In the annals of Kenyan political lore, Raila Amolo Odinga has long reigned as a colossus, a mythical Pharaoh enthroned over the fertile yet fettered lands of Luo Nyanza.
Like the ancient despots of Egypt, he has wielded his scepter with a blend of charisma and coercion, binding an entire people to his will under the guise of liberation.
Yet, as the sun sets on his dominion, the once-unassailable grip of this modern potentate unravels, exposing a legacy woven not of progress but of exploitation, deceit, and self-aggrandizement. The time has come for the children of Nyanza to cast off their chains and step into the light of self-determination.
For decades, Odinga has presided over Luo Nyanza as a demigod, his word a divine edict that shaped the destinies of governors, senators, parliamentarians, and even the humblest ward representatives. His influence, a suffocating tapestry, stifled the aspirations of a vibrant people, reducing them to pawns in his grand chessboard of power. With Machiavellian precision, he weaponized the region’s poverty, transforming it into a cudgel to maintain fealty.
The Kisumu Molasses plant and the Muhoroni Sugar Company – once beacons of economic promise – fell prey to his rapacious machinations, plundered not for the commonweal but to engorge the coffers of his family and sycophantic courtiers. Under the veneer of activism, Odinga cloaked his true visage: a puppeteer of Western interests, a saboteur of revolutionary fervor, and a broker of backroom deals that enriched his lineage at the expense of Nyanza’s progress.
Like the Pharaoh of Exodus, Odinga has held Luo Nyanza in thrall, his promises of deliverance as hollow as the winds that sweep across Lake Victoria. He has spun a divisive narrative, casting the Kikuyu as the perennial architects of Luo suffering, a stratagem as old as empire itself – divide and conquer.
Raila Odinga auditioning at British colonial think-tank Chatham House.
This subterfuge, deftly wielded, deflected scrutiny from his own transgressions, allowing him to reign unchallenged while Nyanza languished in penury and despair. Yet, the veil has been rent asunder.
The scales have fallen from the eyes of the Luo, and the once-revered Pharaoh stands isolated, his authority dissipating like mist before the dawn. The unintended fruit of Odinga’s ill-fated capitulation to William Ruto’s regime has been the fracturing of his stranglehold. No longer does his anointment guarantee political triumph; no longer do his acolytes bask in the certainty of his favor.
The empire he forged over decades – built on the blood of the fallen, the sacrifices of the maandamano martyrs, and the shattered dreams of Nyanza’s youth – crumbles before the inexorable tide of civic awakening. The Luo, long tethered to his chariot, now rise, their voices a clarion call for emancipation.
They demand the right to think, to choose, to lead without the shadow of Odinga’s dictates.
Odinga’s reign has been a study in hubris, a parable of a leader who mistook himself for the deity of his people’s destiny. He convinced many that without him, Kenya itself would falter – that security, education, and survival hinged on his singular presence. Such was his sorcery that some believed they would perish without his guidance, their very existence tethered to his whims. Yet, this delusion, too, fades.
The Luo are not a monolith to be molded by one man’s ambition; they are a community greater than the House of Odinga, a constellation of brilliance and potential long dimmed by the Pharaoh’s shadow.
The Odingaism that has plagued Nyanza – an ideology of control, imposition, and suppression – has sown seeds of suffering. Visionary leaders who dared to dream of a prosperous Nyanza, were castigated and sidelined, their ambitions thwarted to preserve Odinga’s hegemony. In their place, he enthroned mediocrities, men devoid of developmental legacies, mere puppets to his will.
The poverty that scars Nyanza is not the fault of distant Kikuyu bogeymen but the direct progeny of Odinga’s autocratic grip, his insistence on leaders who bend to his command rather than those who build for the future.
Now, the hour of reckoning dawns. The young, the restless, the enlightened of Luo Nyanza proclaim: Enough is enough. They will no longer be chattel to a fading Pharaoh, their lives fodder for his political gambits. The blood of those lost to election violence, the tears of families bereft by state brutality, the weight of unfulfilled promise – all these cry out for justice. Odinga’s empire, built on exploitation and betrayal, teeters on the brink of collapse, its foundations eroded by the very people he sought to subjugate.
Let Raila Amolo Odinga hear the decree: Set Luo Nyanza free. Release them from the bondage ofyour ambition, from the shackles of your family’s avarice. Step aside, and let new voices rise, unencumbered by your shadow.
The community of the Luo is greater than one man, its destiny brighter than the fleeting glories of Odingaism. If you will not yield willingly, the tide of history will compel you, for the spirit of liberation burns fierce in the hearts of Nyanza’s children. The Pharaoh’s reign is over; the promised land awaits.
