Success Is Not All About Winning

By Vincent Leintoi

Success is not all about winning, it’s about the sacrifices one makes to achieve. It’s about the number of times one rises up after every single fall. Just like the phoenix, it rises from the ashes into a fiery beautiful and a fierce bird. Failing on the other hand is actually not losing, it’s just the First Attempt In Life (FAIL). He’s tried countless times, never got actually what he wanted but he’s never given up.

Recently, he lost to a Djibouti candidate Mahamoud Ali Youssouf at the African Union Commission’s Chairmanship bid. Raila Amolo Odinga was born 7 January 1945 at the Anglican Church Missionary Hospital in Maseno, Kisumu District, Nyanza Province. He is the son to Mary Juma Odinga and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. He is married to Ida Odinga and together they both have four children.

Raila is a member of the Luo ethnic group. He went to Kisumu Union Primary, Maranda primary in Bondo and Maranda High School where he studied until 1962, when he was transferred by his father to Germany. He spent the next two years at the Herder Institution, which trained foreign students in the German language and was part of the philological faculty at the University of Leipzig in East Germany. In 1970, he graduated with a certificate in Welding.

In 1974, Odinga was appointed group standards manager of the Kenya Bureau of Standards. After holding this position for 4 years, he was promoted to be the deputy director in 1978, a post he held until his 1982 detention. On 1 August 1982, at 3 a.m. on Sunday, a group of soldiers from the Kenya Air Force led by Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka attempted to overthrow the government of the late president Daniel Arap Moi.

Odinga was arrested and charged with treason after being accused of being among the masterminds of the 1982 coup. He was released six years later in February 1988 but detained again in August of the same year to be released in June 1989. Later on, Raila joined the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD), a movement formed to agitate for the return of multi-party democracy to Kenya which was newly formed and he was elected the Vice Chairman of the General Purposes Committee of the party.

Raila has bid for presidency for five times but never succeeded in any of those but has managed to serve at the capacity of a prime minister during Kibaki’s time - that is from 2008 to 2013 in what was termed as “nusu mkate”. In his first bid for the presidency in the 1997 General Election, Odinga finished third after President Moi, the incumbent, and Democratic Party candidate Mwai Kibaki. He however retained his position as the Langata MP.

In a surprising move, Odinga decided to support Moi, his arch-enemy, even entering into a political merger between his party, NDP, and Moi's much-hated KANU party, which many Kenyans likened to the yoke of oppression. The merger was called New KANU. Previous admirers of Odinga now saw him as a sell-out to a cause he had once championed by closing ranks with a despot. He accepted a position in Moi's cabinet as Energy Minister, serving from June 2001 to 2002, during Moi's final term.

Odinga is now renowned for his famous “Handshakes” that has now happened twice, first was with retired president Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta which happened on March 2018 which was meant to cool the political temperatures after the 2017 general elections. The Handshake left the then Deputy President William Ruto seem like he’s left out of the government leading to their fallout with Uhuru Kenyatta. On 7 March 2025, Raila’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) signed an MoU to work with the Kenya Kwanza Government led by President William Ruto.

Till date, Odinga still rock the news and still plays a pivotal role in shaping the political landscape and leadership in Kenya. As earlier said, success is not all about winning, it’s the effort one puts up after failing to acquire the desires of their hearts. We fall but rise up stronger.