Another Handshake as Raila returns in President Ruto's gov't

The Opposition leader is not new to handshakes, this being his fourth with a sitting President. 

Citizen TV goes down memory lane from Odinga's first handshake with the late retired President Daniel Arap Moi in 2001. 

It started on the steps of KICC where Odinga flanked President William Ruto as he announced plans to form a broad-based cabinet which happened on Wednesday.

“We will move ahead with the multi-sectoral forum and we have agreed that a membership of 150 representatives of various stakeholders; 50 of whom shall be the young people of Kenya,” said Ruto.

“A dialogue is the way forward out of the crisis that we have today in our country. We agreed to give people an opportunity to be heard,” Odinga added.

This is the 4th time Odinga has joined the Government in ways other than the ballot from the opposition benches, he has penetrated the centre of Government through the Handshake. 

It all started from photos which emerged from Uganda, which looked like a political formation which was denied at the time.  But in time, it became apparent that this was not a drill. Odinga and Ruto were up to something. 

“I support Raila's bid for the AU Commission Chair,” President Ruto said at the time.

The offer to support Raila AU Commission chairman defined a shift in the political relation between two of the country's foremost opponents. Through meetings with other heads of state, Ruto demonstrated his commitment to support Raila's bid and in return, Raila played ball at home. 

Out went the protests against the cost of living, fuel prices and other related grievances and in came a cooperative opposition, quietly pledging not to rock the Ruto boat. This cooperation seemingly culminated in the appointment of Odinga's close allies into Ruto's cabinet. 

Just 5 years ago, a similar script appeared to be at play with Odinga, shaking hands with the then President Uhuru Kenyatta on the steps of Harambee House, in what marked the beginning of what others called a 'Shared Term'. 

Though Raila did not secure cabinet slots in Uhuru's cabinet, some diplomatic appointments went his way. So did key parliamentary positions as Kenyatta embarked on a purge of Ruto allies, replacing them with Raila's lieutenants. 

The Uhuru and Raila Handshake was considered a carbon copy of the Kibaki and Odinga handshake of February 28, 2008; a Handshake that culminated in among other things, the formation of the Grand Coalition Government, splitting power between President Kibaki and Mr. Odinga. 

The forced co-habitation did not however erase the fact that Kibaki and Odinga previously entered into another coalition agreement as they led their respective alliances in the formation of the National Rainbow Coalition that won the 2002 presidential election.

Raila's power-sharing experiments date back to the final years of late retired Mzee Daniel Moi's era when he, through an arrangement called, 'Cooperation,' secured the influential Energy docket, an appointment that stuttled the opposition. 

Further shocks were to follow as Odinga folded his National Development Party to join KANU, where he became the Secretary-General. 

At the time, the KANU director of elections was William Ruto, and today, the two are back together.