Orengo: I had to part ways with Raila in 2002

By Oscar Obonyo

Sunday, July 20th 2014

Lawyer James Orengo, as the SDP presidential candidate, addresses supporters in 2002.

Kenya: Siaya Senator James Orengo maintains former Prime Minister Raila Odinga helped the wrong man – Mwai Kibaki – to ascend to the presidency, a factor that made them part ways politically in 2002.

By throwing his weight behind Kibaki, through his famous “Kibaki Tosha” declaration at Uhuru Park in October 2002, Raila literally handed the leadership baton to Kibaki, a man Orengo faults as an establishment person, who since independence had been fighting Opposition forces.

Indeed that “wrong man” appears to have further derailed the dream of Raila and his ilk of reform-minded politicians, by “handing over power” to Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Kenya’s first President Jomo Kenyatta, whom the Orengo team also regards as an establishment man.

“When Kibaki came along, it had become a disturbing trend for all manner of people pouring into the Opposition and crowding out the real owners of the struggle. It was painful for me that we had allowed our fruits of the struggle to be hijacked by those who had all along sat in the periphery,” says Orengo.

In an exclusive interview, the senator candidly tells The Standard on Sunday about his on-and-off slippery relationship with the CORD leader, and lifts the lid on their delicate past under the wings Raila’s father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

Over the years, Orengo has politically deserted Raila at three crucial moments – in 1996 when he supported the candidature of Kijana Wamalwa against Raila for the leadership of Ford-Kenya, in 2002 when he decamped from Raila to vie for the presidency and this year in February, when he abandoned Raila during the party’s chaotic national elections at Kasarani Gymnasium, Nairobi.

In 2002, Orengo says he vied for the presidency on a Social Democratic Party (SDP) ticket out of sheer frustration and to make a protest statement, after Raila and Wamalwa opted to support “an outsider (a non-liberation crusader)”.

“I wanted real leadership change when Moi’s term in office came to an end, and not just another game of musical chairs,” says Orengo.

Lost Ugenya seat

Although he performed dismally and even lost his Ugenya parliamentary seat, Orengo is contented that he communicated his message. And when the former PM eventually opted to challenge Kibaki for the presidency in 2007, Orengo rejoined Raila in ODM with full force, because of his conviction that he was the best candidate with the right history and reform credentials.

“For Raila and me, it has never been a difference of opinion but rather strategy. And this is because we share a history in the so-called second liberation,” says Orengo.

While he believed in fielding a non-system candidate in the 2002 elections, Raila chose the longer route of first vanquishing the ruling party, Kanu, then opting for “the lesser evil” principle by supporting Kibaki against Kanu’s candidate, Uhuru. With Uhuru as Moi’s preferred successor, Raila has severally explained the prudent thing was to present another strong candidate from the Kikuyu community, to split the votes and defeat Kanu’s quest for power. But things did not work as anticipated and once safely in office, Kibaki trashed his Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Raila, that would have seen him appointed as Prime Minister, and even fired him from Cabinet in 2005.

His distaste for the so-called pro-system politicians, notwithstanding, Orengo curiously finds himself under the same arrangement in CORD, where critics point out that Raila’s co-principals, former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Senate Leader of Minority, Moses Wetang'ula, were part of the Kanu system that terrorised the Opposition.

“I know, but this is the Kenyan reality today. This scenario is also in the Jubilee camp, where there is a mix between reformists and those who served under the old dictatorial order,” he says.

This February, the senator deserted Raila yet again at the hour of need, opting to skip the highly charged national party elections at Kasarani Gymnasium, Nairobi. Initially, touted for the position of Secretary General, Orengo opted out of the race when it became apparent Nominated Senator Agnes Zani was enjoying support of the party’s top leadership. Orengo says he could see factionalism coming into the party and he was uncomfortable with that situation because he feared the party could not survive beyond Kasarani.

Rival camps

“It was a very difficult moment for me, and we had several discussions with Raila over these issues, but the train had already left the station as they say since the matter was at play out there,” he says.

Maintaining that his absence from Kasarani was not a personal protest against Raila, Orengo explains he was equally torn in between the two rival camps, one led by Funyula MP and former Cabinet colleague, Dr Paul Otuoma, who has been his client and the other by another former Cabinet colleague, Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba, whose constituency shares a border with Siaya County. Mombasa Governor, Hassan Joho, whom he describes as a good friend, was also in the mix. The botched Kasarani poll is reminiscent of the chaotic 1996 Ford-Kenya polls at Thika Stadium, where Raila and Orengo came face to face on opposing sides. That time Orengo teamed up with the late  Kijana Wamalwa, whom he says enjoyed good relations with Jaramogi and whom the first Kenyan VP “treated as his own son”.

“Wamalwa was a loyal deputy to Jaramogi and it was only logical we keep Mzee’s wish alive by having Wamalwa replace him. Besides, I supported Wamalwa and not my friend, Raila, with the view of giving our party a national outlook. The handing over of the baton from a Luo to another was not going to be a good thing,” Orengo explains.

Orengo was a close aide of Jaramogi and during his funeral, he delivered perhaps one of his most eloquent speeches by hiding behind William Shakespeare’s epic, Julius Caesar. A day before Jaramogi died, Orengo had flown to Kisumu with a letter in hand for Jaramogi to sign ahead of his trip to South Africa, to meet the late iconic South African leader, Nelson Mandela. On arrival at Kisumu, he was told the old man had been taken ill at the Aga Khan Hospital. Jaramogi breathed his last in Orengo’s presence.

 

“I have been told my speech was powerful but quite inciting. Well, I must have been emotional about Mzee’s death because I was personally pained. I felt the world had been quite unfair to him,” he says.

Although Raila and Orengo previously had bruising battles, the latter’s family connection and his long history in the struggle with Raila, has kept them together. During the 2007 polls, for instance, Raila campaigned for Orengo for the Ugenya seat, following stiff challenge from Steve Mwanga. Then Raila implored his audience to give him Orengo, since the battle ahead was major and he needed bright minds like Orengo’s to help him “run government”. The electorate obliged and Raila went ahead to appoint Orengo into Cabinet in the Grand Coalition Government with President Kibaki.

“Over the years, in my politicisation process, I have never considered myself a career politician, but rather I am a conviction politician, with the clear focus on defending the people’s rights and their space, as a lawyer and activist,” says Orengo, a fact that probably qualifies him as a crucial team player in Raila’s camp.