Fidel Odinga: Walking in his father’s political struggles
Published on 29/08/2008
By Martin Mutua
He bears the burden of history, as embodied in his name that’s drawn from another continent, era and meaning.
Fidel Castro Odinga, 33, the first-born son of Prime Minister Raila and Ida Odinga understood his destiny early in life.
He is a politician’s child bearing a political name immortalising former Cuban President, and grew up in political turbulence in Kenya.
“I can tell you it was a scaring experience … when my mother was thrown out of a Kenya High School house where she was working as a teacher, purely on political reasons.”
Fidel Castro Odinga. The first-born son of Prime Minister Raila and Ida Odinga.That was the 1980s and Kenya was in a restive mood. Raila was in detention, having earned the ire of the authorities as coup plotter. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Fidel’s grandfather, had been placed under house arrest.
Raila’s long spells in prison meant Fidel did not see much of his father. His friends say the experience hardened him.
Yet others believe Fidel’s close association with his mother turned him into “mama’s boy.”
But towering at six feet tall, Fidel says even though he was young then, he still remembers every single detail of what they went through.
“My mum is an Iron Lady because she kept us united but most of all we got our strength from prayers and close relatives,” he recalls.
Fidel says Jaramogi, whom he was very fond of, played a big role in their lives by visiting them regularly and encouraging the young family.
So, how has his life changed since his father became Prime Minister?
Shrinking private space
Fidel says people recognise him in the streets, which means his private space is shrinking, curtailing his movement.
“I don’t frequent the places I used to go to and my movements are not the same. I am under scrutiny round the clock as well,” he added.
However, Fidel says the family gets together during weekends when their father is in Nairobi.
Fidel, who studied business management and marketing at South Eastern University in Washington, USA, supplies bitumen products to contractors, while managing the family business —East African Spectre Limited.
Fidel says he has no political ambitions at the moment but does not rule out taking the plunge in the future.
Unlike his sister Rosemary, who was visibly active during the presidential campaigns in the last elections, Fidel was not in the limelight.
“I was there mobilising the youth and I also accompanied my father wherever he went during the campaigns,” he says, adding that he is not as outspoken as his sister and mother.
Fidel insists his father was robbed of victory as he won “straight and squarely.”
He describes his father as “brutally honest.”
“My father is brutally honest in what he does and is also trusting. But if when dealing with you he realises you are lying to him, he gets extremely upset.”
Fidel is engaged to Veronica and friends say his “circle of friends has also changed, if not upgraded” to include more mature company.
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Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:55:55 +0000
From: Nicholas Mireri
Subject: Fidel Raila
Here we go laying our inferiority and making lords out of these looters. We ned to find out who was running Fidel’s business when his father was Minister of Roads. Was the business being run by proxy asians? Jaluo yaw pachi! Luo Nyanza is a poor as ever and all we get are excuses of how “nopogi animal”. Time will judge this family one day. Lets not be so blinded as to make lords out of the Odinga’s. All I know is Fidel has a lot of “character isues” as should not ride on a name to such publicity.
As much as I respect the Odinga’s family and the part they have played in Kenyan’s political struggles including issues affecting Kenyans and the Luos in particular, I think it’s dangerous to view this family as “Royal Family†through which the reign of Luo and Kenyans must be channeled. They should earn their leadership roles based on what they do as individuals and not because of roles played father and grandfather.
Kenya must avoid the “coronation regime” which normally results in bringing the offspring of those who have been in power regardless of their achievements as leaders. In most cases, these offspring are installed on the throne mainly due to the financial based influence peddling by foreign governments and multinational corporations whose main aims are merely to use these uninformed rulers to protect their foreign national or financial interests. These international sponsors do not give damn about the interests of the countries or citizens being governed by these coroneted individuals.
Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire) is one example. A 34-year old man, Joseph Kabila, was elevated to presidency with the influence of foreign governments and corporations controlling vast mineral wealth looting that country. Kabila is either asleep at the wheels or is barely in control of DRC. The lawless international mineral looters with private planes are operating freely in the Congo forest using makeshift air strips constructed these by these foreign operators. The poor Congolese are being enslaved to work in these illegal mines operated by these foreign looters. Kabila seems incapable of protecting his own citizens from the looters. Chances are that he does not know what is going on in his country, meaning, he is unable to secure the sovereignty of the DRC, or he may be collaborating with these foreign highwaymen. Whether or not Mr. Kabila has the knowledge of these operations, one may ask , “What is the importance of his coronation as the son of the assassinated Congolese president if those poor who must live under the reign of terror being damaged?â€
PLEASE, TAKE TIME TOVIEW THE LINKS BELOW.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io8c81xHLmw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OWj1ZGn4uM&feature=related
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=116
By the way, UN peace keepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are aware of what is going but do nothing to report or stop the killing or mistreatment of Congolese.
It is so said that ‘ we learn from history that man does not learn from history’. And that is true in our case. We should be rational and not sentimental in making this decision. Pakistan tried eliminating the Bhutto family leadership they found themselves with a long list of dictators recently General Musharaf. Realising this, they decided to go back to the daughter( Benazir Bhutto ) of the country’s founding father Bhutto family. Another case is India. Where the public tried so many leaders and finally realised that, the Gandhi family, was the one with their interest at heart. It will be very difficult to unite the Luo community once the Jaramogi family is shunned. The best thing that we can do to each other as Luos is to stick with the Jaramogi family. The so called experiment with someone out side the Jaramogi family, will work but not for long.
I saw the late jaramogis wife(betty who leaves in kisumu) boarding a boda boda recently and wondered why is this so,why is it that in the media we normally see other members of this family with big machines while the late jaramogis wife is ridning on a boda boda??is this by choice or there is something we dont know??are you finding this strange??
From what i have seen of him he is a very humble none combative gentleman who will one day follow the footsteps of his family , as for the comments above…sounds very personal unless you know the family .Which other Luo family has fought for freedomand the country like them? Please!
Bim enBim ;
You can take time to read more about ” Zulfikar Ali Bhutto” and the role he played in shaping Pakistan political history. You should also take time to read why he was killed and who was behind this killing.
Quoted from WIKIPEDIA
”
In his book If I am Assassinated, written from his prison cell, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto revealed how Henry Kissinger had said to him in 1976: “we can destabilize your government and make a horrible example out of you”.[16] Kissinger had warned Zulfikar Ali Bhutto that if Pakistan continued with its nuclear programe the Prime Minister would have to pay a heavy price.
”
Can you explain to readers on this blog how the Luos benefit from blindly following this famous family? Do not get me wrong, I am not agaist Jaramogi’s family,. I just want to know how the Luos have benefited from their leadership?
If there is a consensus that “coronation” is the way to go, then why go through lengthy meaningless elections? Why not just have “coronation ceremonies”?
There were many lives lost by poor people in Kisumu who may not have known why they were dying. They would still be alive today if there was a “coronation” instead of election!
Bim enBim, you are very wrong in your analysis. Benazir Bhutto was a very corrupt leader only sustained by people from her region. Poverty in India grew to the current levels under the Gandhi dynasty so I don’t understand what credit they deserve. As for Luo politics, we need to give everyone a chance and not be blinded by dynasties. We are notorious for retarding emerging leaders in our community all in the name of protecting the Odinga’s and so called “unity” It must stop.