Birthday boy: Famous quotes by Raila odinga as he turns 74

Opposition leader Raila Odinga has added another year in life today. The son to Jaramogi has been vocal in the political field in Kenya and beyond with the highest and courageous followers in Kenya. We take a look at his famous quotes as compiled by African Warrior Magazine.

1. Yes, people are still heading to Nairobi for jobs. But millions are instead heading to the county governments.
2. The men and women who paid the ultimate price so that we may live in freedom only had the nasty reward of being called bandits and terrorists when the war was over.
3. I can feel the pain of the Mau Mau and the other freedom fighters. They must have concluded that life is cruel and worthless and that Kenya has no place for heroes.
4. We do not want to honour of Waiyaki wa Hinga because he reminds us of how small our contribution is to the emergence of the Kenyan nation. So we would rather let his memory fade because he brings to shame our claim to heroism.
5. There is this famous journalist Hellen Thomas who served longest as White House Correspondent. She saw nine presidents come and go, beginning with JF Kennedy in 1960 to Lyndon Johnson, to Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton and George Bush junior. And she covered president Obama until she retired in 2010. After observing the lives of these presidents, Hellen came to this conclusion: “That if you want to go into public life, decide at the age of five and live accordingly.”
6. Young people now begin the day checking the phone battery and data bundles. Something to wear, something to eat and a place to sleep come much later. Battery, bundles and the phone are the new basic needs.
7. Regardless of what you hear, the successes and failures you see, I want to tell you that it still pays to work hard and play by the rules. Success is a lie when founded on short cuts and deals negotiated in smoke-filled rooms.
8. Ngugi wa Thiongo wrote books on toilet paper in detention. Some victims lost limbs by standing in water clogged cells for years. Which should remind us of the words of President Franklin Roosevelt: “Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.”
9. Africa’s universities have had a poor rating in global rankings largely because they lag behind in the execution and dissemination of research. Within the Continent, South African universities dominate the top raking because of a strong research agenda driven by significant government and corporate funding.
10. For my country Kenya, the picture is sad indeed. Greg and Jeffrey correctly state that “if an outsider had looked at Africa in the 1960s and then been asked, “What are the most likely successes, the answer would conceivably have been Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire.” Yet look at where we are today.

11.  The security of the country must be in the hands of the best men and women for the job.

12. The networks of corruption have become extremely active. We hear warning to the corrupt, but we see none sacked or arraigned in court.
13. Lest we forget, there was once a Constitution, which provided that there shall be only one political party in Kenya known as KANU. That the Constitution created an imperial presidency, which could dissolve Parliament at will and hire and fire judges of the High Court and the Attorney General.
14. Africa is endowed with human and mineral resources. But Africa is also the poorest Continent on earth.
15. After 29 years rule, Felix Houphouet Boigny of Côte D’Ivoire said; “There’s no number two, or three or four . . . in Côte D’Ivoire. . . . There’s only number one, that’s me and I don’t share my decisions.” In those words, he underlined the problem of governance Africa was going through.
16. When people are mobilized as ethnic groups and not as followers of some ideology, it will not matter how well or badly the regime performs in terms of delivering national programs. The nation comes last.
17. The mounting momentum of ethnic based coalitions is, sadly, coinciding with the re-emergence of the Big Man in Africa; a species we assumed dead and buried about a decade ago.

 

18. Soon after independence, Tom Mboya published a collection of his speeches titled The Challenges of Nationhood. In 1963, he had published Freedom and After. Then he was killed and the pens went largely silent on that era.

19. Jaramogi was like a pumped football which would not sink in water no matter how hard one tried to. I know there were many attempts to have him sink.

 

20. Mbwa yangu kazi yake ni kubweka bweka…lakini haina meno…mbwa gani hiyoo?
21.  “Since Jubilee came to power, it has insisted that the economy is growing and Kenyans can sit back and relax. We in Opposition have warned that we are on the road to nowhere. We warned that jubilee is overborrowing, overspending and OVER STEALING. We have warned that the cost of living is rising and Jubilee economics is testing our patience.”
22.  “Last week, Imperial Bank was put under receivership. We last had collapsing banks in the 1990s when YK92 WRECKED HAVOC on our nation. Things are bad at the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
23.  “Let us be honest, teachers have not been paid, not because they went on strike but because the GOVERNMENT IS BROKE. The strike is the excuse.”
24. “Mr President, show Kenyans that you care. Think of the families thrown into uncertainty because their bread winners, serving our country as teachers, cannot be paid. Think of the thousands of suppliers of goods and services to your government whose BUSINESSES ARE COLLAPSING because they have not been paid.”
25. “It’s Time for HONESTY!” Mr President “Please get up and report on duty.”