Baba,
Our baba, the enigma, he who single handedly fought governments and won,
Raila Amolo Odinga, scratch that, the Raila Amolo Odinga, is dead.
Ohh the fickleness of life….
I was searching you up a few minutes ago, and it wasn’t even the news of your death being shared on the internet that brought a cry to my lips and a sharp pain to my chest. It was wikipedia, right in my face, talking about you in past tense…..
How soon?
How fast we move on…
It is vanity. Everything is vanity! Beware oh thee vain and arrogant creature, that when you die, the world will move on like you never even mattered, like you never even existed.
Even the politicians who stood by you and pledged their undying loyalty will mourn not because they loved you that much, but because they realise that with your death comes their political career’s death too.
Like a famous writer once wrote, “this world my brother…..”
The father of devolution,
the voice that thundered through ballot boxes and prison walls alike,
The person who had become a silent comforting part of our lives, the cat with nine lives whose death we never truly thought would come.
Everything was created to die, we all know that. Nothing lives forever and everything dies. And yet, some deaths are more unbelievable than others….
Yes, everything expires,
But some deaths still take the air out of a nation.
And this one, most of all.
You taught us that losing could still be noble,
that resilience could be political art.
That the fight for justice, even when bruised,
was a kind of prayer.
You walked through cells and exile,
through betrayal and brotherhood, you fought hard, drenched in blood for your legacy as crowds sang your name and governments tried to erase it.
You carried both wound and wisdom,
both promise and protest….so why oh why, did you have to undo all that last minute? Why stain that which – in your own famous words – was whiter than cotton?
Why baba, why?
Do you know the amount of hope you collectively gave a nation?
Single handedly, walking where others would have given up a long time ago? In dark moments and in moments we had no one else to turn to, you were there, teaching us about resilience and giving millions the courage to fight on.
This hurts, it hurts so much. We will remember the good times and not dwell on the times that made us question your principals and what you really stood for.
Tonight, Kenya pauses.
The flags may lower,
the speeches may come.
But what we will remember
is the man who refused to vanish,
even when history tried to move on.
Rest now, Baba.
The struggle continues,
but you may finally sleep.
He Always Came Back…. Until Now: Raila Amolo Odinga (1945–2025)
