WHY Dr Oburu Odinga’s book is A MUST READ, reveals a lot about the Odinga family philosophy and much more

By Minglu Dikembe via FB
Oburu Odinga writes in his book “In the Shadow of My Father” a very interesting anecdote on the reason Orwa Ojode never became a full cabinet minister in the Grand Coalition cabinet formed by Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga.
In short, Raila punished Ojode for truancy!
It is sad, but also serves to explain why Luo MPs have become the current cold corpses they are, in relation to their political ambitions or associations.

According to Oburu, when Kibaki lost the 2005 referendum and dissolved government, that is, the cabinet, he reached out to a number of LDP MPs as he formed the new government.
One of those MPs was Orwa Ojode. He had been offered a slot of Environment Minister, being the only MP from Luo Nyanza to get a cabinet slot in the reconstituted Kibaki cabinet.

In the weeks leading up to the appointment, Orwa Ojode had started warming up to the seat, and had been urging Luo people to not completely exit the government.

But LDP/Raila had decided to not work with Kibaki. The defeat of the referendum had bouyed the LDP wing, which had by now morphed into an “Orange movement”, to focus on the 2007 elections.

For two years, Ojode had not been “forgiven” for attempting to work with Kibaki.
Of course Ojode had eventually declined the ministerial appointment by Kibaki, but this he did out of coercion, not his own volition.
The coercion to drop his ministerial ambition involved a gun incident, in which Ojode nearly shot Oburu dead, or should I say Ojode and Oburu nearly shot each other dead.

Oburu writes that he was also ready to shoot Ojode, as he he too had his gun, which he had bought from – guess who – Orwa Ojode himself!
Save for sometimes wrong pagination and common spelling mistakes which the proof reader and the editor should have corrected, “In the Shadow of my Father” is a good read.