Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

A man with two faces

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Raila Odinga, the veteran opposition leader who will challenge Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Tuesday’s elections, is a man with two faces.


His supporters see him as a defender of democracy and political freedoms, who was even jailed for his convictions.


His detractors brand him as a power-hungry man who has not hesitated to switch alliances in his quest for power.


Odinga, like his opponent Kenyatta, carries the mantle of a political dynasty. His father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was a deputy to Jomo Kenyatta, the country’s first president after independence and Uhuru’s father. It is to distinguish Raila from his late father that the 72-year-old is usually called by his first name.


After going to school in Kenya, Odinga studied in what was then East Germany and graduated in mechanical engineering from a university in Magdeburg. After his return to Kenya in 1970, Odinga lectured at the University of Nairobi and set up a company manufacturing liquid petroleum gas cylinders. Odinga campaigned against the dictatorial regime of president Danielarap Moi and was arrested several times in the 1980s. After losing a presidential election to Moi in 1997, Odinga joined forces with the president and served as energy minister from 2001 to2002. He also served as public works minister under Moi’s successor Mwai Kibaki from 2003 to 2005.


In 2007, when Odinga lost a presidential election to Kibaki, allegations of rigging unleashed a wave of ethnic violence. About 1,200 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.


The UN brokered an agreement to form a coalition government and Odinga served as Kibaki’s prime minister from 2008 to 2013. In 2013, he lost an election to Kenyatta.


Odinga’s support comes mainly from his Luo ethnic group. But while Kenyatta is widely seen as defending the interests of his Kikuyutribe, Odinga has been able to muster support across ethnic lines. The opposition candidate describes himself as a social democrat and advocates the redistribution of wealth.


His messages ahead of Tuesday’s elections included a call to Maasai pastoralists to stop selling land to “capitalist speculators” in Nairobi.


“If Raila becomes president and he doesn’t deliver, I think history will judge him harshly,” said Abdullahi Abdille, an expert on the region.


“He has promised so much, he is seen as the champion of the weak. If he doesn’t deliver on corruption, on reform agenda, then history will judge him harshly.”


“This is Odinga’s last shot,” the analyst said, stressing the age of the candidate. “He always tells people he has one last bullet in his gun.” — dpa


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