The great lie: Raila has for long pretended to be what he is not

I think Raila Amollo Odinga could be the most misunderstood person in Kenya. We have judged him using the wrong scales. More like beating up a left-handed child to use "the normal right hand".

We erroneously pigeon-holed Raila Odinga in the reformists corner, kept him there and put a lid on it. We believed that that's where he belonged. The "normal" place for him. The place he "obviously" belonged. Once he was there, we refused to see that he was actually in the wrong place. That Raila was naturally left-handed and we were forcing him to use the right hand. We cheered him on when he dined and walked with people who were naturally right-handed. We refused to see that he was actually struggling to use the right hand, unlike the natural reformists. 

All successive governments, from Jomo to Moi to Kibaki, Uhuru, and now Ruto, erroneously associated Raila with the wrong political ideology. 

When the '82 coup happened, Moi quickly went for Raila's jugular, believing Raila must have had a hand in it. When the clamour for multiparty began in earnest, Moi could not believe that Raila was just happy in his office at Agip House, innocently minding his business as MD of Spectre International. He was dragged into the streets by Moi and his Special Branch. The truth is that Raila was only guilty by association. Associating with the genuine Young Turks in James Orengo, Gitobu Imanyara, Paul Muite and Martha Karua, among others, and older reformists like his own father Jaramogi, hot-head Martin Shikuku, Kenneth Matiba and Masinde Muliro.

The many times Raila suffered detention under Moi was due to a historical accident. Being son of the restless doyen of opposition politics, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, period. 

Raila has been running for president all these many years, not because of a burning urge to take this country and transform it. No. Because Kenyans and the world expect him to run for president. 

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That time Kenyans should have seen through the great Raila Deception should have been the events of January 1998, authored by the "firebrand" Raila after the grueling 1997 General Election. While Kibaki, Wamalwa, Ngilu, Mukaru Ng'ang'a, Chibule wa Tsuma and other presidential candidates were gnashing their teeth and crying foul at a stolen election, Raila casually entered what must have been a most unholy alliance with Moi, calling it "Cooperation" and later a "Merger" of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) with Kanu! This betrayal within opposition ranks was palpable. Forget that nonsense that he "strategically" purposed to join Kanu to destroy Kanu from within. Garbage. He benefited personally and even went on to dislodge the loyalist JJ Kamotho as Secretary General of Kanu. 

With time, Raila accepted his strange fate; that of being a sadistic opportunist but carrying the erroneous tag of a reformist. 

Also, with time, he discovered he could make a little hay while the sun shone.

From 1998, Raila has cut deals with everyone who's been declared president of Kenya. The pattern is clear enough. An election loss-cry foul-street protests-lives lost, then BANG! He's inside the government. 

Remember that little event in March 2018. That was the apex of the people's delusion with Raila. Raila being sworn in as the people's president. The colour and pomp at Uhuru Park. Miguna Miguna. TJ Kajwang. Then, "I, Raila Amollo Odinga..."

The title of his memoirs, 'The Enigma of Kenyan Politics" is apt. Once Kenyans misadvised and misled themselves into elevating Raila to what he is not, Raila decided to play along. As long as he personally benefits, with crumbs for his blind loyalists, he is good to go.

And lest you forget, this man can do a deal with the devil himself, if it serves him. 

The life of Raila Amollo Odinga reminds me of a bizarre incident in March 2003. A few months into the NARC administration. 

Someone high up there in government excitedly told Parliament that the gallant Mau Mau war veteran, General Stanley Mathenge, hitherto believed to have vanished from the war-front without trace had finally been traced to Ethiopia. The government went into a frenzy. No expense was too big to return the liberation hero back home to receive full recognition and honours for his exceptional role in delivering independence to our great nation.

Top level diplomatic engagement between Nairobi and Addis Ababa and the near-forgotten hero arrived in Nairobi's JKIA, aboard Kenya Airways, the pride of Africa. He was received by three Cabinet ministers, no less, and many senior government officials. It was a moment like no other. He was given maximum State security, horns and sirens blaring all the way to Panafric Hotel. To cut the story short, Mzee Lemma Ayanu, for that was his name, turned out to be a phoney. Fake. Imposter. 

When the Ethiopian farmer finally quietly left Kenya, he left the NARC regime with a lot of egg on her face. But who do you blame? Omusakhulu Lemma Ayanu? I wouldn't. The buck stops with that overly excited and overzealous Kenyan who "discovered" General Mathenge in Ethiopia. He told himself he had stumbled on a jewel and made the most out of it. He did not wait or even want to hear anything else. He had stumbled on Mathenge. It had to be Mathenge, and he had to deliver the great General to his people to be feted and celebrated. The poor man was not given a chance to explain that he had never left Ethiopia since he was born. And because everyone was enthusiastically pushing money and things to him, why not? So he played along, all the way to Nairobi. 

Raila was born an Odinga, with no reform credentials, but the country thought otherwise. Everyday, he gets no peace. Too many expectations for a man who does not want any responsibility. Always under pressure to play-act the role he's not cut out for.

Like the weird Mathenge incident, Kenyans have forced Raila to pretend to be what he's not.