• With Baba gone, the political script is unwritten and Kalonzo must decide whether to step into the space Raila left behind, or watch it close without him.

The death of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has left the country in a reset phase, a moment where political actors must rethink their strategies, especially those who had built their ambitions around the enigma that was Baba.

Death, by its nature, is sudden. It interrupts, it unsettles, and it leaves many things unfulfilled.

In a recent column published in the Standard Newspaper, political analyst Dr. Michael Ndonye argues that Wiper Patriotic Front leader Kalonzo Musyoka should now consider joining President William Ruto’s government to reap the “blessings” Raila had quietly reserved for him.

A screengrab of the Political Chessboard column by Dr Michael Ndonye on the Standard Newspaper published on October 24, 2025.

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According to Dr. Ndonye, Raila had politically settled debts with nearly everyone except Kalonzo.

“Baba departed last week and took with him Kalonzo’s debt to the Sheol,” he writes. “But in his absence, William Ruto remains holding the political ‘will’ to settle the debt. It is in this spirit that we call upon Kalonzo to meet Ruto ‘behind the tent’ in pursuit of that political settlement.”

The analyst suggests that had Kalonzo remained firmly by Raila’s side through 2022, he might have caught the mantle. Their alliance in 2013 and 2017 was strong—Kalonzo stood as Raila’s running mate, hoping to inherit the political power Raila had amassed over decades.

Political analyst Dr Michael Ndonye. (Photo credit: Felix Bett)

“If Kalonzo had stuck with Raila till his ultimate death,” Ndonye predicts, “Raila could have declared to the nation, ‘Let us support Kalonzo, a friend who has stood with me since 2013, for 2027’—and it would have been so easy.”

Dr. Ndonye lays out reasons why Kalonzo should return to government now.

First, Kalonzo is not clearly of the opposition.

“Kalonzo’s political DNA is of the system,” he says. “His inheritance has waited since 2013. Therefore, 2027 is his moment of return.”

Second, it is only through Kalonzo that Luo Nyanza and Ukambani might feel that Ruto is fulfilling what would have been Raila’s wish—a symbolic gesture of continuity, reconciliation, and political settlement.

In the absence of Baba, the question remains: will Kalonzo step forward to claim the mantle, or will the moment pass him by—again?

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