Gachagua among likely losers as Raila looks set to win after election loss

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua when he chaired a Cabinet Committee at Karen Official Residence on August 4, 2023. [DPCS]

Few politicians, among them Raila Amolo Odinga, have the drive to win despite losing. He is endowed with an acute sense of political timing that somehow runs short of capturing the prize. He constantly schemes to destabilise the State to get what he wants, power, and gains enough political leverage to dictate terms to official winners. He forces winners to believe that conceding to him is peacemaking, often at the expense of potential challengers to his ascendancy to power. Four election related events in 1997, 2007, 2017, and 2022, spanning three decades illustrate his effectiveness in creating environments for political deal making.

First was the deal with President Daniel arap Moi that soured in 2002. As violence was meted out to Democratic Party leader Mwai Kibaki's supposed supporters following the 1997 election, Raila dumped opposition politics and ganged up with Moi. His aim was to gain power and or inherit the Kanu political organisation when Moi's final constitutional term ended. He worked closely with William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta in Kanu, but when Moi disappointed him by anointing Uhuru, Raila jumped to Kibaki's winning camp in a 2002 election temporary NARC political alliance. His impatience for political power, assisted by the conceptual West, ended up disrupting Kibaki's government.