Raila's courage to choose peace over raw power

Raila Odinga's  brother Oburu Oginga with his two wives Dr Ann Ayoo Oburu  (right) and Judith Oburu during the State Funeral Service for the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga  at Nyayo Stadium,Nairobi. October 17th,2025.[Elvis Ogina,Standard]

Raila Amolo Odinga’s burial after death on October 15, closes a long chapter of Kenyan and African political history. He leaves behind not only a record of opposition and reform but an example of something rarer: a leader who, having suffered under the cruelty of power, refused to visit that cruelty upon others.

His political life cannot be separated from his years of imprisonment during the 1980s and early 1990s. He was detained without trial for nearly eight years, subjected to isolation and humiliation in the infamous Nyayo House cells. Those years could have turned any man toward vengeance.