KENDO: 'Team Baba na Mama' recharged for change

Two incidents, in which Raila Odinga was the victim, could have soured his relationship with Azimio la Umoja presidential running mate Martha Karua. But the former Prime Minister does not hold grudges.

One incident was at Bomas of Kenya in 2004. Karua was a zealous defender of President Mwai Kibaki. The president had reneged on the National Rainbow Coalition promise to deliver a new constitution within the first 100 days.

During the people's convention at Bomas, Karua was quick to anger. She was wielding a sharp, heeled shoe. She was about to hit Raila, then the Minister for Roads. He ducked, and then took cover.

Raila emerged one hour later to say, "You don't fight every dog that barks at you. You look for the owners."  Raila was leading the reformist faction of the Rainbow government.

The second incident was the ruckus of the muddled presidential vote count at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre on December 30, 2007.

Smoke billowed. Teargas flooded streets and alleyways. Kenyans who had voted for the ODM leader as president were protesting a rigged election.

A zealous Karua, the system, and the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya, under Samuel Kivuitu, were hellbent on swearing in Kibaki for a controversial second term.

Karua, the Constitutional Affairs minister then, was a key player in the tragic drama. She chaperoned Kibaki to a hurried swearing-in at dusk.

Which is how Martha Karua earned the sobriquet, 'the last man standing' among the Party of National Unity ranks. Most PNU leaders had disappeared or were cowering behind a hissing Karua.

Raila and Karua have walked the reform path together, sometimes clashing, especially during the Kibaki presidency.

Their campaign for Kibaki in 2002 is memorable. A distinct voice was heard during the final Rainbow Coalition rally in Kisumu. The chorus was, 'We Are Unbogwable!' It was a Gidi Gidi Maji Maji musical celebrating the then invincible Rainbow team.

Two months before the rally, Raila had declared 'Kibaki Tosha!' – a game-changing endorsement of Kibaki. Kibaki was running for president for the third time. Kibaki won, through the solid vote of Kenyans who craved change after 40 years of Kanu dictatorship.

The owner of the distinct voice, Karua, waving and swaying assuredly, was standing next to Raila. They were a team, bound by one idea: The urgency of regime change and a promise of a new constitution.

Hardly a year into the Kibaki presidency Karua was a hostile defender of Kibaki. The promised constitution arrived in 2010, during Kibaki's second term.

The adulterated version of the proposed constitution was defeated during the 2005 referendum, after a treacherous draft was presented at the referendum.

The two incidents, for Raila and Karua, belong in the dustbin of history. The reunited soulmates are running for president as 'Team Baba na Mama'. The team has created a wave of approval, especially among genderpreneurs. A woman of record and integrity is heading north after 60 years of a men-dominated presidency.

This you cannot take away from Raila Amolo Odinga: The ability to forgive and forget. He is richer on that front than his radicalised supporters.

Supporters of the former Prime Minister find it hard to let go of what they consider system-induced humiliation of their leader over the years. But after Raila forgives, his supporters follow suit.

Such is their loyalty to the man who has stayed in the liberation trenches for much of his political career.

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