Then President Mwai Kibaki shakes hands with ODM Raila Odinga at Harambee House in Nairobi in 2008.
On March 18, 2008, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga addressed the House, speaking out against the politics of deep-rooted ethnicity, tribalism, and division — factors, he said, that were tearing the country apart.
As the country continues to mourn Odinga, who died in India last week, the veteran opposition leader told the House that he envisaged a country in which nobody would be denied an opportunity based on their background, and in which leaders would preach peace and prioritise the interests of the nation.
While this was Odinga’s wish 17 years ago, the country does not seem to have made much progress, as evidenced by the recent comments of Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga, who celebrated Odinga’s death.
Read: Raila’s siblings recall his 'fearless' childhood when he defied father, teachers and authorities
President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga chat after the State opening of Parliament on February 23, 2010.
Odinga was contributing to the Constitution of Kenya Amendment Bill 2008, which followed his entry into a coalition government with the late President Mwai Kibaki after the disputed 2007 elections led to post-election violence.
In exclusive excerpts of the Hansard obtained by the Nation, Odinga claims that, while the negotiations spearheaded by Kofi Annan were ongoing, some opposition leaders received calls urging them to reject the deal and return to the streets.
“We had reached a stage where we were receiving phone calls every day, from people saying: No compromise! Let us stay in the opposition and wait for another five years; I have said and would like to say it again here, that we felt that Kenya was greater and bigger than all of us.” Odinga said.
“We also need to reconcile our people. Therefore, we need to face that ugly animal called ethnicity; head-on. A country that is torn along ethnic lines is a country which is at war with itself and, can therefore, not hope to develop. Let us come together,” he added.
ODM leader Raila Odinga who has disowned a caucus formed by MPs to push for the implementation of the BBI Bill through Parliament.
The records indicate that Odinga proposed that the country should hold a national ethnicity conference where representatives from all ethnic communities in the country would come together to deliberate on how ethnic communities would live with each other.
“It should be an offence for somebody to deride somebody simply because he has pierced his ears, removed two or six of his teeth, or he has not been circumcised. When we do that, we will be on the front path of uniting our people,” reads Hansard.
“At the moment, we know that if you are going to attend an interview, you have to look at the panel that is going to interview you for employment. If you are a Mutua and you do not see a Kamba in that panel, then you have no confidence that you will be hired. If someone said that his name is Wanyama that already would register some bias in someone else’s mind. If it is a Kamau, one already knows that, that is not the person that they were looking for. At the end of it, people say that they were looking for merit. What sort of merit were you looking for? You know very clearly that your mind is already very biased and you are not a Kenyan! That person belongs to the Kenya of yesterday and not the Kenya of today and tomorrow that we want to develop,” Odinga said.
In his contribution, Odinga also condemned the politics of revenge, saying it is against the teachings of God as espoused in the Bible.
“Let us not take revenge because, as the Bible says: Leave revenge to the Lord.” “We need to feel part and parcel of the same. Let us not look at each other as Members of PNU, ODM-K, ODM and so on,” Odinga said.
President Kibaki and Raila Odinga before they signed a grand coalition deal in 2008.
“Let us now fuse together as one people who want to do something together for the people of Kenya, who are 34 million. Let us not look at our political divide, but let us strengthen the foundation for multiparty democracy in our country. If we do so, then we will be truthfully living to the creed; For the Welfare of Society and the Just Government of Men and Women,” Odinga said in his final remarks on the Bill.
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