NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 15 — As Kenya marks the first anniversary of Raila Odinga’s death, the question surrounding his democratic legacy is no longer simply what he fought for, but how much of that struggle has translated into lasting institutional change.
From his detention without trial in 1982 to the campaign for multiparty democracy and the challenge to the 2017 presidential election, Raila spent decades at the centre of Kenya’s political evolution.
Since the early 1990s, Kenya has adopted a transformative Constitution, devolved power to 47 counties and established safeguards for civil liberties and executive accountability.
Yet persistent questions over electoral credibility, police accountability, corruption and the protection of fundamental rights raise a central question: have these democratic gains become strong enough to endure beyond the leaders who championed them?
Ahead of nationwide memorial commemorations led by family and community members in Bondo, Siaya County, Raila’s family framed the anniversary as something extending beyond political loyalties.
“This anniversary belongs neither to an individual nor to an institution. It belongs to the people whose lives Baba touched,” the family said in a statement.
The sentiment reflects a career that spanned the fight against one-party rule, the 2007 post-election crisis, the 2010 constitutional settlement and repeated campaigns for electoral justice.
These milestones reshaped Kenya’s political landscape, but they did not resolve every question about how state power should be exercised or held accountable.
The 2010 Constitution
The 2010 Constitution sought to address historical governance failures by expanding the Bill of Rights, establishing devolution and strengthening independent oversight institutions.
But constitutional guarantees and their implementation remain two different things.
Devolution brought decision-making closer to citizens while creating new challenges in managing public resources.
The Controller of Budget’s county expenditure reports have repeatedly highlighted questions around the balance between recurrent spending and development.
Nairobi County, for instance, spent more than Sh1.57 billion on domestic and foreign travel during the first nine months of the 2025/26 financial year, according to figures cited in the draft.
The expenditure raises questions about spending priorities, although the amount alone does not establish that the spending was wasteful.
The tension between political expedience and constitutional order has also surfaced in national politics.
The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), launched after Raila’s 2018 rapprochement with former President Uhuru Kenyatta, was ultimately struck down by the courts.
The litigation underscored that political agreements cannot override constitutional requirements, including those governing public participation and the amendment process.
Kenya has therefore made significant institutional gains, but the test remains whether those safeguards consistently shape how leaders exercise power.
Institutional milestones
One of the clearest demonstrations of judicial independence came in September 2017, when the Supreme Court annulled the presidential election and ordered a fresh poll.
The decision established an important precedent: a presidential election could be subjected to judicial scrutiny and invalidated where constitutional and legal requirements were not met.
However, the ruling did not settle public concerns about electoral integrity.
As Kenya approaches the 2027 general election, the challenge remains ensuring that every stage of the electoral process—from voter registration and the management of polling to the tallying and declaration of results—commands public confidence.
The question is no longer only whether institutions possess the legal authority to act, but whether they can consistently discharge their mandates in ways that inspire trust.
Civil liberties
If electoral justice defined much of Raila’s political generation, the protection of civil liberties has become a defining concern for younger Kenyans.
The Gen Z-led protests of 2024 widened the national debate beyond electoral competition to include public expenditure, corruption, accountability and police conduct.
The demonstrations also exposed tensions between the constitutional right to peaceful assembly under Article 37 and the conduct of security agencies.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) documented the arrest of 361 people across multiple counties following demonstrations, alongside allegations of unlawful force, torture and enforced disappearances.
“The large-scale arrest of individuals reportedly participating in peaceful demonstrations raises significant human rights concerns and warrants scrutiny as to whether the arrests were conducted in accordance with constitutional and legal safeguards protecting persons from arbitrary arrest and detention,” KNCHR Chairperson Claris Ogangah said.
President William Ruto has announced a Sh2 billion framework to compensate victims of human rights violations committed between 2017 and 2025.
“A nation does not heal by choosing whose pain matters. It heals by acknowledging all suffering, pursuing justice for all and committing itself to doing better,” Ruto said when receiving the compensation framework report.
But compensation alone cannot guarantee accountability or prevent future abuses.
“Compensation, while important, is only one form of reparations,” Ogangah said in March.
The challenge is to ensure that redress is accompanied by credible investigations, accountability for abuses and safeguards against their recurrence.
Generational shifts
Raila’s legacy is also complicated by the political compromises he made, including his partnership with Kenyatta through BBI and his later arrangement with Ruto’s administration.
These alliances revived a longstanding question in Kenyan politics: can cooperation between political rivals deliver national reforms, or does it weaken the opposition’s ability to hold the government accountable?
For many younger Kenyans, the priorities are increasingly immediate: employment, the cost of living, corruption, public expenditure and police conduct.
The protests of 2024 demonstrated that political legitimacy cannot rest on elite agreements alone; citizens also expect measurable improvements in governance and their daily lives.
Defending his cooperation arrangement with the opposition, Ruto said: “I make no apologies for unity. It cannot be that our religious leaders preach unity but others condemn us when we unite.”
Yet a September report by TIFA Research found that 52 per cent of Kenyans opposed the broad-based government arrangement between the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), while 30 per cent supported it.
The findings suggest that political unity remains contested, with public acceptance depending in part on whether cooperation delivers tangible results.
The generational shift does not necessarily mean younger Kenyans have abandoned the democratic ideals associated with Raila’s generation. Rather, it suggests that constitutional freedoms and political participation are increasingly being judged against demands for accountability and material change.
Carrying the legacy forward
Efforts to preserve Raila’s legacy have also turned towards education and public debate.
The University of Nairobi’s planned Raila Odinga Centre for Democracy is intended to provide a platform for scholarship, democratic values and public dialogue.
“We will not just commemorate a life; we will launch an enduring centre dedicated to advancing democratic values, scholarship and public dialogue,” Vice-Chancellor Professor Ayub Gitau said.
Raila’s widow, Ida Odinga, has similarly emphasised the importance of the people who will shape the institution.
“It is the people inside that give the Centre its meaning, not just the name on the outside,” she said.
The initiative could help sustain debate about Kenya’s democratic development, provided it becomes a space for critical inquiry rather than commemoration alone.
Kenya has travelled far from the restrictions of the one-party era. A progressive Constitution, devolved government, competitive elections, an active civil society and a judiciary capable of checking executive power mark significant gains.
But persistent concerns over electoral credibility, police accountability and public spending show that these gains remain incomplete.
Raila Odinga’s legacy, therefore, lies not only in the battles he fought, but also in the unfinished task of making constitutional promises a consistent reality in the lives of ordinary Kenyans.