Many politicians have often claimed that they “met Baba” and were entrusted with profound insights. On several ocassions when Raila visited Stockholm, he made sure he met the political organization that was waging struggle from the Diaspora.
There is no time when he visited without meeting the late Mr. Martin Ngatia with whom he was involved with in the 1982 coup. We later teamed up with Ngatia to set up the Kenya Red Alliance (KEREAL). Allow me, then, to present my own encounter.
We met at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, where Raila Odinga was staying at the time. I had been invited by Jack Mulo—a close confidant of Raila and a political exile in Sweden following his involvement in the 1982 coup attempt—to join a discussion on the question of revolution in Kenya.
The conversation was extensive, but its essence can be distilled into a few critical points. Raila stated unequivocally that the Kenyan revolution, if it is to be meaningful and complete, must ultimately entail the abolition of capitalism and its replacement with socialism. This, in his view, was not a matter of ideological preference but of historical necessity.
I then posed a direct question: if this was his position, why had he not actively pursued a socialist agenda, and why had he instead engaged in intermittent collaboration with elements of the capitalist establishment in Kenya?
His response was pragmatic, if not controversial. He argued that, given his political position, an open struggle for socialism was not viable under existing conditions. According to him, the political consciousness of the Kenyan masses—workers, peasants, the unemployed, students, and other exploited layers of society—was still “lagging behind.” In such a context, he maintained, introducing a fully developed ideological struggle would be strategically premature and potentially counterproductive.
He further pointed out that the structural conditions necessary for ideological advancement were largely absent. Freedom of expression—essential for the open propagation of socialist ideas—was constrained. Likewise, freedom of association—necessary for the formation and organization of a socialist political party—was limited. Compounding this, he emphasized the active presence of imperialist forces deeply entrenched in Kenya’s economy, particularly in the control of natural resources, and their readiness to suppress any ideological movement that threatened capitalist interests.
For these reasons, Raila explained that he had chosen to focus his efforts on what he termed the “National Democratic Revolution”—that is, the struggle to expand democratic space. His objective, as he framed it, was to create conditions under which diverse political ideas, including socialism, could not only be expressed freely but also organized into viable political movements.
He was candid about the long-term nature of this struggle. He did not expect to witness a socialist Kenya within his lifetime. However, he stressed the importance of planting the ideological seeds—laying a foundation upon which future generations could build and continue the struggle.
It is a long story that needs to be told.
Okoth Osewe