Comrades and friends of the Kenyan Left,

 

The death of Raila Amolo Odinga, long-time opposition figure and symbol of Kenya’s liberal-reformist politics, marks a turning point in the political history of our nation. It brings to an end a political era dominated by charismatic personalities, populist reform agendas, and cyclical pacts with the ruling bourgeoisie. Yet, comrades, while individuals perish, class struggle does not die. The passing of a reformist leader does not extinguish the contradictions that gave rise to his prominence; rather, it exposes them with brutal clarity.

 

As Lenin reminded us in The State and Revolution: “The replacement of one bourgeois government by another does not in any way change the nature of the bourgeois state. Only the destruction of that state apparatus can set the proletariat free.”

 

Raila Odinga’s long political life represented, in the final analysis, the limits of reformism within a neocolonial, semi-feudal order. His march through opposition politics—from the struggles against one-party dictatorship in the 1980s to the 2010 constitutional reforms—was rooted in genuine mass aspirations for democracy and justice. Yet these aspirations, under the domination of imperialism, remained confined within bourgeois legality, electoral competition, and accommodation with imperialist capital.

 

The Communist Party Marxist Kenya (CPMK) recognises this duality. Raila Odinga stood as both a symbol of resistance and a pillar of the neocolonial order. His contradictions mirrored those of the petty-bourgeois reform current that emerged from the ruins of the post-independence nationalist project. He embodied the inevitable failure of the Kenyan petty bourgeoisie to carry the democratic revolution to its logical conclusion—the destruction of the comprador state and the establishment of workers’ and peasants’ power.

 

When the big tree falls, the forest shakes. The death of Raila Odinga has shaken the bourgeois forest—the factions, NGOs, and comprador alliances that relied on his authority to mediate contradictions between the masses and the ruling elite. It has also shaken the imagination of millions who saw in him the last remaining link between popular struggle and state power.

 

But, comrades, it is precisely in such moments of historical rupture that the revolutionary party must intervene with ideological clarity and political firmness. The death of a reformist opens space for the advance of revolutionary consciousness—if, and only if, the working class possesses its own organised vanguard, guided by scientific socialism.

 

Raila Odinga in the Context of Kenya’s Neocolonial Political Economy

To understand the significance of Raila’s life and death, one must situate him within the historical evolution of Kenya’s neocolonial social formation. Since 1963, Kenya has remained a dependent capitalist economy—structured around foreign domination, semi-feudal agrarian relations, and a comprador-bureaucratic bourgeoisie tied to imperialism.

 

Within this structure, successive regimes—from Kenyatta to Moi, Kibaki to Ruto—have managed a system of accumulation rooted in land monopoly, comprador trade, and imperialist finance capital.

 

The Odinga family itself arose from this contradictory terrain. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Raila’s father, represented a national-democratic tendency that challenged compradorism in the early years of independence. Yet by the 1990s, this current had been overtaken by a new petty-bourgeois reformism, anchored in liberal democracy, multi-party elections, and NGO politics. It is from this reformist soil that Raila’s politics grew.

 

ODM and Azimio la Umoja reflected this evolution. They mobilised the grievances of the poor but channelled them into bourgeois frameworks. The slogan “Baba” became a populist substitute for class analysis. When crisis came, Raila oscillated between opposition and compromise—from the 2008 coalition to the 2018 “Handshake.” These were not steps toward people’s power, but mechanisms of bourgeois reconciliation.

 

As Amílcar Cabral warned: “The petty bourgeoisie, even when they proclaim themselves revolutionary, is only revolutionary in words, not in deeds. Their fear of losing privilege leads them to betray the revolution when the masses demand radical transformation.”

 

Raila’s political choices confirmed this truth. His repeated alliances with ruling blocs revealed the illusion that the bourgeois state can be reformed from within, rather than overthrown by organised class struggle.

 

Raila Odinga’s political trajectory was marked by a series of compromises that progressively blunted his reformist edge. After years of fiery opposition to the Moi dictatorship and tireless agitation for multiparty democracy, Raila capitulated to the very system he had denounced by dissolving the National Development Party (NDP) and merging it with KANU in 2001. This act symbolised the transformation of resistance into accommodation — a surrender of democratic struggle for the trappings of bourgeois power. In exchange for a ministerial seat in Moi’s cabinet, the politics of reform were subordinated to the logic of patronage. The revolutionary energy of the 1990s was absorbed into the machinery of the old order. From that moment, Odinga’s political path reflected the tragedy of Kenya’s reformist current — a cycle of mobilisation and compromise, protest and co-option, all within the boundaries set by the comprador state.

 

The KANU–NDP merger laid the ideological and political groundwork for subsequent realignments — from NARC to ODM to Azimio. Each shift appeared as renewal, but in essence it was a continuation of the same reformist logic: seeking change within the limits of the neocolonial state. In 2002, Raila broke from KANU and joined the NARC coalition, not to advance class struggle, but to reposition within the bourgeois framework. ODM later emerged as a populist vehicle that channeled mass anger without confronting the system of exploitation itself. By the time Azimio was formed, the reformist current had been completely integrated into comprador politics, transforming what had once been resistance into loyal opposition. Thus, the long arc of Raila’s political life mirrors the degeneration of Kenya’s petty-bourgeois reformism — from opposition to absorption, from protest to partnership with the very forces it once claimed to fight.

 

Thus, comrades, the Odinga era must be understood not in personal terms, but in class terms—as the rise and exhaustion of the petty-bourgeois reformist current. Its end opens a vacuum that can either be filled by new reactionary formations or by a revolutionary movement grounded in Marxism-Leninism.

 

 

The Bourgeois Political Order in Disarray

When a pillar of the bourgeois order collapses, the edifice trembles. Kenya’s fragile democracy—built upon ethnic coalitions, comprador accumulation, and imperialist tutelage—has lost one of its stabilising agents. For decades, Raila functioned as the safety valve of neocolonial politics—a conduit through which mass anger was redirected into reformist illusions. Now that safety valve has burst.

 

ODM is not merely leaderless; it is ideologically adrift. Opportunist politicians, who yesterday cried “Baba forever,” now crawl toward the Kenya Kwanza state machine, seeking crumbs from comprador power.

 

The political scene now reconfigures around three tendencies:

• Consolidation of the Ruling Bloc — The Ruto regime, representing comprador and agrarian-capitalist interests, will seek to monopolise legitimacy under the slogan of “unity after Baba.” But under imperialism, such unity is a chain, not liberation.
• Fragmentation of the Reformist Bloc — ODM faces a succession crisis. No leader within it commands Raila’s authority or capacity to mediate class contradictions. Azimio’s constituent parties are drifting into irrelevance or absorption. This disintegration opens ideological space for revolutionary politics.
• Awakening of Mass Disillusionment — Among workers, peasants, and unemployed youth, grief mingles with confusion. The cry “Baba is gone!” also asks, “What now?” This is the question the Left must answer—not with sympathy, but with strategy.

 

Imperialism and the Kenyan Political Crisis

Imperialism watches every convulsion in the neocolony with calculating eyes. The US, the EU, and their agencies—USAID, Westminster Foundation, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung—all invested in the architecture of reformist politics.

 

Raila Odinga’s reformism was tolerated because it did not threaten imperialist interests. Now, imperialism faces a dilemma: who will play the role of controlled opposition? It will attempt to manufacture new reformists from NGO elites and media technocrats under the slogan of “continuing Raila’s legacy.”

 

The CPMK will expose these machinations ruthlessly, remembering Lenin’s warning: “Imperialism not only oppresses nations; it corrupts sections of the petty bourgeoisie and the labour aristocracy, turning them into agents of reaction.”

 

The Opening for Revolutionary Advance

Comrades, where the bourgeoisie sees crisis, the proletariat must see opportunity. The collapse of the reformist bloc and the confusion of the masses create new revolutionary terrain. This is the moment for the Communist Party Marxist Kenya to assert ideological leadership—to draw a clear class line and lead the transition from bourgeois reformism to proletarian revolution.

 

The death of Raila Odinga must become a school of revolutionary consciousness. From mourning, to mobilisation. From confusion, to clarity. From illusion, to revolution. As Pio Gama Pinto taught: “Those who control wealth and power will never surrender them voluntarily. Only organised political struggle, rooted in the masses, can bring freedom.”

 

The Tasks Before the Communist Party Marxist Kenya

1. Ideological — Build Revolutionary Clarity

We must transform mourning into a collective classroom. Every Red Cell, every student circle, every peasant cooperative must answer: Why did reformism fail?

 

Through the Pio Gama Pinto Ideological Institute, the Revolutionary Students Commission, and the Revolutionary Women’s League, we must clarify:

• The class nature of bourgeois democracy;
• The limits of populism in a semi-feudal, neocolonial economy;
• The necessity of revolutionary organisation.

 

Let our slogan ring: “From Reform to Revolution — From the Masses, to the Masses!”

 

 

 

2. Political — Build the Revolutionary United Front

The reformist bloc has collapsed, but comprador capital stands firm. To confront it, we must forge a Revolutionary United Front under proletarian leadership—workers, peasants, women, youth, progressive intellectuals—united by ideology, not by convenience.

 

We must:

• Conduct class analysis to map emerging alliances;
• Lead mass campaigns on land, labour, education, and sovereignty;
• Forge solidarity with fraternal movements in Africa, the Philippines, Palestine, Cuba, and Haiti.

3. Organisational — Strengthen the Party, Advance the Mass Line

The CPMK must emerge more disciplined, more rooted, more united.

Reinforce Red Cells in factories, schools, and villages.

Expand cadre education.

Deepen the leadership of the Revolutionary Youth League, Revolutionary Women’s League, and the People’s assembly.

Guard against opportunism and sectarianism.

 

As Mao Zedong warned: “Internal weakness invites external attack.” Organisational strength is the guarantee that revolutionary theory becomes revolutionary practice.

 

From Mourning to Mobilisation — The Path of Revolutionary Clarity

Comrades, the death of Raila Odinga closes a chapter in bourgeois politics. The era of reformist hope is ending; the era of revolutionary possibility begins. The petty-bourgeois reformers called for national dialogue; we call for national liberation. They sought unity of all Kenyans; we seek unity of the exploited classes against the exploiters. They dreamed of a better Kenya within capitalism; we fight for a new Kenya beyond capitalism.

 

Let us not mourn the man, but understand the moment. Let us transform grief into strength, confusion into clarity, illusion into revolution. As Dedan Kimathi declared: “It is better to die on our feet than live on our knees.” As Pio Gama Pinto affirmed: “Freedom must be won by the people themselves.”

 

Let every comrade, every worker, every peasant, every student, take up the call:

Wafanyi kazi, nyakua mashamba — Nyakua!

Wafanyi kazi, komboa chakula — Komboa!

Wafanyi kazi, pigania uhuru — Pigania!

 

Issued by:

Booker N. Omole

General Secretary, Central Committee

Communist Party Marxist Kenya (CPMK)

October 2025

“Proletarian Internationalism is the Path to African Liberation.”