Jaramogi aligned himself with Russia and China, prompting the West to push for his isolation to keep him from succeeding Kenyatta. This is what turned Jaramogi and his supporters into outsiders and what also keeps Raila from ‘winning’.
By Kenyatta Otieno
Success has many fathers, which makes failure an orphan. I have listened to and read many posts by people blaming Raila Odinga for his inability to clinch the presidency in his five attempts. It would be simplistic of me to blame Raila for losing elections. My only axe for him is that he did not realise in good time, especially after the 2007 debacle, that he will never be allowed to govern this country.
Like his father, Jaramogi, Raila is an outsider in Kenyan politics. He has only been allowed to operate as a political elite, but the machinations to keep him off the presidency prove he is a political outsider. Ironically, Raila, by virtue of being the son of Jaramogi Odinga, was labelled as a “dynasty” in the last general election – a political phrase for those believed to “own” the Kenyan political space by right since independence against hustlers, the perceived outsiders.
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, the father to Raila Odinga, was pushed out of the independence government in 1966. He resigned when he disagreed with the “Kiambu Mafia” – Jomo Kenyatta’s kitchen cabinet on governing the country. Jaramogi aligned himself with the Eastern Bloc of Russia and China, which prompted the West to push for his isolation to keep him from succeeding Jomo Kenyatta. This is what turned Jaramogi and his supporters into outsiders; they were never allowed to run in any elections until the multiparty elections of 1992.
By extension, Luos, who form the bedrock of Raila’s supporters, were also pushed to the political periphery. There was a tweet on X after the 2022 general election that Luos have never held the following positions in government: Head of Public Service, Chief of Defense Forces, Central Bank Governor, Director General of NIS and Commissioner General of KRA. In short, Luos have never occupied offices that shape and govern the country. Nevertheless, Luos have formed the crux of civil service since independence and are known for their competence and passion in delivery. That tweet, in a way, pointed to what people believed that Lt. General Francis Ogolla would fail Robert Kibochi as CDF. He was later appointed due to Tonje Rules and also because he will soon retire.
No street or public institution in Nairobi had ever been named after Jaramogi despite his credentials in fighting for freedom and second liberation. This changed when Uhuru Kenyatta pushed the Nairobi County government to rename Mbagathi Way to Raila Odinga Way in 2021. Until then, only Nakuru town had a street named Oginga Odinga outside Luo Nyanza. This was done immediately after independence by Nakuru Town MP Achieng’ Oneko and Nakuru Senator Wasonga Sijeyo.
The 2022 general election scenario made Raila Odinga’s supporters believe they had finally found the key to the sanctum of power. Support from the incumbent, Uhuru Kenyatta, meant that the “system” that was blamed for rigging him out in the past was now on his side. In the end, Raila had to step back and pull out his hand fast lest the closing door crush his fingers. He lost the election that was his to lose by around two hundred thousand votes. It led me to conclude that there is nothing Raila can do to be president. Raila has done his best to win some elections, build alliances across ethnic groups and even a major “handshake” with incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta, but all in vain. His mobilisation skills are unmatchable and have made ODM the biggest political party able to win seats in all the regions of Kenya. However, he remains an outsider in the Kenyan political space.
It drove me to compare Revisionist Zionism as a wing of the Jewish political ideology. Zionism emerged in the nineteenth century to push for establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It later became the ideology for establishing and protecting the State of Israel. Theodore Herzl is regarded as the founder of Zionism through his 1896 pamphlet that envisioned a future independent Jewish state. In the early days, Zionism pushed Jews to revive their Hebrew language and desist from assimilating into European communities.
Zionism later took different forms in line with the interpretation by different leaders. Some pushed Religious Zionism and Cultural Zionism, but the quest for homeland made Political Zionism well-known globally.
Socialist Zionism emerged as the leading light of the nascent State of Israel in 1948. Socialists believed that centuries of anti-Semitic oppression in Europe had reduced Jews to a meek, vulnerable people who relied on the benevolence of others. They pushed for a revolution of the soul of Jewish society as a necessary prerequisite for moving to Palestine. Jews would then become farmers, workers, and soldiers to build the new land they would later own.
If you have ever been an outsider in a home or office, you can identify with Raila’s predicament. You could be the most competent manager, but events keep showing you you do not belong. You may attend meetings but never be allowed into insider knowledge, codes and benefits. Once in a while, some benefits are thrown your way to appease you, but the fact remains that you are an outsider.
There was General Zionism, or Liberal Zionism, that was initially dominant in the early years of the Zionist movement. It guided the First Zionist Congress in 1897 until after the First World War as many Zionist leaders such as Herzl and Chaim Weizmann belonged to or aspired to the European middle class. Liberal Zionism is not associated with any single party in modern Israel but has guided the political ideology of several political outfits. They pushed for free market policies, democracy and adherence to human rights.
Then came Vladimir “Zeeve” Jabotinsky, who led Revisionist Zionists, also known as Nationalist Zionism. He broke away from the World Zionist Organization in 1935 after outlining his ideas in an essay titled Iron Wall. His guiding principle was that the creation of a Jewish state should be the main objective of Zionism, which was not the case. When this was not embraced, they walked out.
Jabotinsky believed that Zionism should lead a colonising adventure to Palestine. According to him, Arabs will not in any way embrace the Jews, hence the iron wall between the two communities. He also believed that an armed force must be established for this end. As stated in Jewish texts and the Bible, the new state that will emerge must also be on both sides of River Jordan. Jabotinsky became the leader of outsiders seen as radicals in the Zionist movement and later the State of Israel. Jabotinsky was like Jaramogi, and after his son Raila, who became the leader of outsiders in the Kenya political space.
Vladimir Jabotinsky adopted the name Zeve, which means wolf in Hebrew. The press called him the lone wolf. Born in Odessa, modern-day Ukraine, then under USSR in 1880, he joined the Zionist movement in his teens. When Theodore Herzl died in 1904, he became the leader of right-wing Zionists. He fought in WWI alongside Britain, where he earned the OBE medal. The idea of returning to Palestine came upon him during the war when Turkey, then under the Ottoman Empire, who also ruled Palestine, joined the war. After the war, Palestine became a British Mandate, and Jabotinsky got down to work.
He trained Jews in European ghettos in warfare in preparation for invading Palestine. His militia in Poland was called Betar, but upon moving to Palestine, he became Irgun. It got some of its members from the moderate and Socialists backed Haganah. Irgum attacked British posts in Palestine, which led to his imprisonment and later expulsion from Palestine. In 1936, Jabotinsky prepared an “evacuation plan” for Jews out of Europe. It was a ten-year plan to evacuate one and half a million Jews from Poland, Nazi Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Baltic States to Palestine.
He managed to sneak in a few Jews before the British put a stop to it. Zionist leaders still believed in following Britain, who were not initially open to the idea of a sudden Jewish takeover of Palestine. Zionists entertained Britain’s idea for a Jewish homeland in Kenya, which the Congress later overruled. Jabotinsky’s way did not endear him to the leadership until he died in exile in New York in 1940. Despite the Holocaust vindicating him and his followers, they were never embraced. His death threw his followers off the rails as they did not have the numbers in Palestine when the war of independence began.
His counterpart, David Ben Gurion, who led the Socialist Zionists, emerged as the leader of the new State of Israel in 1948. Menachem Begin, who was in charge of Irgun militias before it merged with Haganah to form the Israel Defense Force, took over from Jabotinsky in leading the Revisionists. The group was labelled militarists, fascists and enemies of workers by the British and Jewish Socialists.
The Socialists led Haganah worked with Irgun under Begin in fighting the British. They agreed on the infamous attack on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which killed over ninety people in July 1946. Haganah left Irgun to take the blame when the attack attracted a negative response. The international community further alienated the Revisionists. Haganah left the insurgency push to Irgun and concentrated on smuggling Jews to Israel. Irgun insurgency pushed Britain to leave Palestine in September 1947, and in November, the UN voted to establish two states in Palestine for Jews and Arabs.
However, the Civil War between Jews and Arabs broke out, and Irgun fighters were ruthless compared to Haganah. Begin threatened to declare the independence of the Jewish State from his hideout but did not do so. Britain put a bounty on his head as they propped up the leadership of the Jewish Agency to Socialists under Ben Gurion.
Jabotinsky had formed a political party called Hatzohar, but in August 1948, Begin and the Irgun high command members formed Herut. There was discontent, but in the end, the underground militia group took over Revisionist Zionism when Hatzohar failed to win a seat in parliament. The Revisionists became the official opposition, but the radical, fascist label did not end. They also refused to recognise the Kingdom of Jordan.
Begin was banned from travelling to Britain amidst other restrictions. Ben Gurion insisted he could form a coalition with any party except Herut and the Communists. Irgun leaders were also ostracised in the new Israeli Defense Force. Meanwhile, Begin kept his faith in the new state and remained in the periphery until a coalition with the Liberal Party in 1965 eased their isolation. In 1963, Levi Eshkol replaced Ben Gurion as Prime Minister, and the following year, the remains of Jabotinsky were brought from New York for state burial in Israel. Fallen Irgun militias also began to receive state honours like other freedom fighters.
The day the Six Day War began in June 1967, Eshkol formed a national unity government, and Begin became minister without portfolio. This marked the turning point in Herut’s change from outsiders to peripheral insiders. In 1973, several parties consolidated into Likud, with Herut as the dominant party. The government’s mishandling of the Yom Kipur War led to Likud winning seven more seats in the 1973 elections. This marked the beginning of Mapai/Labour’s fall, and in 1977, Likud won the elections.
The outsiders became insiders, and Begin became Prime Minister. He stepped down in 1983, but Likud became a leading “insider” party, especially after the forty-three-year-old Benjamin Netanyahu took over as Likud chairman in 1993. Likud has led Israel through a period of great economic growth.
Where am I going with this narrative?
I believe Uhuru Kenyatta tried to play Levi Eshkol, who rehabilitated outsiders in Israel in the 1960s. The handshake was meant to clean the negative image Raila inherited from his father as a leftist, socialist and ruble rouser. Raila’s perceived involvement in the 1982 aborted coup has always been a blot in his image, just like Begin’s and Irgun’s militant streaks.
Raila being the centre of political outsiders is evident from the fact that all politicians associated with him have done so when they perceived themselves as outsiders. When William Ruto and Kalenjin felt that the NARC government had pushed them out of the centre in 2003, they coalesced around Raila for the 2007 general elections. When the insiders embraced them, they returned to the fold and left the outsiders to fight their cold.
The same can be said of Kalonzo Musyoka, Martha Karua, and Musalia Mudavadi, among others. This is why the communities that feel alienated and marginalised rally behind him. Raila’s push for a parliamentary system and devolution in the 2010 constitution was to enable outsiders to have an executive stake, however small or distant.
Raila’s election loss is not due to his disorganisation or lack of rigging mechanisms. It is down to being the chief political outsider in the country. He might be wealthy, but outsider politics has conditioned him to believe you cannot play money politics without access to state largesse.
If you have ever been an outsider in a home or office, you can identify with Raila’s predicament. You could be the most competent manager, but events keep showing you you do not belong. You may attend meetings but never be allowed into insider knowledge, codes and benefits. Once in a while, some benefits are thrown your way to appease you, but the fact remains that you are an outsider.
Outsiders can do very little, and the best is to cope with the prevailing situation.
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