Sometime in August 2022 just days after the elections and the nation was in a pensive wait for the presidential vote results, George Odiwuor, the personal aide to Raila Odinga would let the cat out of the bag with ease.
“Mzee has not won and the family has accepted,” he told this writer at a Karen church where Raila and his Azimio entourage had gathered for service.
The emotionless aide described by many as loyal and professional to a fault, died on Wednesday while receiving treatment at a Nairobi hospital.
Following the August polls, tension in the country was sky-high, and many ODM functionaries, including secretary general Edwin Sifuna and governors James Orengo and Anyang’ Nyong’o, were giving their supporters hope the opposition boss would be declared winner at Bomas of Kenya by the IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati.
Odiwuor, with experience from Jaramogi Oginga years, was always calm, hard to excite and difficult to gauge his emotional disposition.
“Mzee knows the results. Ignore all those talking out there. Let people move on with their lives,” he said with finality, rebuffing the inquisitiveness of a journalistic mind.
Odiwuor started the VIP protection career by guarding Jaramogi. He transitioned to Raila’s detail when the first VP died in 1994.
For 31 years, he has remained a permanent fixture beside the ODM leader, tucking by his side in all his travels, domestic and foreign.
Politicians and operatives around Raila say other than Ida, if you wanted to know where Raila was and how to get hold of him, Odiwuor was your speed dial.
Raila described him as a dedicated servant who has served the larger Jaramogi family since the late 80s and “we have stood, fallen and risen together.”
“He has been a vigilant, calm, confident and extremely professional aide dedicated to duty and dependable rock on my side all these years through tumultuous periods,” he said.
Sifuna eulogised Odiwuor as a key guide around Raila and who held his hands on how to conduct himself and penetrate the inner circle of the opposition boss. Ben Agina, another functionary around Raila, said Odiwuor had a way of making people feel easy around Raila, “whether it was through a reassuring word, a steady presence, or a selfless act....”
Agina said Odiwuor had also suffered state harassment meant for Raila during his long stint in opposition politics.
In 2007 at the height of Raila’s confrontation with Mwai Kibaki’s administration, Agina recounts that state operatives had disarmed Odiwuor and revoked his firearm certificate and it took his intervention to have it restored.
David Osiany eulogised the man as humble and one who “wielded immense power in their silence [...] and with extreme grace.”
