Living in the shadow of the small brother, but no regrets

Friday, October 20, 2006. Bondo MP Oburu Odinga picks a call coming through his cell phone on a strange number in the morning. After a brief introduction, he launches into a pleasant chit-chat in almost impeccable Kikuyu.

Four days later, when we settle for an interview at a city neighbourhood restaurant, he is just as warm and charming – laughing in between sips from his soda bottle and willing to take even personal questions. The only strange thing: Nobody seems to notice the presence of a Member of Parliament. There are neither curious looks among the patrons nor special attention by the management like would be the case for his larger-than-life younger brother, Raila.

It turns out that living in the shadows of Raila is something Oburu has come to terms with.

Not jealous

"I am not jealous at all about Raila's political success. My father wanted us to play different roles. He wanted me to be a Son of the World and Raila Son of Luo. Our roles are complementary. I am a diplomat. Raila is busy raising the flag... and I am busy playing the role of a diplomat. I talk to people who are not even ready to talk to Raila. He would not have been successful if I were jealous and undermining him.

"I respect him and he respects me. On the political front he is my boss. On the domestic level I am the head and chairman of family businesses,’’ says Oburu.

Jaramogi Oginga Odinga had big dreams for his first two sons. So when his wife delivered him a baby boy, the school teacher nicknamed him Wuod piny (son of the world). He wanted him to grow and become a diplomat; traversing the globe preaching peace and love. 

That was on October 15, 1943. And when two years later his housewife Mary Odhiambo gave birth to the second-born, the man of chalk coined a nickname for the baby; Wuod Luo (son of Luo).

The father wanted his two sons – he simply called them Wuodi and Aluo – to play different social roles when they grew up. That they should not play in the same league. But should complement each other.

In fact, he had to isolate Ng’ong’a Molo Oburu, aka Wuodi, from his younger sibling Raila Aluo Amolo Odinga, lest the two would be too playful and naughty at school at the expense of their academic performance and future leadership careers.

Six decades later Wuodi and Aluo have surely lived up to their father's wishes. While Oburu plays the diplomat, his younger sibling Raila is the undisputed and de facto Son of Luo. He has unmatched political influence on the community. 

He is the religion of his people. He overshadows his elder brother. But when under real or perceived attack by his political enemies, Oburu is almost always the first to come out like a wounded lion to defend Raila.

The Odinga family is known to spearhead seemingly perennial opposition against past and present governments. In fact, Jaramogi has variously been described as the Father of Opposition politics in Kenya. His sons Raila and Oburu have paid a high price for this political lineage.

Jaramogi was Kenya's first vice-president. He differed with President Jomo Kenyatta and resigned to form the opposition Kenya People's Union party through which he tried unsuccessfully to challenge Kenyatta. He was brought back into the political fold by Kenyatta's successor, President Moi. But they too differed and Moi had to put him under house arrest.

Years later, after stints in detention, Moi would appoint Raila to his Cabinet. But the two would only be together for a few months before Raila walked out on the President in 2002. He joined the Opposition and is credited with the Kibaki Tosha endorsement that saw Mr Mwai Kibaki elected Kenya's third president, edging out Kanu which had been in power since independence in 1963.

Kibaki would appoint Raila to the Cabinet in 2003. But the minister would soon start grumbling that Kibaki had breached a pre-election memorandum of understanding over power sharing. 

Last year, Raila led a spirited campaign against the government in the constitutional referendum. His camp won. But he and some ministers opposed to the government were sacked from the Cabinet. 

He is now leading another campaign in the Orange Democratic Party in a bid to remove Kibaki from power come next year's General Election.

So does the Odinga family feel bitter about the bitter experiences its sons have undergone, and having allegedly been short-changed in political dealings?

"I believe individuals commit atrocities because of circumstances. In my family, we don't have a history of keeping grudges. We know what has been done to us. But we don't hold grudges against anybody. When you get into any struggle, you must be prepared for the outcome, including death. Keeping grudges is not the best way forward," says Oburu.

And like father, like sons. The two Jaramogi boys had been a hard nut to crack since their primary school days. Both had a large appetite for justice. But Raila’s craving for the rule of law was bigger.

The two had been aware of their rights at very early stages. So when a teacher at Maranda primary school caned them for being absent reportedly without permission, the boys turned the heat on their mother. 

Furious mother

They demanded an explanation why they had been punished yet she had assured them she had secured their leave of absence. 

To exonerate herself from blame, the furious mother accompanied her sons to school, confronted the teacher in question and cautioned him against going back on his word. It was wise, she lectured him, to stick to their memorandum of understanding. She did not like men who belittled women, she said in the presence of her sons.

Two days earlier, their mother had gone to the school and requested the teacher to allow her sons to stay at home and look after their younger siblings so that she could attend a relative’s funeral in Alego, her ancestral home.

On another occasion Raila used a language the same teacher did not like. He was caned. Pupils were required to salute the teacher after being caned. But Raila refused. He was beaten again. He could not salute. He received a third beating and instead of saluting he walked out on the teacher. "The teacher protested to my father and Raila was compelled to obey rules," reminisces Oburu. 

Many were the times Oburu and Raila would be caned for sneaking out of school and walk home, about five kilometres away, to listen to the afternoon news on a small transistor radio their father had bought them. If both had the hunger for Kiswahili news on Voice of Kenya, Raila would go overboard. 

"We had developed a liking for news. One day Raila sneaked out of school and left me, and a teacher noticed. He asked me about my brother's whereabouts. I told him I did not know. The following day he summoned us to class. Raila was frank. He said he had gone to listen to the news on radio. The teacher was mad. He caned him thoroughly."

When perceived truancy by Oburu and Raila threatened to get out of hand, father decided isolate his sons. He in 1955 transferred Oburu to Kisumu Union. 

Oburu was then in Standard Four and Raila in Three. Raila would spend the rest of his time at Maranda and the brothers would now only meet during the holidays.

If Raila has undergone political problems including stints in detention, Oburu has gone through his own tribulations as his father struggled to give his son quality education and expose him to the world of diplomacy.

He has been denied permission to travel abroad, detained at an airport, denied admission to a top high school as well as a teaching job at the University of Nairobi. At one time, his family had to sleep on cold floors after their household goods including beds had been taken away by auctioneers. And all this simply because Wuodi was the son of Jaramogi, a person who had been a thorn in the flesh in both colonial and post-independence regimes.

Student leader

And at Patrice Lumumba Friendship University, Russia where, he was deputy secretary general of African Students Union, Oburu and the union boss, Ali Owiny, drew the wrath of Prime Minister Nikita Khruschev after the student leaders led a demonstration protesting the 1965 racist killing of an African student. The PM went an radio and TV to accuse students of abusing the country's hospitality.

When Oburu returned to Kenya in 1970 armed with a Phd in economics, he could not get a government job because he had studied in a communist country. 

He applied for a job as an economic planner in the government but was instead offered that of a district officer which he turned down "because I felt slighted".

Oburu had wanted to be a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, but Vice-Chancellor Josephat Karanja, who had led a 10-member interview panel, rejected him, arguing Oburu was a communist.

Dr Karanja, who would years later become vice-president, had been Kenya's high commissioner in the UK and knew about Oburu's student activism. "Karanja asked me a political question. He asked me if I believed in capitalism or communism. I told him the question was irrelevant. I told him I believed in socialism. That I believed in religion and private ownership of property, and communism did not. But he said I would introduce communist ideology at the university!

He landed a job with the Kisumu municipal council "but some people kept referring to me as a big Jaramogi cobweb" that needed to be removed. 

He quit after two years to become general manager of the Luo Thrift Company, which his father had founded. He was also financial manager of the family business Lolwe bus company. 

He was also in charge of other family businesses including a petrol station, printing press, sugar farms as well as construction entities operated under the banner Ramogi. He still oversees family businesses that include Spectre International and the Kisumu molasses plant.

Oburu first entered politics in 1974 when he contested and won the Kisumu East civic seat, now Stadium ward. He is, perhaps, the first Kenyan to become a civic leader with a PhD.

In 1975, the government offered him a ministry job as a planner. But he turned it down, saying he needed to serve his people for a full five-year term that was to end in 1979.

Although he did not defend his seat, he only took up the civil service job in 1981, saying he needed a year to wind up business in Kisumu. 

He was posted to Mombasa as deputy planning officer, rising to the position of provincial planning officer. He lived there with his family until 1983 when he sought a transfer to Nairobi to take care of East Africa Spectre.

Raila had been detained and Jaramogi put under house arrest after the 1982 coup attempt, which Raila has since admitted having been associated with. 

"It was a difficult time. One time Moi was in Mombasa and addressed a meeting. I was among civil servants at the meeting. He said those who had been arrested in connection with the abortive coup would be hanged 'even if he is your brother'."

So why would Oburu work for a government that had put his father and brother behind bars? 

"I was a professional, a civil servant. I was working as a Kenyan. A technical man. I wasn't working to please Moi or anybody else. My father would come to see me and we would talk for long in my office. I was not bothered if they would sack me." Oburu was elected Bondo MP in a by-election in 1994 his father's death. The old man was area MP. He has retained the seat since then.

He married his first wife in 1967. He had met Anne Ayoo Otono, a student at Alliance Girls, while on holidays in Kenya from Russia. In 1966, he arranged for her admission to Patrice Lumumba to study medicine.

Their five children are pursuing various professions. Ann, now in the NGO sector, lives in their rural home. In Nairobi, Oburu lives with his second wife Judith Atieno, an accountant. 

Lifestyle

Commenting on his lifestyle, Oburu says: "I used to eat a lot of nyama choma, drink beer and hard stuff. But I had to stop all that when I became diabetic and hypertensive. I then started taking red wine because it is good for the heart. But I have since stopped and I now take diet coke and soda water. I now eat diet prescribed by a doctor. That is why I eat at home because my wives know what is best for me."

The chairman of the Finance, Trade and Tourism Committee of Parliament keeps fit at the Continental House gym, reserved for MPs.

Perhaps to fulfil his father's diplomacy wishes, Oburu has a picture of two doves with the words, Love is Enough, on the wall of his house. After Judith serves us lunch and leaves for her office, Wuodi heads to Parliament to play the role of Son of the World.