Raila of old returns to Kamukunji, and he's singing a not-so-new song of redemption

 Azimio principals Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka arrive at Kamukunji for a rally on January 23, 2023. [Samson Wire, Standard]

Opposition leader Raila Odinga aka Baba returned to his stomping grounds at Kamukunji singing his old song: Lero ni lero - inawezekana.

This, of course, was his campaign track last year, but he has advanced somewhat: the leitmotif includes what he calls the Azimio Clarion Call, which is an unequivocal rejection of Prezzo Bill Ruto's election.

Baba said he considers the Ruto presidency to be "illegitimate," for a different set of results was read by former electoral body chair, Wafula Chebukati. The proper results, Baba said, showed he won convincingly over his opponents, but the Kenya Kwanza administration relied on foreign stooges to tinker with the numbers on foreign servers.

This is what Chebukati and a minority of the commissioners declared as the official results; four others rejected the results. They have since been hounded out of office, Baba added.

This, too, is not new. Baba has rejected polls outcomes in the past; what's new is that he returned, as folks in town put it, "on the ground," something that hasn't been witnessed since March 2018, when Baba and former Prezzo UK signed their much chastised "handshake" which heralded their cooperation-and Baba's absence from the opposition trenches.

Now he's back, with the energy and vigour of his full 78 years, but he isn't pausing to celebrate even his birthday; there is work to be done and the time is now.

Consequently, Baba went on, he would not rest until there is electoral justice and cleaning of the mess from the last General Election. He also condemned the move by Prezzo Ruto to reconfigure the procedure for the appointment of commissioners at the electoral body, which was done without consultations with other stakeholders.

With growing fears that independent institutions, such as Parliament and the Supreme Court have been coopted into the Kenya Kwanza administration, it is claimed only one individual can stem the slide into dictatorship: Baba. The question is, will the real Baba stand up?