Elated fans receive Azimio leaders in Bomas

Azimio-One Kenya Alliance Presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua appear before IEBC officers at Bomas of Kenya on June 5, 2022, for clearance to vie in the August 9th election. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

Everywhere Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua went, cameras followed. 

The hundreds who waited at the Bomas of Kenya, Nairobi, would pull their phones out as soon as the bleating of motorbikes, which ushered the ODM leader’s convoy, became audible.

They kept them in the air when the two leaders stepped out of their cars, and as they marched, side by side, to the Bomas Baraza Hall.

Inside, photographers would flare camera lights on their faces more than Raila probably fancied.

Karua did not mind the attention. She wore a constant smile as she went through the clearance stages and flashed a ‘namaste’ whenever one of their supporters inside the auditorium called out her name.

Earlier as they walked to the venue, they were as jubilant as everyone else.

Traditional dancers offered a grand escort into their official start of their grand quest. There were the Kikuyu Nyakinyua dancers who sang out the famous “werokamu” (welcome) tune. 

Isukuti dancers were also on hand to belt out Raila’s signature Lero ni lero. Akamba traditional singers were present, too, and had lined up ‘simu’ a song they sang to figuratively accept Raila’s call to support him in fifth stab at the presidency.

Luo traditional performers made everyone’s shoulders jiggle with every thud of their drums, as female singers chorused “Jakom okaw kom” to mean that it was time for Raila to occupy the presidency.

William Okumu, the oldest of the performers at 74, blew a traditional horn, known in Luo as tung’. The tung’, Okumu explained, was only customarily used to announce the death of a senior member of society “or to rally reinforcement in case of an attack.”

“It was used as an alarm to alert allies that a village was under enemy attack,” Okumu said.

He would later explain that his use of the instrument was not misplaced yesterday for he blew it to rally Raila’s supporters countrywide of the looming contest between the ODM leader and Deputy President William Ruto.

Earlier as they did a final rehearsal at one of the lawns at Bomas, their feeble voices drowned in the raucousness of the drums. But as it would later turn out, they were only saving their voices for the most appropriate moment. Theirs was a gradual build-up of excitement, which created when Raila and Karua entered Bomas. 

With the sea of blue and orange that had flooded Bomas, and the coordinated sounds that eased the masses into dancing, it was hard to believe that everything was planned in a rush. Many of those present had been informed on Saturday night to be present at Bomas: Bodaboda riders, traditional performers and the vuvuzela-blowing supporters.

Others, however, had anticipated the day since it was declared that Raila would be cleared, symbolically, on June 5. So they showed up in their best blue and orange attire, the colours of Raila’s Azimio coalition and ODM, respectively.

And even after they escorted Raila and Karua into the auditorium where they would be cleared as candidates, they, blocked from accessing the hall at the doors, kept the music going outside.

Every process, even the mundane one of presenting identification documents, was done against a backdrop of isukuti music, of traditional Luo ohangla, of Kikuyu and Kamba music.

There was expectation that Raila would address the gathering at Bomas, like Ruto had done on Saturday. He did not. An announcement was made that Raila’s supporters to march with him to the Undugu Grounds in Lang’ata. Atop bodaboda and hanging from cars that formed the convoy, many heeded the call.