I met Raila Odinga in 2012 when I was a student in Russia. At the time, he was Kenya’s Prime Minister, and he had traveled to Russia to attend the St. Petersburg Economic Forum at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin. For us Kenyan students studying abroad, the opportunity to meet Raila was thrilling.
A dinner had been organized for Kenyan students, business leaders, and friends of Kenya in Russia. When Raila finally walked into the hall, it was with the full trappings of power: aides, ministers, security, media, and an impressive delegation. As he entered, we students stood in two rows along the entrance to welcome him.
Tag Archives: Legacy
The Complications of Moi’s Public Apology
The Late President Moi’s legacy is a complicated one, split between the good, the bad and the ugly. On one hand you have a man who attended church religiously, openly loved children, gave them free school milk, built schools and universities and did much more recognizable good. On the other hand, you have a man whose government had a torture chamber, who exiled people, enriched his associates through corruption and land grabbing and more that I might not know about.
There are different levels of Interactions with Moi. There are those who suffered or benefited directly because of his actions. There are those who suffered or benefited courtesy of their family members’ good or bad experience with Moi. And then there is the rest of us, who were affected positively or negatively by his policies and whose perception of Moi was mainly carved by the media and other people’s experiences of him.
Clearly his presidency and personality had many faces.
And what are we supposed to say when such a man dies? How are Continue reading The Complications of Moi’s Public Apology