Raila's Painful History.

It has become fashionable to underplay and deride the role of one Raila Amolo Odinga in the struggle to expand the democratic space in Kenya - a tactic that is apparently perfectly acceptable in the immoral no-holds-barred activity that is the politics of Kenya. 

Anybody who claims that Raila Odinga single-highhandedly 'defeated' dictatorship in Kenya is lying - but so is anybody that claims that his contribution was insignificant or without consequence; shame on both these people for sacrificing fact at the alter of ethnicised and partisan political expediency! Mr Odinga made an invaluable contribution to the freedoms we now consider inalienable.

 Raila Amolo Odinga is a man that stood and fought when lesser men turned tail and fled, or submissively acquiesced to great evil for personal benefit and/or political advancement. Was he unique in this? Of course not – there were many others that showed equal passion and fearlessness: Paul Muite, Gitobu Imanyara, Koigi wa Wamwere, Chibule wa Tsuma, Mashengu wa Mwachofi, George Anyona, Wanyiri Kihoro, John Khaminwa, Gibson Kamau Kuria, Davinder Singh Lamba, Peter Anyang’ Nyongo, Ms Martha Njoka nee Karua …. too many to name!

 This is the distinguished company in which he is counted. To allege that President Moi's Government became oppressive and willy-nilly violated fundamental human and people's rights because of the attempted coup of 1982 is to look for irrational justification for unspeakable evil - the excesses of the Moi Government caused the coup attempt, the coup attempt did not cause the excesses of the Moi Government. As a people, we need to learn to respect incontrovertible fact in all circumstances - whether or not it is convenient, and whether or not those facts support whatever opinion we happen to currently hold. That is how a nation matures!'Raila's has spend half of his lifetime fighting for marginalized ,oppressed,weakling,but above all True African Independence to all.His leadership comprised fight for basic freedoms of expression, speech, association and movement.
After independence from colonial rule, Africans like Kenyans,  Zimbabwe,Uganda, and Somalias assumed their leaders in Government understood the pain of being denied these freedoms. They understood the pain of inequitable distribution of resources.
They knew the pain of being discriminated against on the basis of tribe, race, religion and place of origin. They would not commit such sins against their own people.
Today, we know we were wrong. The struggle that the African people have had to endure in the years after independence have been as vicious as, sometimes more vicious than, the ones they waged against the colonialists.
It was a struggle laced with the pain of being betrayed by a brother, an uncle, a father, a neighbor  and a friend. Where were we to turn?

This is the reality this generation of Africans here in Kenya and across the Continent have to face. We must never trust individuals. Only institutions count.