Jukwaa Endorses Raila for Rais

A Commentary by Onyango Oloo in Nairobi

Some of my friends have observed that Onyango Oloo has of late, maintained a curious silence-long by internet standards- in the face of the most hotly contested election in Kenya’s history.

The truth of the matter is that it is only online where I have been struck mute.

Elsewhere, life has been quite robust and boisterous.

For instance, this last weekend I was down at the Coast-revisiting my old home town and also ambling along to Diani beach for some long overdue rest and relaxation.

Now some people think that ODM fever is in Nyanza or Rift Valley. Perhaps, but it is in Mombasa and all over Pwani that you truly encounter the most fervent Agwambo fans. Everywhere we went-Buxton, Tononoka, Majengo Sega, Majengo Sidiria, Bondeni, Mji wa Kale, Magongo, Shika Adabu, Ngomeni, Tudor, Ganjoni, Kongowea, Sarigoi, Mwembe Kuku, Kiembeni, even as far as Mtwapa on the North Mainland and Ukunda and Diani on the South Coast- everyone: the Tuk Tuk operators, the cab drivers, the mkokoteni pusher, the kahawa chungu imbibers, the flashy beach boys, the local Kenyan tourists sipping their beers and tropical smoothies by the Indian Ocean; the intoxicated revelers at Casablanca, Florida, Salambo, Noons, Bobs, Casuarina, you name it were all quite vocal about their support for the ODM flag bearer.

And mark you, this was on the same weekend when the lame duck PNU incumbent made yet another foray into the ancient city of war. Many of the Mombasa residents I spoke with and to felt a mixture of melancholic pity for the former Othaya MP who has of late been screaming himself shrill and hoarse in a desperate attempt to run away from his laid back avuncular mien, probably kow towing to his Kibaki Tena handlers who may want to reinvent him as a go-getting, cut to the chase Alpha Male politrickian. It was actually sad, as we were boarding the Sunday 10:30 pm Coast Bus back to Nairobi, to see many young, obviously Central Kenyan PNU supporters also clambering aboard after completing their ill-fated mission of traveling all the way from Nairobi to come down and pose as Mombasa supporters for Mwai Kibaki.

One of my civil society colleagues who works with an NGO in Mombasa revealed to me how she had been approached by Kibaki Tena operatives to be part of the PNU cheerleading squad in Kenya’s second largest town; how she had been offered money; how some unscrupulous members of PNU and the Kibaki Tena lobby group were cynically misusing large chunks of the KShs. 800,000,000 that has been set aside to buy hearts and minds for the re-election of Kibaki… Another friend of mine, who happens to be a forty something man born and bred in Katse, part of the old Kitui District, not far from Kalonzo Musyoka's home base, also told me that the ODM-K supremo was blatantly offering 250 shillings (not personally of course) for young people to attend his rallies.

Three and a half weeks ago, when I was in Nakuru, my nephew who has lived all the years of his twentysomething life in that market town introduced me to three pals- Kariuki, Waweru and Mbogua- who told me how disgusted they were at the way some PNU politicians were trying to drum ukabila in their heads and how they remained Agwambo Damu supporters who would exercise their right to vote this December.

I have stated previously that my previous interactions with Kenyans from Moyale, Mandela, Lagdera, Isiolo and elsewhere seems to further confirm the solid national backing a cross section of Kenyans have for Raila Amolo Odinga.

In the meantime, PNU continues to flounder. A comrade of ours, a former political prisoner who later on captured one of the Central Kenyan parliamentary seats foretold the nagging crisis we are all now witnessing with DP, Safina, Shirikisho, FORD-People, New FORD-Kenya and other so called vyama tanzu jostling to field their own civic and parliamentary candidates.

PNU is an ark that is doomed to end up shipwrecked and consigned to a cultural museum in the not too distant future.

And speaking of PNU drum beaters, I think that the newly named Cardinal Njue could have been better off with his trap shut instead of pontificating on Majimbo. He is suffering a backlash right now instead of basking in the limelight of his new promotion.

As far as I am concerned and based on all the indicators that I have accessed- including a not yet released opinion poll- seem to strongly suggest that Raila Odinga will be elected as the next Kenyan president.

That is a good thing which must be lauded by all reform minded Kenyans.

Also good is the strong and unambiguous signals from Orange House that every aspirant is on his or her own and that they should cease and desist from clutching on to Raila's name as their amulet for nomination success. I did hear though from a certain well-known Kenyan who is very close to the top three Pentagon heavyweights that the only possible exceptions to this stricture may be two particular constituencies-Mbita and Bondo- where the two immediate former MPs in spite of being very unpopular on the ground, are deemed to be of so much strategic value to the ODM flag bearer that they will their way back to Bung'e one way or the other.

I would like to tell Mheshimiwa Henry Kosgey that Onyango Oloo feels that the ODM Chairman engaged in a rather tawdry and unnecessary rattling of sabres with the rambunctious KADDU supremo Cyrus Jirong'o. As all readers of JUKWAA know by now, I hold no brief for the infamous YK92 operative. However, I am still mystified why Kosgey, who has the whole PNU posse to battle with, would go after Jirong’o who, for whatever opportunistic reason had decided to back Raila Odinga.

The ODM leadership realizes, one hopes, that Raila Odinga needs every vote- especially outside the ODM support base- that he can garner. Why alienate Jirong'o for crying out loud?

More troubling for me is what happened in Wundanyi during the burial of the former cabinet minister Darius Mbela who just so happens to be the uncle to my comrade and buddy, Mwandawiro Mghanga, the immediate former MP for the area. Mwandawiro has been the leading campaigner for Raila Odinga in the Taita Taveta region and when I attended the ODM special conference at Kasarani as an observer, I saw with my own eyes the number of Coast delegates that Mwandawiro had mobilized to vote for Raila. Now during the funeral itself, according to a conversation a very bitter Mwandawiro had with me two days after the mazishi, the top leadership of ODM simply snubbed and snobbed him, in his own backyard. He tells me that his own brother in law, Philemon Mwaisaka, a former Moi KANU senior civil servant was the preferred darling- despite the fact that right up to just the other day, Mr. Mwaisaka was part of the NARC-Kenya contingent. Mwaisaka who happens to have been Musalia Mudavadi’s permanent secretary when the ODM deputy captain was Minister for Agriculture in the Moi regime has now jumped on the ODM bandwagon and now wants to use his connections with two Pentagon members (Balala and Mudavadi) to catapult himself into a position where he is the ODM candidate for Wundanyi. Mwandawiro, unlike Jirong’o, is even more resolute in campaigning for the victory of Raila Odinga.

The former Wundanyi MP will seek re-election on a SDP ticket.

I now want to offer some more unsolicited advice to Raila Odinga, a compatriot I respect for his many contributions to the cause of Kenya’s eventual liberation:

Please Ndugu Agwambo, be careful that you do not get isolated from progressive and patriotic Kenyans by some of the self-seeking careerists who pretend to fight for the same things you are agitating for. It would be a sad day indeed if you were elected President only to find yourself hemmed in by a parliament of rightwing chest thumpers and liberal wafflers shying away from taking any bold steps in reconstructing and reconstituting Kenya. You will need as many Mwandawiros, Nyamwamus, Orengos and other radical democrats as you can get.

Secondly, comrade Raila, watch out for those Americans.

There are reports that they favour you over Kibaki.

I am a bit perplexed because I am sure you did not win any brownie points when you exposed the Kibaki regime’s complicity in Uncle Sam’s notorious rendition program.


All over the world and throughout its history, the United States government has tried to steer candidates and agenda issues to the right. The USA has already succeeded in watering down the potential impact of progressive candidates in such diverse places as Brazil, South Africa and elsewhere. There is no reason why Kenya should prove to be an exception this time around.

One would hope, Ndugu Amolo, that even as the new Kenyan government reaches out to the USA, the UK, Germany and other long tem Kenyan partners and friends, one would also solidify South-South ties with Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, South Africa, India, China and so on. One would also hope that a Raila government would look beyond and see the progressive members of the American and European population who stand in solidarity with Africa as we battle EPAs, the WTO and neo-liberal policies such as retrenchment, privatization and liberalization of labour laws.


And with that, and in my capacity as the Administrator of this online Kenyan forum, I would like to officially and formally announce that JUKWAA is endorsing



Raila Odinga as the next Kenyan president.

Onyango Oloo
JUKWAA Administrator
Nairobi, Kenya