Democrats-turned-turncoats: Unpacking Raila Odinga and Makau Mutua

The Oxford Advanced Dictionary describes a turncoat as “a person who deserts one party or cause in order to join an opposing one”. In plain language, a turncoat is, in fact, a traitor. Simple. Let’s zero in on two notoriously shameless turncoats.

Days ago, at the KICC, Judiciary Chief Registrar Winfridah Mokaya made some 18 men and women solemnly swear to work very hard at compensating victims of State-enabled lawlessness and murder. The team's lead expert was Makau Mutua, SUNY Distinguished Professor at Buffalo School Law in America.

Prof Mutua is a learned man, full of knowledge, a man who does not suffer fools.

He is bosom friends with a certain Raila Odinga, formerly and erroneously referred to as a democrat, freedom fighter and leader of opposition. Between 2013 and 2022, Makau dedicated himself to writing about the illegitimacy of Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidency. I will not go into the flowery semantics the professor employed in dismissing Uhuru and his deputy, Ruto. He singled out their lack of basic democratic credentials; being pretenders to the throne and why they belong to jail.

For instance, one Saturday in 2020, Mutua wrote; “Somebody thinks I can work for Ruto? (excuse me while I laugh).” In his characteristic strong language, he stated his shock that somebody could dare approach him, Makau Mutua, to support Ruto’s presidential bid in the 2022 election.

Wrote he, “I was dumbfounded-and totally beside myself. I slapped myself to make sure I was not in la-la land, or mental Siberia...I am still reeling from the outlandish idea….the answer is nyet, I can’t-and won’t-work with Mr Ruto. Never. Ever. Case closed.” He added, “no self-respecting member of the civil society...will touch Ruto with a 10-foot pole”.

Known for his forceful, colourful delivery of his views, he concluded: “There’s nary a scintilla of evidence that Mr Ruto has ever-even once-lifted his finger to fight for democracy or human rights in Kenya. Not once. Nada. I challenge anyone to produce such evidence. In fact, Mr Ruto has always been on the wrong side of history. ….an important anti-reform, anti-democratic voice. He’s never seen a human right he didn’t want to stifle. His street name is Arap Mashamba”.

Shortly after the 'hot air' judgment that installed the Kenya Kwanza regime, Mutua took his pen and furiously wrote acres declaring the Ruto Presidency “a dangerous experiment.” In 2023, he tweeted, “As a matter of my freedom of conscience and thought, I can’t accept, or recognise William Samoei Ruto as President of Kenya. I can’t, I won’t.”

Does this man suffer from a split-personality condition or he’s just an abrasive lawyer whose bad manners have taken him places? Did he listen to himself at KICC when he was sweating as he showered praises on “His Excellency Dr Willian Ruto” blah, blah?

But pray, what does Makau take Kenyans for? When did he stop laughing at the “outlandish idea” of working for Ruto? Or when did the idea cease to be outlandish? Or when did his “freedom of conscience and thought” allow him to formally recognise Ruto as president? Perhaps Mutua finally stumbled on conclusive evidence that after all, Ruto is, in fact, a veteran freedom fighter, a hero of the Second Liberation whose sterling role in the trenches had been downplayed by unpatriotic historians?

Number 2: Raila Odinga, step forward, please. Here, I shall extract and separate Raila from Odinga.

Raila is perhaps the most misunderstood Kenyan male adult of sound mind of the Kenyan political species. He has walked all his adult life carrying the weight of his father’s name. He went to jail, many times, because of being Odinga. Four times, he almost became president of Kenya, because he is Odinga. But there is no hand that has occupied State House that was too rough for him to shake. Because, he is Raila.

He was able to explain away the shock that followed his dalliance and handshake with Moi in 1997: That it was a master strategy to join Kanu and annihilate Kanu from within. Some Kenyans actually believed Raila was a genius. Well, I did not.

His handshake with Kibaki was even easier to explain. In fact, there was no need for an explanation. There was a bloodbath in the country and only a mad person would fault Raila for shaking hands with Kibaki to end the senseless violence and loss of life.

Then came the Ides of March in 2018. Raila, because he is Odinga, had been pushed by his disciples and had just been sworn in as 'the Peoples’ President' at Uhuru Park. After the ground-shaking event, Uhuru Kenyatta, who was also under the illusion that Raila was Odinga, frantically looked for the latter and together they shook hands on a staircase at Harambee House. The gullible Uhuru may have recalled how the real Odinga, the Jaramogi, had dealt with his own father, Jomo Kenyatta after independence. Odinga had refused to form a government until Kenyatta was released from detention. He had famously declared, “Kenyatta is our god”.

He did not just loudly disagree with Kenyatta’s post-independence land policies. In fact, he wrote and published a book about it, Not Yet Uhuru. And before Jomo could say, “Nyokonyoko” or “Kinyangarika,” Odinga had resigned as Kenya’s first Vice President. With a son of such no-nonsense man, and having just sworn himself in as ‘the Peoples’ President’ at Uhuru Park, in utter contempt of legal provisions on treasonous conduct, Uhuru must have been sufficiently frightened. I gathered he could not stop calling until Ida picked his call. And the time and venue for a handshake was fixed there and then for that afternoon on their way to Uhuru’s office.

The latest, and hopefully the last handshake of Raila’s political life is what happened in June, 2025. Everyone knows the details and wanton slaughter of Gen Z protesters. This particular handshake is what finally separated Odinga from Raila. It distinguished Jaramogi Odinga’s place in the history of Kenya as a statesman. When he disagreed with Kenyatta, he calmly resigned. When nationalist Pio Gama Pinto was assassinated, Odinga was in the streets with the people. He went on to found a political party-Kenya People’s Union - to challenge Kamu. He occasioned “the little general election” of 1966. When the government murdered Tom Mboya in 1969, Odinga led the nation in spirited street condemnation. When the police shot and killed protesters in Kisumu in 1969, Odinga firmly stood with the people, condemned the killings and Kenyatta put him under House Arrest until 1971.

Now, Odinga’s namesake, Raila Amollo is the turncoat he always was; a man devoid of principle; a masquerader who cheated the world into believing he was a dyed-in-the-wool democrat and a champion of human rights. While Gen Z were being mowed down by police bullets, Raila saw the perfect opportunity to make real hay real quick. He sprinted for a handshake with Ruto. Because he is Raila.

Ola Rotimi in his all-time classic, The gods are not to blame, writes, “All lizards lie prostrate; how can a man tell which lizard suffers from bellyache? In time, the pain will make one of them lie flat on its back, only then shall that which has been unknown be made known.”

For the longest time, Kenyans only suspected that some of these political lizards were suffering from bellyache. The hardest part was a diagnosis. My friend and law student Nabukwangwa Muramara cheekily writes, “If you think you know them, give them money.” And frankly, let's give it to Ruto; only he could clearly tell which lizard was sick. Mega money and state appointments was all he needed to expose which lizards had bellyaches. 

It would be irresponsible and an injustice to animals if we didn’t draw parallels between George Orwell’s animals in his Animal Farm and their fellow animals in Nairobi. In the ever-fresh play, all the animals in the book, through their progressive new constitution, were agreed on the all-important article, “All animals are equal”. But after continuous disobedience of court orders by the leadership of Animal Farm, murder, abductions and needless amendments of the constitution, Orwell writes that at the end, while seated together, playing cards and sipping vodka, you couldn’t distinguish between the animals and their former human oppressors. Today, do you see any difference in ‘ideology’ between Raila, Ruto, Mutua, Farouk, or Oscar Sudi? Hakuna!