Ida left a big job in the trenches for a small role at UNEP

ida Odinga. [[Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Way back in the 1990s before Jaramogi Oginga Odinga died, one of the heroes of the ‘Kapenguria Six’, Achieng Oneko, visited President Daniel Arap Moi.

At that time, contact with Moi was political anathema in the eyes of those leading what has come to be known as the Second Liberation. Before Oneko’s visit, one of the Ford party leading lights, Martin Shikuku, had visited Moi in 1992 and he became a laughing stock among the men and women then called Young Turks. So strong was criticism against Shikuku’s meeting with Moi that he got a nick name that would henceforth be used in political banter — ugali eater.

When Paul Muite and James Orengo caught wind of Oneko’s visit, they rushed to Jaramogi who was their FordKenya chair.

“Oneko has sold out. Imagine he has gone to meet President Moi!” Muite, then Ford-Kenya vice chair is reported to have said.

“Young men, what Oneko has achieved for the Kenyan people, none of you will ever achieve in your lifetime,” responded Jaramogi.

“The sacrifices he has made are immense. You need to talk to his children to understand the price he has paid for the freedom you enjoy today. If you must criticise him try and achieve a quarter of what he has first. I don’t want to hear anybody speaking disrespectfully of Oneko.”

After long stories about the suffering of Oneko’s family when he was in detention before and after independence, Jaramogi concluded: “When a freedom fighter of Oneko’s stature takes a break in whichever manner, you just thank him or her. Nothing more.”

Generous critics

Ida Odinga could have fallen in this bracket after being appointed by President William Ruto and now generous critics may choose to handle her with Jaramogi’s gloves.

As discussions on Ida’s resolve continues, let us agree that all citizens aspire to join government so as to partake of the endless menu of services and opportunities. In the Ida and Raila Odinga experience, the association neutralises the punitive claws of State terror.

The choice to stay out of government has dire consequences that ring through one’s lineanage hence our respect for the Odingas.

When Mwai Kibaki and Raila ran the country under the “half a loaf” arrangement or the Grand Coalition government, their spouses were offered Sh400,000 each as monthly allowance. Ida, howeve, rejected the offer arguing that public good came first.

When she took up the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) job after being nominated by President William Ruto, she has received numerous messages of congratulations.

“She deserves a job”; “She has been jobless for so long”; “This country wastes talent and precious labour”.

Has Ida really been “jobless” since her sacking at Kenya High School?

Similarly, one may ask, was Raila “jobless” during his detention? Those who confine the definition of jobs in terms of salary have a case to answer. Society has been so brutal to this category of unpaid workers.

At a personal level, I have experienced humiliation due to such “joblessness”, where you do not fit among your agemates who may be having jobs in government and corporates.

Job titles

One of those experiences destroyed one of my marriages. In a high-profile party where my middle-class wife had dragged me to, attendants introduced themselves with various job titles. My wife stated her rank in a lucrative parastatal and alas! My turn came.

“Hi people, my name is Wafula Buke and I am jobless”.

I had just come from a guerrilla training “institute” in Uganda where certificates are never issued.

My wife was embarrassed by my title. “How can you say you are jobless? At least say you are a businessman,” she admonished me.

“But darling, which business do I do? How can I be ashamed of a status I share with the majority in Kenya?” I replied.

I sympathised with her because I understood what she was going through. She was sure I would always introduce myself the same way so she asked me never to visit her at her place of work.

That had to be a nail in the coffin of our marriage. How could I stay with somebody who was ashamed of me?

She had made the mistake that Ida made: marrying a man whose job had no pay but pain and humiliation. I gave her up and moved on. Ida didn’t give up on Raila, she stayed with him to the very end.

Another scenario popped up again in the 1990s. Lawyer Gitobu Imanyara asked me to be a witness in court for a former 1982 air force officer who had served a jail term. The former soldier was seeking compensation for wrongful imprisonment and torture.

In court, I was asked many questions. One question however has stayed fresh in my mind.

“Mr Buke what do you do for a living?”

I knew I couldn’t give the answer I gave at my former wive’s party so I replied:

“I do anything”

“Anything? What do you mean?”

the judge probed.

“I do anything, begging, hawking anything that can avail me food.”

The Minister for Finance flies out of the country to beg for us from multilateral donors. If that is a job then my begging was a job too, I believed.

This was a better answer but not good enough. I ought to have said; I was engaged in patriotic work for the people of Kenya.

Out of order

Ida was not jobless before her appointment to UNEP hence messages of congratulations were out of order.

I tell these experiences to demonstrate the tribulations and disappointments that people undergo when they live a life that denies them accommodation in government like Ida did.

Imagine how a young Ida, a professional, a teacher at one of the country’s national schools back in the day. Days when people would celebrate acquisition of two to three degrees per constituency.  Being a teacher was so such a respectable job that one could be elected to Parliament.

All her career aspirations were thwarted by Raila’s years in detention. Unlike my wife who had a problem with my “joblessness”,  Ida’s partner was in prison facing treason charges and could have been hanged had he been found guilty.

Her case was different. At the time she could not be invited to parties. If she arrived uninvited, the party ended and attendants dispersed fearing to lose their jobs.

Ida has outshone most of our spouses. Those who walked should be inspired by her resilience.

The late George Anyona’s wife’s reaction to his seven-year imprisonment remains fresh in my mind. She screamed her way out of court. From her screams, you could tell that her world had come to an end.

She then became the bread winner for the Anyona family. Like Ida, she had no chance to speak at funerals, because the person leading the ceremony would have been in trouble.

There have been other experiences where spouses turn against such self-declared freedom fighters.

A wife of a Mwakenya rebel movement’s leader in the 1980s sold out her husband to the Special Branch in exchange for promotion at a government job. She became an under secretary in a ministry. The husband was jailed in Kamiti Prison for six years.

Ida and Anyona’s wife’s had such options — to sell out their men. They chose not to.

After the repeal of Section 2A in Decemer 1991 which was followed by a subsequent election in 1992, Anyona was elected Member of Parliament for Kitutu Masaba.

What followed should remind us of what Ida has decided to do by taking up the UNEP job.

Anyona began to hold moderate views and worked with the Moi government for reasons that are easy to decipher. More government doors would at least be opened to him. He needed opportunities for his children now that old age was nigh.

Analysts will romanticise the struggle and forget that there are painful prices to pay when men and women chose the hard way of fighting for some political cause.

Such people are humans living in a world that has its rules for survival. They have needs too. They require government services.

In my family experience, the local administration denied my brothers identity cards. They arrested my father and my brother Patrice Chemwile and asked them to tell them where I was before my brother could be given an identity card.

My father told them: “What kind of human beings are you? Do you expect me as the father of my son to show you where he is so that you can go and kill him? Are you really serious?”

The police freed him but refused to give my brother an ID. My father was to later to do what Ida has done. He joined the ruling Kanu party and served as a location official to secure the future of his family.

Anyona’s softening to Moi in the 90s is comparable to Ida’s resolve to work with President Ruto.

Better sunset

She may have thought that if Raila couldn’t take power, who could? Only the Gen Z have shown a determination that promises something different but do I want to go through all that at my age? On this basis, she chose a better sunset.

Those who give up on pursuing a tough causes say “there is a time for everything”. ODM’s Party Leader Oburu Oginga put it to his brother Raila more openly: “You can’t struggle forever.”

What Jaramogi told Orengo and Muite over Oneko’s visit to Moi was not a justification but a rationalisation and acknowledgement that after all every stretch has a limit.

Finally, were Ida and Raila jobless through the 80s? If they were, then they were as jobless as Dedan Kimathi was in the forest where he led his people to get back their lands from the British.

The difference between the colonial army and the Mau Mau was two-fold. The Mau Mau fighters were not being paid while the colonial army had salaries and other allowances. The Mau Mau fought for the colonised people while the paid colonial army was sabotaging their liberation.

Ida has been engaged in patriotic work within the Opposition since the 1980s. She was doing a more honourable job than all those who were serving in government.

My wife was wrong. She should have introduced me as a freedom fighter instead of holding her heart in her mouth because of my unsalaried engagements. Society ought to uphold a deeper definition of occupations and jobs.

Presidential appointment

In the long run, however, Ida has abandoned an even bigger and more valuable job than what she has taken up through a presidential appointment.

She had the historical and moral stature to oversee the transition in ODM. Now she can’t.

That would have been an important job. To add on that, who knows, she too would have followed in the footsteps of Sonia Gandhi whose husband was assassinated in the 90s. Sonia took over the Congress Party and led it to power.

Ida, Our mother, may have made a mistake but as Jaramogi guided on Oneko’s decision to meet Moi, we should just say thank you for years of sacrifice and service.