Raila's former Spokesman: Why ODM should support Ruto

The corridors that had once pulsed with advisers, visitors and the energy of Raila’s political machine now lay still. 

Desks sat abandoned, the waiting lounge empty and the atmosphere felt less like the nerve centre of decades of political manoeuvring and more like a ghost office, frozen in time.

Amid this unusual quiet, Raila’s longtime spokesman, Dennis Onyango—one of the few remaining insiders—is still tending to the legacy of the late ODM leader.

In an unusually candid conversation on Thursday morning, Onyango revealed Raila’s final political intentions: a surprising endorsement of President William Ruto in 2027 and the alleged pressure from former President Uhuru Kenyatta to push the deceased ODM boss into the race against Ruto.

The veteran pressman opened up about the secrets Raila kept concerning murky lobbying and alleged bribery surrounding the African Union Commission vote—a rare peek into continental power plays that dare discuss in public.

He also shared why he believes ODM is “joking” if the party imagines it can field a credible presidential candidate in the upcoming polls.

Now slightly over a month since the passing of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, how have things changed?

Things are different. We are trying to cope with it in our various ways. There are many who are still struggling but it is the way it is and there are efforts to adjust. People reflect a lot about their memories with the man, their moments with him and moments they wish they could restage. People are generally struggling.

As his long-serving pressman, what are some of the moments you miss?

I miss that element of being put permanently on toes, such that you could not switch off your phone. You had to put that phone where you could hear it ringing. You don’t know what is going to happen next minute. Jakom was very deep and very well grounded on every issue he picked up—and that is missing in a lot of politicians. He had substance. You feel like at the end of the day, he has pushed you very hard and you have learnt something out of that. I miss that depth.

What message do you have for Kenyans who feel politically orphaned by Raila’s death?

Well, it is personal, it is individual. I keep telling people that under these circumstances what is best done is what Raila would have done, which is to move on. Raila never stopped, life was always moving. Raila was permanently on the move and I think he would have expected his supporters to move to the next important thing.

As there are attempts to get his replacement, do you think anyone will fit the big shoes?

ODM will have to find a purpose for existence. There were a lot of people who were in ODM because Raila was there. They were not following the party, they were following the leader. If Raila had left ODM for any other party, those people would have moved with him. 

You would leave here with him and go to Kisii and they feel one of them has arrived and take charge and of course they push away any Luo around there apart from the security. You go to the Coast and Turkana, you experience the same. That is not going to happen anytime soon in ODM. I don’t think ODM will get somebody with that kind of acceptance across the country. Maybe somebody will emerge. 

With the personality gone, ODM will have to find issues on which to rally people. I don’t think the liberation story is going to rally people. It is not enough to say, “We are the party which fought Kanu”. They will have to find new issues that appeal across the board. I think the country is moving increasingly towards economic liberation, pocket and bread-and-butter issues. ODM must find a rallying call around those issues.

In Luo land, a leader will emerge. It is going to take time. It is not something we are going to achieve between now and 2027. The danger in Luo land is that as people begin to think they are Raila or trying to be Raila and try to lead the community before they make a decision. 

Raila was under incessant attack for working with Ruto. Did he ever regret this decision?

Raila never regretted the decision he took to work with Ruto. In fact, he was to deliver a lecture at the University of Nairobi to explain and try to help Kenyans understand why the decisions he took were necessary. I still have that lecture: ‘Compromise or betrayal? Reframing political cooperation and Kenya’s political journey’. 

He wanted to explain what he believed were the dangers the nation was facing and he had tasked me to study some compromise that happened in Italy in the late 1960s and early 1970s, where two extremely opposed parties came together because they thought the Italian nation was under threat. It was called the Historical Compromise. He wanted that to be an example that when a nation is under extreme threat you need extreme compromise to preserve the nation. 

You are in a viral video saying ODM must back Ruto and that the party cannot field a candidate in 2027. What informed this position?

I know this does not please very many people, but I don’t believe we have a candidate. There is no candidate in ODM that can do what Raila was able to do. Those five or six million votes that were constantly with Raila, nobody in ODM can have such numbers. 

A Presidential campaign is a multi-billion project. I don’t think there is anybody in ODM now that can say, “I have Sh3 billion on the table for a start and add another Sh3 billion”. 

ODM has to decide now whether to go with William Ruto or Rigathi Gachagua and start those negotiations. Going alone is not an option. ODM has to begin negotiating now, if we are serious about having a stake in government. I think every party is formed to get a stake in government. ODM had better do it now. The elections are in August 2027, so you can’t tell us you are going to make decision in January and make a meaningful run for the elections. That is a joke.

What are your options if the party decides not to back Ruto?

ODM is a collection of very many communities. I think it is up to the party to ensure the interest of every community is taken care of. I think the Luo nation feel strongly that they need to be in government. There is a strong belief—and I agree with it— that the formation I am seeing out there of Kalonzo and Gachagua cannot beat Ruto. 

The Luo nation would want to stand with Ruto if only for historical reasons: that the guy stood with them. The Luo, being the people they are, want to pay that debt. 

If the interest of the Luo clashes with the interest of ODM, I will go with the interest of the Luo nation because I know how much people have suffered there. 

Do you think Raila would have supported Ruto in 2027?

Yes. It was on the cards. It was one of the options we had. Raila told me once that he worked with Presidents Moi, Kibaki and Uhuru and is now working with Ruto. He thought Ruto was the most focused of all the Presidents he had worked with, so there was a strong possibility that he was going to back him (Ruto). He just didn’t want ODM to go in as a weak partner. He wanted to strengthen the party with an understanding that we were going into some kind of coalition.

Why did Raila talk of ODM having a candidate against Ruto in 2027?

He told me a number of times that Uhuru was encouraging him to run, but he had doubts. He said, “These are the people who backed us in 2022 and we failed and they still want us to run.” But he had a lot of respect for Uhuru.

Do you see ODM leaders making the issues Raila stood for—and which he left unfinished—happen?

The issue of NG-CDF and those other hot issues are dead with him. The MPs need NG-CDF.  Personally, I think NG—CDF has done some good to communities, but I am sure nobody will take it up among the leaders we have. It died with him.

Was it true that Raila was stingy, a perception which even became a campaign item at some point?

The issue of stinginess was a misrepresentation of Raila. He was very generous but believed in hard work. He didn’t believe in free things. Raila was supporting hundreds of families across the country but he did not talk about it. He kept a lot of people across the country on payroll. There are a lot of people who were getting their medication through Raila. Stinginess was a political propaganda which we were not able to counter, because it requires mentioning those he has helped and he would not agree to that.

What can you say was his opinion on Gen Z?

He never talked much about Gen Z. He believed what Gen Z were raising were not any different from what ODM had been raising over previous years and so he believed the country would come together—through the conference he was pushing—and address those issues. They were not Gen Z’s issues but national issues.

On the AUC outcome, what did Raila feel didn’t work well for him?

He talked of a lot of bribery at the voting. You know, a lot of those Presidents stayed away and their ministers (Foreign Affairs) came in. He talked of open bribery. There was also his reform agenda which he knew didn’t sit well with a number of incumbents, because a lot of Presidents were comfortable with the things as they are and when you talk of reforms they see you as a danger to their political survival. He took it in his stride, but he knew money changed hands. Then the global politics and interest in Africa and the people who thought he might stand on their way. He believed all those issues played a part. His book about pan Africanism: ‘Africa’s Unfinished Journey’— AUC would have come in there. The problem with AU. 

What next for Dennis Onyango? Are you available to still work with the Odinga family?

I have a lot of things I am doing as a private individual. I am doing some consulting work here and there, but I also have things that Raila expected me to do and I am also doing them. I am done with Achieng’ Oneko’s book, which he was to do a foreword. He wanted his speeches put together in a collection of Raila Odinga’s Speeches. I am working on that and it should be ready by June next year. I also think Raila was not just my boss, he was my friend and if his family needs my help—not as an employee—I will do it in his honour.