President William Ruto addressing during the State Funeral Service for Former Prime Minister Raila Amollo Odinga at the Nyayo National Stadium on October 17, 2025. [Boniface Okendo, Standard] In the Lake Basin cultures of East Africa, the shadow of the dead is believed to remain in the place where they died, until the day his relatives go to fetch it. And it can only be fetched after the dead has been buried. Between the burial and that day, we are cautious with what we say about our glorious departed. We especially guard against social faux pas. Has President William Ruto been making…
Author: By Barack Muluka
Raila Odinga body arrives in Bondo.[Michael Muite/Standard] The passing of the political man mountain that was Raila Odinga has left behind a moral vacuum. It has exposed the need for a voice that can credibly speak for the country, and especially speak truth to power. Many will try to style themselves as the new Raila Odinga. Few, however, have valid credentials. Raila Odinga was many things. He wore political, moral, cultural and even mystical shoes. His boots made some refer to him as an enigma. He had a history of pain and suffering. His was the story of detention, betrayal…
Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga during a past ODM event. [File, Standard] His Nigerian biographer styled him as an enigma in Kenya’s politics. An apocryphal narrative from family sources recalls the day that an incensed Raila Odinga abandoned his three siblings in a car on Ngong Road, Nairobi, in the 1970s. He had only recently returned from training in East Germany and had taken up a job at the University of Nairobi. His elder brother, Oburu Oginga, was then an elected councillor in Kisumu Municipal Council. Their two sisters, Beryl and Akinyi Wenwa Odinga, were in high school. The family matriarch,…
Mwa Kibaki signs new constitution 2010.[Courtesy] Was the 2010 Constitution of Kenya intended to be a meaningless absurdity? This is the impression the political big boys give. Read together with Article 10 of this mother of all laws and regulations in the country, Chapter Six of the Constitution speaks to values and integrity in leadership. Yet, was this chapter, especially, designed to disappoint? Since 2010, Kenya’s political power barons remind us of Shakespeare’s gloomy words in the tragic play King Lear. The king’s confidant, Gloucester, reflects on the tragic ebb and flow in the human condition. He remarks, “as flies to…
President William Ruto at Suswa during the the beginning of his tour of Narok County, where he officially opened the Suswa Fresh Produce Market in Narok East Constituency on May 6,2025. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard] President William Ruto’s government is sitting delicately on the weighing scales of popular rule and, in converse, reign of terror and fear. And it seems that the State House is consciously tilting towards terror, shock and awe. The State might do well to pause, to reflect on the wisdom behind this choice and its improbable sustainability. A year-long period of firm dissent and street protests by Gen-Z youth has…
Ngugi wa Thiong’o I discovered Ngugi wa Thiong’o in my last year of Primary School, in 1972. It was the start of a journey that would see the curious reader with grubby little hands, eager for a good book, morph into Ngugi’s critic, publisher and even a friend, under the tutelage of the late Henry Chakava. The reading of Weep Not, Child quickly gave way to The River Between. A Grain of Wheat followed in 1977, when it came up as one of the East African Advanced Certificate of Education set books. The rest would follow. Across the distance and spaces, Ngugi remained the great…
Catholic Faithfuls at Christ the King Cathedral Church in Nakuru during the requiem mass in honour of Pope Francis on April 25th,2025. [Standard] Today, Pope Francis becomes only the seventh Holy Father to be laid to rest at the Papal Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome. Built over seven centuries ago, the basilica was the first of the Roman shrines to be built in honour of the Virgin Mary. It is considered the first Marian Church and Papal basilica in the world. This choice of resting place has been said to be significant because of its relatively humble status, as contrasted…