Right from the very beginning, the colonial government knew that if they allowed local people to mingle and interact freely, this was likely to result in strong community contacts and bonds that could coalesce to revolt against their rule, hence the divide and rule tactics that they employed to stem any unity. To their chagrin, however, the two largest ethnic communities in the country, the Kikuyu and the Luo, started forming alliances during the Mau Mau rebellion to press for our freedom. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, the patriarch of the Odinga family, and foremost nationalist became the de facto go between for the Luo in their engagement with the Kikuyu. So, when the Luo and the Kikuyu together with other communities came together and formed the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party in the run-up to the first general elections, the colonialists got thoroughly miffed and countered this by supporting the formation of Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) party.
When KANU won the elections with Mzee Jomo Kenyatta as the first president, Jaramogi Odinga became his obvious deputy. This however didn't go very well with the departing colonial government and their sympathizers who had served in their administration and had now taken senior positions in the new independent government. Therefore, a new formula had to be found to clip the wings of Jaramogi. By this time, Jaramogi, always a nationlist at heart had started condemning the new corruption in the Kenyatta regime and because the majority were deeply steeped in it, those who loathed him multiplied and his enemies stated to work in overdrive to neutralize him. Eventually, he was kicked out of the government and his supporters and particularly those from the Luo community didn't take it kindly and this marked the beginning of the vendetta between the Luo and the Kikuyu (read government). The Luos were isolated and persecuted with vengeance through malicious propaganda being spread to the effect that they were anti-government, anti-Kikuyu, anti-nationalist and anti-development. All sorts of negative epithets were coined to besmirch the Luo community and the Odinga family in particular.
President Daniel Arap Moi took over upon Kenyatta's death through the support of some wily Kikuyu elite who had vested interests and he didn't waste time in sideling the Luos through the advise of his benefactors. Therefore in an effort to maintain the status quo and please the Kikuyu elite, government propaganda machinery once more was employed to vilify the the Luo and the Odinga family thus isolating them further. With the government against then and more than 50% of the population rallied against them, it's by sheer grit and luck that the community managed to withstand that onslaught.
Raila Odinga, now the Prime Minister and the son of Jaramogi Odinga has been described by a biographer as the enigma of Kenyan politics. I think that is however open to different interpretations by different people. Raila had his university education in the then communist East Germany and it's likely that he may have picked a bit of communism from there, otherwise, why the admiration of Fidel Castro to the extent of naming his son after that great ideologue and nationalist from Cuba? He is also the son of Jaramogi , who by many standards is one of the greatest nationalists this country has ever produced. It's quite possible that some of the activism and nationalism from the old chip may have rubbed off to him. But what is not contestable is that he has been incarcerated by the government and suffered immensely for his beliefs and agitation for a better Kenya, free from political repression. However, there is no doubt also that he is a political schemer, organizer and strategist who is keen like every other politician to reach the highest political office.
Coincidentally, today the Luo and the Kikuyu are at par in as far as political supremacy for ethnic groups is concerned because President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga share political power after the debacle of 2007 post election violence. President Kibaki is constitutionally retiring in 2012 but Raila Odinga is eligible to contest the presidency, and hopefully if he wins, this is going to put the doomsayers to rest, who have all along alleged that a Luo is not electable as president in this country. But more importantly, though, should be our capacity to openly interrogate the merits and demerits of Raila per se because the instruments of power will be vested on an individual and not an ethnic group. My final word to the colonial government and their latter-day agents who vilified, isolated and ostracized a community for so long, is that any Kenyan including a member of the El Molo, is capable of leading this country provided he constitutionally fulfills the requirements of that office. With that, I rest my case. Thank you.
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