Irony as Suluhu, Museveni praise Raila but bar opposition leaders from attending burial

A contradiction of sorts played itself after the death of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

As tributes poured in, Tanzania President Samia Suluhu and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni hailed the ODM Leader as a statesman and political icon. 

President Suluhu described Raila as a great leader, a peacemaker, and a pan-African visionary whose influence transcended Kenya’s borders.

"This loss is not Kenya’s alone,” she wrote on X. “It is a tragedy for all of us across East Africa and the continent. May God grant comfort to his family and rest his soul in eternal peace.”

Equally, Museveni eulogised Raila as a "patriot" in the tradition of his father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kenya’s first vice president, acknowledging his death as a "major loss to the region." 

"Ideologically speaking, they have been with the patriotic and Pan-Africanist orientation. I have shared ideas with both of them. Their sentiments have been for the unity of Kenya, East Africa and Africa, including always supporting the struggles for the realization of our dream for the East African Federation."

But beyond the flowery language, the two leaders have been playing hardball, making life unbearable for their critics.

Tanzania's opposition leader, Tundu Lissu, who is facing treason charges, had made an emotional appeal to President Suluhu and the courts to allow him to attend the burial of his long-time friend  "even in chains".

After his request fell on deaf ears, Chadema sent a delegation led by Deputy Leader John Wegesa Heche. But Heche was detained by Tanzanian authorities while on their trip to Kenya a day before the burial.

"In addition to detaining him, the Tanzania Immigration Department has confiscated his passport without providing any explanation for this decision," said Chadema Director of Communication, Brenda Rupia.

In Uganda, opposition politician, Dr Kizza Besigye, who faces terrorism charges, urged Museveni to grant him permission to attend the burial. 

Analysts and human rights activists perceive these actions as a mockery of Raila's death. According to Ian Horsefield, a political analyst, the two Heads of State missed the opportunity to demonstrate that they believe in what they say. 

Vocal Africa's Executive Director Hussein Khalid said that "they don't truly value and appreciate freedom and democracy," that the ODM leader championed", describing their tributes as "cosmetic statements and hypocritical." [Okumu Modachi]

'When you release public statements to commemorate a freedom fighter and that same time, you deny your critics to attend his burial, you are actually oppressing and violating those same rights that they claim to be appreciating in Raila Odinga," he said. 

"Why would you not let someone attend a burial of someone that is highly lauded as a pan-Africanist? If you read their messages of condolences and then what they came and did after, it is a paradox," he said. 

Their exclusion drew sharp concerns and elicited troubling questions about the state of political freedoms in a region where Odinga spent the better part of his adulthood life advocating for. 

Lawyer Horsefield said the actions portray a "disrespect to the democratic space. They don't even create that democratic space." 

Vocal Africa's Executive Director Hussein Khalid said that "they don't truly value and appreciate freedom and democracy," that the ODM leader championed," describing their tributes as "cosmetic statements and hypocritical." 

'When you release public statements to commemorate a freedom fighter and the same time, you deny your critics to attend his burial, you are actually oppressing and violating those same rights that they claim to be appreciating in Raila Odinga," he said. 

"It's an absolutely harmless event," he added. "It shows the hypocrisy in their statements." 

This also happens at a time when two Kenyan activists abducted in Kampala by those believed to be Ugandan authorities are still missing for weeks now. 

Mr Khalid urged the neighbours to "allow freedom to thrive and democracy to spread in their countries."