We should shun tribal identity in organising electoral politics

President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga at a past function. [John Muchucha, Standard]

According to Ndindi Nyoro, Raila Odinga is preparing to run for president in 2022 and the political problems that the Kiharu MP faces are the result of the resistance that he, and others within the Mt Kenya region, are mounting against an Odinga candidature. What are the implications of an Odinga candidature on the Kikuyu nation?

Odinga eventually emerged as the successor to the political mantle that was formerly held by his father, the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. That mantle was based on a view that, besides the Kikuyu nation, the Luo community was the only other ethnic political force in Kenya.  As he was neither Kikuyu nor Luo, it was expected that Moi would not last when he took power in 1978. Moi became president as a Tugen, an ethnic minority that was too small to challenge the presumed big two. By the time he retired 24 years later, Moi was now identified as a Kalenjin. He had managed to consolidate the Kalenjin into a political force that now rivalled the big two. Deputy President, William Ruto, should be grateful that Moi created for him a political base that he would inherit and which he is now banking on in his horse trading.