Election war councils: Raila

In what promises to be a bruising battle, Raila Odinga war council is tackling the coming contest in two fronts. The first front is manned by seasoned political thinkers whose capacity to craft a populist political campaign is unrivalled.

Already, the strength of Raila’s political strategists has begun to emerge in ODM where a well-targeted propaganda has projected him as the only reformist in the ODM presidential race.

The propaganda is the work of a team consisting of university professors and operates from a hide-out owned by the Raila family in Upper Hill. It is this group that developed Raila’s political philosophy as published on his website, www.Raila07 .com.

The Upper Hill team is also responsible for the political coup that threw out pro-Kibaki officials from the multi-million shilling donor funded Centre for Multi-Party Democracy (CMD). The officials removed from the strategically important NGO are former chairman Dr. Apollo Njonjo, who lost the seat to Raila protégé, Prof. Larry Gumbe. Others are George Nyamweya and Calistus Mwatela.

The second front in the Raila kitchen cabinet is tasked with building a war chest for the candidate. It is organized in two groups. The first group is the Luo Diaspora Welfare and Economic Development Initiative, a group of Kenyan citizens in the Diaspora that has been organizing Raila’s trips abroad under the aegis of Friends of Raila.

The team coordinator is Dr Odeyo Ayaga, who teaches in the US. The organization has several branches in the US, and three others in Canada, Germany and UK respectively. The group’s organizing secretary is Dick Otuma, who lives in New Jersey, USA.

The second group in the Raila war chest team comprises of NGO personalities who can call the financial support from foreign donors at the snap of a finger. Some of the names in this group include, Oduor Ong’wen, who was the man behind the World Social Forum in Nairobi and Otiende Amolo, a former chairman of the Kenya Chapter of the International Commission of Jurists.

Some names in the Raila war team

Prof. Hastings Okoth-Ogendo
The law professor at the University of Nairobi was the vice chair of the now defunct Constitutional Review Commission of Kenya headed by the eccentric Prof. Yash Pal Ghai. A constitutional scholar, Ogendo has written extensively on democracy where he comes out explicitly as an advocate of parliamentary democracy with a prime minister as the head of government.

Prof. Larry Gumbe
A scientist, Gumbe teaches at the University of Nairobi. He is the man Kanu rebels led by Raila used to acquire the then moribund Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) after a fall-out with president Moi in 2002.

Raila and co. used the newly acquired outfit to bargain for positions in the Narc coalition that went on to form the government. He has been the chairman of the party since then, a position he used to ascend to the helm of the strategically important Centre for Multi-Party Democracy.

Prof. Peter Wanyande
The professor of political science at the University of Nairobi has stuck with Raila since his days at National Development Party (NDP). The former dean of the faculty of arts at the University is a regular commentator on politics. He is also a consultant in various NGOs and international organizations.

Oduor Ong’wen
A former student leader at Nairobi University, his name has been synonymous with the NGOs since his release from jail in 1984.

The NGOs associated with him have tentacles all over Africa and operates budgets that are the envy of many a government in the third world.

Some NGOs in his orbit are Econews, Social Development Network, African Forum and Network for Debt and Development Network (AFRODAD), Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI), Third World Network (TWN), Human Rights Watch Africa, Kenya Social Forum and the Kenya Debt Relief Network (KENDREN)