Will Winnie Odinga, the daughter of legacy, carry his torch?

All her life, Winnie Odinga was at her father’s side. She was born in the shadow of a name that at a younger age was hard to comprehend, but the older she got she embraced it.

She was always with her father, from childhood outings, where she would wonder why people followed and adored her father.

To political rallies at a younger age, through touching speeches, insults, election loses, she was there as the chogo (last born).

And when the time came and the light of the legend dimmed. It was in her arms that the man she knew as father, mentor, and head of the house transitioned.

The world mourned with Winnie when, finally, the footage and photos of her father in a casket were seen for the first time.

The bubbly Winnie looked defeated. She stood beside the casket holding her father’s famous fedora hat, which she later placed on top of the casket.

She was going back home with her father, but this time the trip would be different. She would not sit beside him on the plane, chatting and taking selfies. No. She would sit on the plane while her father was being carried as cargo in a box.

There’s a level of pain that cannot be explained by anyone but the one going through it.

During her father’s requiem mass at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi. Winnie stood and said the most heartbreaking words that no child should utter. “My father died in my arms.”

She was stoic, but grief has a way of taking the life out of someone. Towards the end of her speech, she sang her father’s favorite song and then ended with the hero’s chant. Jowi! Jowi! Jowi!

At that moment, as she held back tears, the whole world mourned with her. Unlike the political campaigns, this time she stood on a podium and her father was not there to cheer her on.

Early life and education

Winnie Odinga was born on March 6, 1990, to Ida Betty Odinga and Raila Odinga. During Raila’s burial her mother Ida explained why she named her Winnie.

 “I was in the labour ward watching the television, and I could see Nelson Mandela and Winnie Mandela holding hands as Mandela walked out of the gates of the prison. By then I didn’t know what kind of child I was going to get. I said, if it’s a boy, we would name him Nelson, and if it’s a girl, Winnie Mandela. Therefore, Winnie Mandela arrived” she recalled.

Winnie went to Rusinga School, then Brook House, before going to the United States to study. She did a double major: Communication and International Business and Economics.

For a while, Winnie did not want to use the Odinga name because she felt it created ideas in people’s minds of who she was.

“I really didn’t like approaching people as Winnie Odinga, because I did not want to be judged for it. Fidel always said don’t be ashamed to be an Odinga, don’t be ashamed to be an Odinga. Do you know how far the Odingas have come?” She said during a 2015 KTN interview

However, in 2012, during a Citizen TV interview, when asked whether the name Odinga got her the EALA position, she said.

“The name Odinga has gotten me many things. The name Odinga has gotten me into trouble, it’s gotten me abused, blamed for many things, and persecuted. The name Odinga has also been a blessing, and it’s a name that I will be proud of and defend but the name Odinga does not define Winnie,”

On political ambitions, during the 2015 KTN interview, Winnie said “When you are a child of a politician, you either love politics or hate politics. But one thing you can’t deny is you are a little bit of a politician.”

A few years later, in a different interview, Winnie said every child of a politician would have thoughts of political ambitions.

Role in Azimio Election

She worked in the secretariat and communications and operations making sure the campaign runs smoothly.

Before the Azimio campaigns, her father sent her to participate in election campaigns around the African continent: Tanzania, DRC Congo, Zimbabwe.

EALA

Winnie was nominated to the regional Legislative Assembly (EALA) by the Orange Democratic Movement in November 2022, from where she was elected by both houses of the Kenyan Parliament.

Protecting her family

Winnie said she ignores negative comments about her family. However, she gets very defensive when they touch her sister Rosemary, brother Junior and their mother Ida.

“If you’re talking about my pops, everybody does that, everybody has an opinion,” she said during an Interview with Hot 96

Fidel’s death

“I went through the worst depression after he died. My sister in law took me to see a therapist. I started believing in stuff like that, talking about it,” she said during an online interview

“When he died I didn’t cry, I just started crying when we were now burying him. You know when you are doing a funeral process, there’s so much going on, it’s after that body goes in and you are just there with your family, that’s when you feel it,”

There’s a huge gap between Winnie and her older siblings. Her father was in detention without trial for nearly a decade and Winnie was born after the detention.

During the KTN interview, she said, “I was alone a lot. I learnt to grow up very fast if I wanted to keep up with the rest.”

Her siblings were all in college. “Junior is the closest to me, he’s 11 years older than me, Rosemary 13 years and Fidel 17 years. They would write, they would call, I wouldn’t see them as much but I would go visit them as well,”

The first time she remembered seeing her older brother Fidel she was 11 years old.

“My father sent me to America, and I went to stay with my sister Rosemary, and Fidel lived in DC at the time. I remember walking into his apartment, he wasn’t home, but Fidel being Fidel, his house was full of people.” She said, “He walked in an hour later and we were so awkward we didn’t know how to be with each other because I'm a little kid and he’s a grown man. After that, we just meshed…we were extremely close.”

Her father’s legacy

She feels her father’s legacy should not end like he never existed.

“I’m from the generation that we’ve got our own thoughts, animus our own desires. For what it’s worth I have dedicated my life to him(Raila), I am always with him, I take care of him. I feel like I play my part,” she said during a Hot 96 interview

Now that her father is dead. The time they spent together will now turn into memory. However, stories like Raila’s do not end they ignite future generations.