Aladwa, Jane, Stazo, Matakwey, Ringo & Rafuok Lead Nairobi Call to Honour Raila at Uhuru Park
Nairobi honours Raila as one of their own as ODM opens “Mwezi wa Baba”
NAIROBI — Nairobi’s Orange Democratic Movement leaders are rallying residents, ODM supporters, friends and admirers of the late former Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga to turn out in large numbers at Uhuru Park on Friday, October 2, as the city joins the country in remembering one year since the death of the veteran politician.
The Nairobi candle-lighting ceremony will begin at 3pm and run until midnight, with the actual candle-lighting taking place at 6pm as part of a nationwide remembrance exercise. Lang’ata MP Phelix Odiwour, popularly known as Jalang’o, announced the Uhuru Park event, describing it as a celebration of Raila’s life and political legacy.
Among the prominent Nairobi ODM leaders leading the call for residents to attend are Makadara MP and Nairobi ODM chairman George Aladwa; Nairobi County Chief Officer for Markets and Trade Jane Wangui; Upper Savannah MCA and Nairobi County Assembly Deputy Majority Whip Stazo Omung’ala; Korogocho MCA Abasalom Onyango, popularly known as Matakwey; Lucky Summer MCA Victor Ochola, popularly known as Ringo; and Mabatini MCA Wilfred Oluoch Odalo, popularly known as Rafuok.
They are joined by other Nairobi ODM figures including Lang’ata MP Jalang’o, Kangemi MCA Hamisi Maleya and Kitisuru MCA Alvin Palapala, among others, in calling for Nairobi residents to take part in the October remembrance.
Nairobi honours Raila as one of their own
For Nairobi’s ODM leaders, Friday’s candle-lighting is more than an ordinary memorial event.
They see it as an opportunity for the capital to remember one of its own political son — a politician whose political identity was forged and tested in Nairobi long before he became one of Kenya’s most recognisable national figures.
Raila was elected MP for Lang’ata Constituency in 1992 and served four consecutive parliamentary terms until 2013. The constituency at the time encompassed the wider Kibera area before the current Kibra Constituency was created. He later served as Prime Minister between 2008 and 2013.
His connection with Nairobi therefore stretches back decades.
Unlike a number of Kenyan politicians who have historically built their political support primarily around their ethnic or regional bases before making national presidential ambitions, Raila's political career was significantly shaped in Nairobi's highly diverse and cosmopolitan political environment.
The city became one of the laboratories of his politics.
From Lang’ata and Kibera to other working-class and informal-settlement communities, Raila built relationships with people from different ethnic, social and economic backgrounds.
His Nairobi politics became part of a wider national political identity that eventually saw him command support in different parts of Kenya.
In tributes following his death, Parliament described Raila as a patriot, democrat and visionary leader, while noting his long service as Lang’ata MP, his tenure as Prime Minister and his contribution to Kenya’s democratic evolution.
For his Nairobi admirers, this history makes Friday’s gathering particularly significant.
Nairobi was not simply a city Raila visited to campaign. It was a city in which he built, tested and refined his politics.
And that is why the Nairobi ODM leaders want the capital to turn out in numbers.
Jane Wangui: from ODM’s birth to Nairobi politics
Among the leaders carrying that history is Hon Jane Wangui, Nairobi County Chief Officer for Markets and Trade.
Wangui occupies a special place in ODM’s history. She was a founding member of ODM and became the party’s first Secretary General.
she worked with lawyer Mugambi Imanyara in 2005 to register the political movement. She has described the ODM as a party that gave ordinary Kenyans, particularly young and marginalised people, greater participation in leadership.
Reflecting on the relationship between the movement she helped establish and Raila's subsequent leadership, Wangui famously said:
“I gave birth to a new political force, and Raila gave it life.”
Her story adds another layer to the October remembrance because it links the current Nairobi ODM leadership to the party’s formative years.
Wangui's journey also illustrates how deeply Raila's political story is intertwined with Nairobi and with the development of ODM as a national political movement.
Aladwa and the Nairobi political legacy
For George Aladwa, the Makadara MP and Nairobi ODM chairman, Raila's political legacy remains an important part of the party's identity in the capital.
Aladwa is among the Nairobi leaders who have continued to invoke Raila's political philosophy and legacy in discussions about ODM's future.
The Makadara MP has in recent months been at the centre of Nairobi ODM's grassroots activities, with party delegates publicly backing his gubernatorial ambitions.
His call for Nairobi residents to remember Raila therefore comes from a politician operating within a party whose Nairobi structures were heavily shaped during Raila's years as its national leader.
Stazo and a new generation of Nairobi ODM leaders
Stazo Omung’ala, the Upper Savannah MCA and Nairobi County Assembly Deputy Majority Whip, represents another generation of Nairobi politicians whose political careers have developed within the Raila/ODM era.
As Nairobi ODM youth leader, Stazo is also among those expected to mobilise younger supporters for the Uhuru Park event.
For this generation, Raila represents not simply the politician who served as Prime Minister, but a figure whose decades-long political career influenced the development of many of the leaders now occupying elective and party positions.
Matakwey, Ringo and Rafuok join the call
The mobilisation also extends to Nairobi's ward-level political leadership.
Abasalom Onyango alias Matakwey, the Korogocho MCA; Victor Ochola alias Ringo, the Lucky Summer MCA; and Wilfred Oluoch alias Rafuok, the Mabatini MCA, are among the Nairobi ODM leaders associated with the call to remember Raila.
Their presence brings the commemoration closer to the grassroots — the estates, informal settlements and neighbourhoods that formed an important part of Raila's Nairobi political constituency.
Rafuok has also been linked to the race for the Mathare parliamentary seat, while the wider Nairobi ODM political field continues to take shape ahead of the 2027 elections.
Theuri: Raila's influence on political careers
Former Embakasi West MP George Theuri, who recently joined ODM and is seeking the party ticket for Embakasi East, has also reflected on Raila's role in shaping Kenyan politics and the careers of politicians.
Theuri has spoken about how Raila helped nurture and give political opportunities to several leaders who went on to establish themselves in national and Nairobi politics.
His argument is part of a broader narrative among Raila's supporters that the late former Prime Minister's influence extended beyond his own electoral ambitions to the development of other politicians.
The former MP has also cited the case of politicians who, after benefiting from Raila's political support, eventually moved away from him.
Jalang'o: “Mwezi wa Baba” begins at Uhuru Park
Lang’ata MP Jalang’o has placed Nairobi at the centre of the opening day of the October commemorations.
Announcing the Uhuru Park event, Jalang’o said:
“We are starting the month of October very strong. Mwezi wa Baba!”
He said Nairobi would gather at Uhuru Park from 3pm until midnight on Friday for the candle-lighting celebration in honour of Raila.
The national candle-lighting is scheduled for 6pm, with ODM asking Kenyans at home and abroad to light a candle individually or in groups in memory of the former Prime Minister.
October becomes “Mwezi wa Baba”
The Uhuru Park event marks the beginning of a month-long programme that ODM has dubbed “Mwezi wa Baba.”
The party has dedicated the entire month of October to remembering Raila's contribution to Kenya's democracy and Pan-Africanism.
The programme will move from Nairobi to Kakamega on October 9, bringing together supporters from Western Kenya.
From October 10 to October 15, attention will shift to Kang’o Ka Jaramogi in Bondo, where Raila's family will lead memorial activities culminating in the first anniversary of his death.
Other events are scheduled for Garissa on October 17, the Coast region on October 18 and 19, Kajiado on October 21 and Turkana from October 23 to 25.
The month-long programme will culminate in another major Mwezi wa Baba memorial rally in Nairobi on October 31.
A candle for Baba
Raila died on October 15, 2025, aged 80, while receiving medical treatment in India.
In the months since his death, tributes from across the political divide have described him in different ways, with Parliament recording tributes that referred to him as a patriot, democrat, visionary leader and major figure in Kenya's democratic journey.
ODM chairperson Gladys Wanga has described him as “Baba”, “Agwambo Wuod Nyalego” and “the father of devolution,” saying Kenya had lost “a giant.”
For Nairobi's ODM leaders, however, Friday's gathering carries an especially local meaning.
It is a moment for a city that witnessed much of Raila's political journey to pause and remember him.
From Lang’ata to Kibera, from the streets of Nairobi to Uhuru Park, the political story of Raila Odinga is deeply woven into the history of the capital.
And on Friday evening, as candles are lit at 6pm, Aladwa, Jane Wangui, Stazo, Matakwey, Ringo, Rafuok, Jalang’o and other Nairobi ODM leaders want Nairobians to come together and honour the man they continue to call Baba.
One candle. One city. One memory. Baba lives on in the political history of Nairobi.