The University of Nairobi is moving to establish a centre dedicated to the study of democracy in the name of the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, opening a new academic chapter in the long-running debate over his political and constitutional legacy.
The proposed Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga Centre for Democracy opens next month, on Odinga’s first anniversary and is expected to become a forum for research, public dialogue and intellectual engagement on democracy and governance.
The plans by UoN emerged during a meeting between Vice-Chancellor Prof Ayub Gitau and Raila’s widow, Mama Ida Odinga, who visited the university accompanied by her daughter Winnie Odinga.
Gitau said the university wanted the proposed institution to outlive the ceremonies and symbolism that usually accompany tributes to prominent Kenyans.
The centre, he said, would be an enduring university institution devoted to scholarship, democratic values and public dialogue associated with Raila’s contribution to the country.
That distinction is significant in an institution with which Raila himself had a long association.
He taught mechanical engineering at the University of Nairobi after returning from studies in East Germany and remained linked to the university’s intellectual community. The university later awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in recognition of his contribution to peace, democracy and national unity.
The proposed centre will be housed within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences through the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy expected to partner in the initiative.
It is envisaged as a meeting point for scholars, students, policymakers, civil society actors and members of the public to interrogate questions of democracy, governance and political participation.
Ida, however, appeared keen to draw a line between preserving Raila’s name and preserving the spirit of inquiry associated with his political journey.
She urged the university to ensure the centre produces critical thinkers rather than merely becoming a monument to her late husband.
For Ida, the institution’s worth will ultimately be measured by what happens inside it, ideas generated, debates sustained and young people prepared to confront the country’s difficult democratic questions.
Winnie Odinga, Raila’s last born similarly challenged the university to make the centre a space where future generations can examine Kenya’s democratic institutions without fear, including the country’s electoral politics and the meaning of political participation.
Odinga spent decades at the centre of Kenya’s battles over multiparty politics, constitutional reform and the expansion of political freedoms, enduring detention and exile before returning to become one of the country’s most consequential opposition figures and, later, Prime Minister.
His political career stretched across some of Kenya’s most turbulent constitutional and electoral moments, making his legacy as contested as it is influential.
The university said preparations were underway for the inauguration of the centre and its inaugural Memorial Lecture on Democracy.
