Raila Odinga. Photo/ Facebook
This was no accident. Raila lived and breathed nationalism. His networks stretched to the lowest levels, from the shoe shiners in Kakamega to allies in the villages of Murang'a, deep in Central Kenya, where you would least expect an ODM presence. That is why the party under him could survive and influence national politics even in places where ethnicity might have worked against it.
Despite its weaknesses, ODM under Raila was an ideological home for many intellectuals, progressives, and ordinary Kenyans regardless of ethnicity or race, because it represented something beyond the tribe. It represented a vision for Kenya, imperfect, yet national in scope and progressive in aspiration. It gave the people on the periphery a voice and spoke out on many key national issues when needed. But yes, it also gave a home to dimwits, goons, activists, and firebrands because that is what a genuinely national party looks like.
It is this big-tent character that has anchored ODM at the centre of national politics. While countless tribal and briefcase parties collapsed into irrelevance, ODM has endured so far because Raila ensured that it belonged to all Kenyans, and not to a single community.
Indeed, in all coalitions that ODM has participated in, it has been the largest and anchor party precisely because it was a national party, unlike many of its junior partners. This strength was not happenstance but rather Raila’s deliberate nation-building.
The Threat of Ethnic Retreat
Yet today, the party faces a dangerous crossroads. Some of its leaders want it to retreat to Luo Nyanza, to "consolidate the base”, and to focus on bringing development to that region. Others are lining up, rubbing their hands, waiting to auction ODM wholesale to KK government in exchange for Cabinet positions and personal advancement.
These are ideologically bankrupt and gluttonous tumbocrats, whose rudimentary minds can never truly comprehend the depth of what Raila really stood for. Both their paths lead to the same destination: the death of ODM as a national force and a betrayal of what Raila fought for.
ODM Chairperson Gladys Wanga's recent pronouncements are particularly egregious. Rather than using this moment to attract even those Kenyans who now, in hindsight, realize they had been misled into hating Raila, she is busy erecting ethnic barriers. In attempting to ban a fellow Kenyan from stepping foot in Nyanza, she embodies everything Raila detested: tribal exclusion, pettiness, narrow-mindedness, and the politics of division. This is not honouring Raila's legacy. This is desecrating it.
The Stakes
The stakes could not be higher. If ODM retreats into a regional party, it will pave way for the balkanization of Kenya along ethnic lines, something Raila vehemently fought against. This risks turning Kenya into a de facto one-party state or dominant-party system under UDA, facing only fragmented ethnic outfits that cannot mount a credible national challenge, just like Tanzania under CCM or Uganda under NRM. Kenya cannot afford this regression.
If ODM now retreats to Luo Nyanza, it abandons its networks that reached every corner of the country, betraying its supporters elsewhere, diminishing its influence and destroying decades of political work, relationships, and trust. Kenya will lose a structured and nationally viable political platform to create an alternative to the status quo.
The Choice
The party leadership must now deeply introspect about what kind of party it wants to be. It should reject those who counsel it to focus on "consolidating Nyanza so that development can come to Nyanza." That is the language of ethnic balkanization, not nation-building. Instead, ODM should apply serious thought to Project Kenya, and use this moment of national mourning and unity to consolidate support across the country to ensure that development gets to all parts of the country, just as Raila envisioned.
Honouring Raila's legacy means rallying all who believe in his ideology: social democracy, economic justice, constitutional governance, and inclusive development. It means making ODM an ideological home where all Kenyans feel welcome and safe when it gets to power. It means resisting the narrow, greedy calculations of functionaries who see the party as personal property to be traded or ethnic territory to be defended.
ODM can become even stronger in the post-Raila era if it upholds his nationalist dream, for every Kenyan, in every corner of this country. It will be stronger by articulating a progressive vision for all Kenyans, and fielding leaders from all communities based on competence and ideology.
Raila
spent five decades building bridges across Kenya's ethnic divides. He paid a
heavy price for his nationalism. The greatest betrayal of his memory and legacy
would be allowing ODM to become a tribal cocoon.
X: @Nyagacm
