurua Dikirr counterpart Johana Ng'eno.

Junior believes self-analysis requires “consideration of who we think we are” and requires us to “reassess where we came from and where we are going.”

As to whether anyone at Chungwa House is listening to the man who has often called for the legalisation of bhang is a matter of wait-and-see. Those on the opposing side, however, are all too happy to watch.