In the closing scenes of William Shakespeare’s epic tragedy, Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony cried out an immortal lamentation that has echoed across the ages, in time and space.
“O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.”
October 15, 2025, images of a plain casket bearing the remains of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga filtered through our social media spaces, moments after his demise was announced.
Paraded in what appeared to be the lobby of a hospital 7,000 miles from his home, lay a man who had given so much and received so little from his country.
His dedicated bodyguard stood by, crestfallen but serving the last duties to his boss. Too distraught to show up, close family members who had accompanied him to India could not be comforted.
Unnerving videos emerged of what looked like Raila’s last dash for his life. Didn’t they know who Raila Odinga was? Why weren’t they doing more to save him? We all wondered! The videos broke our hearts.
Undoubtedly, the country’s all-time hero, Raila Odinga, died a painful, lonesome death, away from the country he so much loved.
For the best part of his youth and old age, he dedicated himself to building a just, equitable and democratic society. With grit, courage and determination, he braved the highs and lows of life with unmistakable style.
Throughout the 60s and 70s, he lived the experience of his family being ostracised, and his father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, isolated, incarcerated and crushed.
For lending his voice to the reclamation of fundamental freedoms in the 80s, he was jailed without trial. In the 2000s, he won presidential elections and his victory was brazenly stolen, not once but twice. Some say more thrice.
In all these instances, he picked himself up and reinvented himself. He never gave up on himself and his country. He kept his eyes firmly gazed on greater values.
Some of his compromises were as shocking as they were intriguing. His supporters have never come to terms with the fact that he gave up on his 2007 electoral victory and settled for a Prime Minister role.
Similarly, his refusal to participate in the repeat election of 2017 after successfully annulling his competitor’s victory in court was puzzling. More unfathomable was the resolve, at every other occasion, to embrace his own tormentors.
We may never quite know what moved him into these celestial concessions and sacrifices. What is certain, however, is that there are very few among us who would find the grace to see beyond the shadows of our betrayers.
The base human instinct is to draw revenge and punish to a pulp. Raila chose to succour those who betrayed him at their weakest moments. He propped up all the last three presidents of the republic.
In borrowing yet another Shakespearean phrase, the death of Raila Odinga is not a single doom. In the name lay a moiety of our country.
Fairly soon, the country will begin coming to terms with a life without their foremost statesman. Below-average characters, charlatans, outright cons and the mediocre will jostle to inherit his legacy.
Then and only then will we begin to understand that men of his calibre happen only once in a lifetime. In concluding, I will defer once again to Mark Anthony.
“Pardon me, Raila! Here wast thou bayed, brave hart; Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand, signed in thy spoil, and crimsoned in thy lethe.”
I have seen many of those who betrayed Raila Odinga, and hated him, garland his resting place with big bouquets. Those who rejected, hated and shot at him are grieving him the most.
Unlike my namesake Anthony, I will not pray for a curse to light upon their limbs.
Instead, I will ask them to find that which made them betray and hate upon fellow countrymen. And cast away the chord. May a little of Raila’s spirit shine in every single one of us, just a little.
Senior project manager, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, member, Media Complaints Commission, and Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.
