This is the beginning of a journey to the stars

By Raila Odinga

I feel the deepest gratitude as we take the first steps in building a better nation for our people, our children and our children’s children.

I am experiencing a feeling of profound elation. I am overwhelmed by your confidence in me. I salute my colleagues who have participated in the nomination process. They have exhibited the true spirit of unity and democracy, which is what has brought the Orange Democratic Movement to where it is today.

I salute those who have helped in so many different ways on the campaign trail, and especially for their steadfast support. I salute the delegates here today, and members of ODM throughout the country, for remaining committed to the agenda for change.

My hope for the future is my faith in the people of this great nation. I salute the memory of my late father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, who taught me what it is to be a true patriot.

I also salute a person who has been with me every step of the way on my long journey. She is a person who has always worked hard, she has loved and raised her own children, she has been a mentor for hundreds of other children through her teaching, she has made long journeys and put in a great deal of effort to assist poor schools, she has worked tirelessly to raise the status of women and she has built a distinguished public career of her own. That person is my wife, Ida. In the name of you all and of every Kenyan, I proudly accept your nomination as presidential candidate. Your trust will never be betrayed, nor will it ever be in vain. And I have this to say to the forces of greed and the defenders of our nation’s bankrupt political leadership: Your days are numbered and your time is up. We are soon to set our ship of State on a new course.

Our actions will always be aimed at achieving the greatest wellbeing and the greatest prosperity for the largest number of people. As the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus said: "Wealth consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants."

We intend to see to it that all Kenyans have few wants, and that the lives of the desperately poor, who make up more than half our nation, become lives worth living.

Today, we look back to the formation of the Orange Democratic Movement, which was crafted in the process of the struggle to reject the mutilated Draft Constitution in 2005.

Birth of Orange

We remember the Kisumu rally when, before a multitude of people - one of the biggest crowds ever seen in Kenya - we coined the name Orange Democratic Movement. It is the product of past struggle and the vehicle for future reform. Today’s occasion is a landmark in the movement for change. Once again, Kenyans have reached a point where fundamental decisions have to be made in a General Election.

The road straight ahead, a vote for the status quo, will lead only to a dead end. The regressive forces, relics of a bygone era, have no energy to envisage anything new. All they can do is give us more of the same, the continued unequal distribution of national resources.

Our politics will be progressive. There is another road, off somewhere to the east, and a vote for that route also leads nowhere at all. There is no sign of development down that road, after many years close to the centre of power.

Our road is the only road that offers hope. And I urge you today, never let go of hope, and one day all that we hope for will come to be. All that we want to change in our nation will come to pass. Keep the faith, and we shall see our nation grow and prosper.

As the Irish critic and poet George Bernard Shaw said: "For every complex problem, there is a simple solution that is wrong." Our present government’s simple solution to our nation’s economic problems is to trumpet growth that has left the majority even poorer. This is the wrong solution that we shall put right.

Labour is our greatest asset The wrong solution was born out of the centralisation of power in our country - power that is responsible for its backwardness and inability to break away from the cycle of poverty and underdevelopment. We shall devolve that power.

To paraphrase the Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith, every poor man and woman is born with one great asset: Their labour. And every person’s labour is the original foundation of everything else they acquire in their lives.

Therefore, to hinder people from employing their labour, by failing to build an economy that provides them with jobs, is a violation of this most sacred asset.

ODM will ensure, through sound economic policies, that we immediately set out on a path towards ensuring that every person in this nation has the opportunity to put his or her labour to fulfilling purpose.

I want to promote connectedness, particularly at the village level, to enable people to develop personal networks that involve them fully in decision-making about their communities and in nation-building.

We shall reform the Provincial Administration to make it responsive and relevant to people’s needs. We will ensure that the officials who run our communities are elected by the people. I want to draw people into the process of Government as partners, rather than keeping them as dependents. Dialogue and strategic listening will be key components of my leadership.

Strategic listening means listening not just to the words, but hearing the real content of what is being said and its implications for individuals and communities. To paraphrase Peter Drucker, the so-called father of modern management, the leaders of the past knew how to tell. This leader of the future knows how to ask. My emphasis will be on team-building. We must understand each other and connect, focusing on a common goal for a mutually desired outcome.

Lofty words are of no value if ethics, integrity, respect, quality and innovation are subverted because the people and their leaders are corrupt. We need to live these values day by day. Every one of us must address corruption, which has infected our society from top to bottom. We have a solemn obligation to take care of and add value to the country we have inherited.

As Albert Schweitzer, the German doctor, theologian and Nobel Peace Prize winner, said: "The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings." The people of Kenya have an historic duty to each other and the nation, to rise together through a popular democratic movement to remove a backward, undemocratic, inefficient, corrupt and authoritarian system, and to usher in its wake a new, popular and democratic order, where the people are firmly in solidarity with each other.

I intend to lead by example, believing that personal leadership is the process of being true to your own vision and values. It is not difficult to make decisions when you know what your values are. And I shall show that I am deeply committed to the values and aspirations I espouse, and that I can make the values and aspirations tangible.

We, the Orange Democratic Movement, promise to midwife a new constitutional dispensation in the form of a revisited Bomas Draft within six months of our administration. We all know what the priorities are. They have been stated over and over again. The difference between the others and us is that we shall not just pay lip service to the needs of this country.

When it comes to security, the economy, corruption, human rights abuses, education, gender, health and ethnicity, we know exactly where we are going. All the issues hang on one fundamental problem: Inequality among Kenyans. And that inequality can be traced to one basic evil: Ethnicity. We shall deal a deathblow to inequality and ethnicity.

The kind of ethnicity in Kenya is in essence not different from white apartheid in South Africa or racism in the US. The only difference is that this is black apartheid, African against fellow African. Martin Luther King said he had a dream that one day his nation, America, would rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, that all men were created equal.

He said: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character."

I, too, have a dream, that the day will soon come when Kenyans no longer judge their fellow Kenyans on the basis of ethnicity. In this regard, I want to commend the youth for coming out so strongly, breaking out from the old mould and shunning ethnic-based politics. They have played a vanguard role in the struggle for change.

The place of the youth

It is often the youth who put their personal safety on the line when they physically come out with their placards and banners to support us at our rallies. They have made tremendous sacrifices in helping to propel our movement to where it is. They have been beaten and arrested, but they have remained steadfast. I urge them to continue going the extra mile with us.

In return, we want to really look at where the youth are, what interests them and what they are involved in - not just giving them a bit of money and expecting them to make their way in the jua kali sector.

That is a recipe for the perpetuation of unemployment. The youth are the repository of our future. And our future must be connected culturally to our past. Many of our youth are involved in cultural activities - community theatre, dance groups, choirs and acrobatics.

This is an area that has been neglected. Our movement will help our nation to rediscover its lost principles and to reconnect with its cultural values. The burdensome yoke that has bedeviled women as they have tried valiantly to take their place in society will also be removed. Under an ODM administration, women will get full access to the factors of production - land, capital and skills training - so that they are able to take their place at the negotiating table.

Women’s sensitivity and connectedness to others is a useful tool in business negotiations. Women are natural at adding value, pushing boundaries, being loyal and inspirational and at generally making the world a better place. The role of women will be crucial to our administration.

We shall create laws that mainstream the disabled and empower them within society. We shall construct ramps for wheelchairs, and provide hearing aids free of charge, along with other prosthetics for those who need them.

We shall ensure that discrimination against our Muslim colleagues, who have been so generously supportive, is ended. Muslims have suffered terribly due to so-called anti-terrorism moves.

That great African patriot, freedom fighter and leader Nelson Mandela, memorably said: "We must use time wisely, and forever realise that the time is always ripe to do right." Fellow Kenyans, I urge you to join me on a journey to the stars.

The writer is the ODM presidential nominee. He gave the speech after winning the nomination

East African Standard Online