By Anderson Ojwang
Today, in Bondo, Kango Ka Jaramogi, Martha Wangare Karua would have been Kenya’s sixth president. ‘President Karua’ would have presided over the burial ceremony of the departed enigma Raila Amolo Odinga.
The Gikuyu community have missed the golden opportunity that could have enabled them to ascend to the presidency for the third time through the Luo community.
Today, Mt Kenya watches in consternation, bitterness and regret as Raila is laid to rest in Bondo, while Karua has become a pale shadow of the once vibrant and iron lady of Kenya’s politics.
As the ACK Bondo’s Bishop Prof David Kodia will be saying the final words of ‘Unto soil I came and I return’, Mt Kenya will be watching painfully, and Karua would be mourning a buried political ambition — the presidency.
President William Ruto will preside over the event after he signed a memorandum of understanding with Raila over the broad-based government.
The Gikuyu community first rode to the presidency after the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga declined to take over the mantle from the British colonialists until the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was released from prison.
In 1960, during Kenya’s final years under British colonial rule, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga made a decision that shaped the country’s path to independence. The British colonial administration offered him the opportunity to lead Kenya as the country’s first Prime Minister while Jomo Kenyatta remained in detention.
At the time, Kenyatta had been imprisoned since 1953, accused of leading the Mau Mau rebellion. Despite the British government’s proposal, Odinga rejected the offer to take over national leadership. He insisted that no meaningful political transition could occur while Kenyatta was still behind bars.
Odinga reportedly told the colonial officials, “If I accept your offer, I will be seen as a traitor to my people. Kenyatta is our leader and must be released to lead us.” He made it clear that Kenyatta, despite his imprisonment, was the chosen leader of the Kenyan people and that any attempt to sideline him would not be acceptable.
This decision by Odinga helped to maintain unity among Kenya’s political movements and reinforced Kenyatta’s position as the symbol of the independence struggle. It also prevented possible ethnic divisions, particularly between the Luo and Kikuyu communities, by showing solidarity across tribal lines.
When Kenyatta was eventually released in 1961, he resumed leadership of the nationalist movement. In December 1963, Kenya gained independence, and Kenyatta became Prime Minister. As a reward for his loyalty and support, Odinga was appointed Kenya’s first Vice President.
And Odinga and the Luo community sacrificed to Kenyatta and the community, and the presidency sat in the mountain.
During the struggle for the repeal of Section 2A of the Constitution and eventually the first multiparty election, Kenneth Matiba and the Gikuyu community had resolved to support Odinga for the presidency.
By 1990, Odinga had already decided to chart his own political path.
Lawyer Paul Muite, who later became Odinga’s running mate, invited Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia to his house, where they discussed the need to partner with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga to build a formidable alliance to face Moi.
According to Muite, they later invited Bishop Okullu and Joab Omino to inform them about the idea.
In the agreement, Jaramogi was supposed to be made the joint presidential candidate after the constitutional reforms.
These discussions were taking place without Jaramogi’s knowledge.
The group approached Odinga and presented to him the idea of a future political alliance with him as the presidential candidate.
In this regard, Rubia and Matiba met Jaramogi at his private office at Agip House and his company office at Spectra International in Industrial Area.
Odinga was sceptical about their genuineness. According to Muite, Jaramogi, after listening to them, asked in a shrill voice, “I am not opposed to a partnership. But do you remember how our first marriage ended?”
But after the repeal of Section 2A and on the return of Matiba from treatment abroad, the memorandum of understanding was disregarded, and Matiba declared his presidential bid.
Muite, who was still rooting for Jaramogi’s candidature, recalled Rubia telling him that political pacts were not laws to be obeyed, while Matiba told him, “Don’t you know, Paul, even those Luos, they will all vote for Ken Matiba, not Jaramogi?”
Both Matiba and Odinga lost to Moi, and the Gikuyu community lost the opportunity to ride to the presidency through the Luo for the second time, as Jaramogi died a year later after the 1992 election.
Moi won the 1997 election while Matiba boycotted the election and died in denial of losing to Moi.
In 2002, Raila Amolo Odinga delivered the presidency to the Gikuyu community, to Mwai Kibaki, while he was in a wheelchair. The famous “Kibaki Tosha” was all that he needed to become Kenya’s third president.
In the 2022 presidential election, then-President Uhuru Kenyatta supported Raila for the presidency and negotiated for Karua to be the running mate.
Raila agreed to Uhuru’s political arrangement, which saw Kalonzo Musyoka, who had been the former Prime Minister’s running mate in the last general election, give in to the deal.
On February 26, 2022, Uhuru led a Jubilee Party National Delegates Conference (NDC) at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi. The NDC endorsed the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader, Raila Odinga, as the party’s preferred presidential candidate for the August general elections.
But former Uhuru’s personal assistant, Rigathi Gachagua, led the community in rejecting Raila’s candidature and instead voted overwhelmingly for President William Ruto.
Gachagua became the Deputy President but was later impeached and replaced by Prof Abraham Kithure Kindiki.
