President William Ruto on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, rallied Kenyans behind the statesmanship and legacy of the former Prime Minister, the late Raila Amolo Odinga, in Bondo, Siaya County. Speaking during the commissioning of Raila’s mausoleum at Kang’o ka Jaramogi, he said, ” We can keep Baba’s memory, but only a nation can keep his promises. Ruto linked roads, homes, health cover, farming and devolution to Raila’s call for equitable transformation, and urged eligible Kenyans to register and vote. Here is his full speech:
“The Family of the Late Rt. Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga, led by Mama Ida Betty Odinga; Distinguished leaders present; The people of the great County of Siaya; Ladies and Gentlemen,
Almost a year ago, Kenya lost a legend. They called him Aluo. Owadgi Akinyi. Nyundo. Tinga. Enigma. Agwambo. Jakom. Rao. Right Honourable. Baba.
On 15th October, 2025, in faraway India, he bid us farewell and sailed on to a shore from which no traveller returns. A nation stood still. Millions lined the roads and filled the stadiums. They wept for a man who had spent his whole life carrying their hopes.
Today, as we approach the first anniversary of his passing, we return to Kang’o ka Jaramogi. Here rests Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kenya’s first Vice-President. Beside him rests his son, Raila Amolo Odinga. Father and son. Two generations of struggle. One unfinished mission: a prosperous, equitable and united Kenya.
Raila was a gift to the nation, and a pentagon of unity
People of Siaya, your soil gave Kenya two of its greatest sons. You did not keep them for yourselves. You gave them to the nation. Today, the nation has come home to say: Erouru kamano, JoSiaya!
But we gather here today to do more than hand over a mausoleum. We are here to honour a life, celebrate a legacy, and renew our commitment to the ideals that keep that legacy alive.
This mausoleum speaks Baba’s language. It is shaped as a pentagon, with five sides. Among the Luo, five is Abich, the number of unity, togetherness and completion. Five recalls the ODM Pentagon of 2007. Leaders from every corner of Kenya came together behind a common national vision. I was privileged to sit at that table with him. I saw and learnt first-hand how Jakom built bridges between communities and between people.
Beside it stands the six-sided mausoleum of Jaramogi. Five after six, in harmony. Father and son, distinct in their times, but united in purpose.
I thank the Ministry of Defence, the State Department for Culture, Arts and Heritage, the State Department for Public Works, the National Museums of Kenya, and the family for delivering this work with speed and excellence
Equitable transformation, not tokenism
A building cannot contain Baba’s legacy. Stone can keep his memory, but only a nation can keep his promises. So today, I have not just come to remember him. I have come to give an account of how his vision still drives us to build a Kenya that is just, equitable and fair to all.
Jakom’s lifelong cause can be captured in two words: equitable transformation. He believed no person and no region should be left behind. Not because of where they live. Not because of their tribe. Not because of how they voted.
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At the Third Mid-Term Review of the National Executive in June last year, he challenged us directly. He said our policies must be inclusive regardless of how people voted or where they come from. He argued that the Government must do this, not to be popular or to win the next election, but because it is the right thing to do.
I accepted that challenge. I still carry it and promise to keep it alive. That is why our programmes reach every corner of the Republic: from Mandera to Mfangano Island and from Lodwar to Lunga Lunga. Equity is not tokenism. It is justice.
Roads, rail and the opening of forgotten regions
In his presidential campaign, Raila promised roads and railways that would open up neglected regions and bind every part of Kenya together. He knew a road is not just tarmac. He believed it was a gateway to opportunity.
We are delivering on that promise. We are dualling the Rironi-Mau Summit highway, one of the main arteries of our economy. We are building the Standard Gauge Railway from Naivasha to Kisumu and on to Malaba. That line will pass right here through Siaya, with a station at Yala.
And in the far north, we have secured full financing for the Isiolo-Mandera highway, a road that region has waited for since independence. We will be launching the 500 km legacy Lake Victoria ring road before year-end. From the shores of Lake Victoria to the borders of Somalia, we are opening up Kenya.
Every road we open in a forgotten region advances the usawa transformation of our country. And every such road is a tribute to the legacy of Raila Amolo Odinga.
Homes, social protection and health cover
Raila also understood that a decent home is a matter of dignity and opportunity. As Prime Minister in the Grand Coalition Government, he championed slum upgrading in Kibra. It was difficult, slow work, but he never gave up.
We have taken that vision many steps higher. Kibra was the heart of the constituency Baba represented in Parliament for two decades. Today, 17,164 affordable homes are rising there. At Kibra Soweto B alone, 4,446 units are 87% complete. In a few weeks, families who once lived in shacks will receive the keys to decent homes. What Raila began in Kibra is now a national programme. Across Kenya, 303,910 affordable homes are at various stages of completion.
Baba was a champion of the poor, the elderly, the youth and the vulnerable. He knew a nation is not measured by how it celebrates the mighty, but by how it treats those at the margins. He believed no Kenyan family should be too poor to live with dignity. That conviction drives our social protection programme. Today, through Inua Jamii, we disburse KSh3.5 billion every month to 1.7 million of our elderly and persons with disabilities.
Through the Social Health Authority (SHA), we are building a health system where no Kenyan is turned away for lack of money. Under the old system, only 8 million Kenyans accessed publicly funded health insurance. Today, 33.1 million are registered with SHA. We have quadrupled the reach of health cover in under three years.
Here in Siaya, 542,609 people have registered. That is about 55% of our target, which is good progress, but it is not enough. To those not registered, I say: enrol today. Disease does not send a warning before it arrives. Do not let sickness find you unprotected.
Credit, youth enterprise and the spirit of devolution
Through the Hustler Fund, millions of Kenyans have borrowed KSh93 billion without collateral. More than 10 million are now regular borrowers. The most consistent of them access as much as KSh150,000 to expand their small businesses. Credit was once a privilege of the few. Today, it is within reach of every Kenyan.
Through the 50,000-grant Nyota programme, we are supporting 134,000 young Kenyans across all 47 counties to start and grow businesses. We are lifting Kenyans from the bottom up, everywhere, without discrimination. That is what Raila believed.
He also believed that government must stand close to the people it serves. That belief made him a champion of devolution. He fought for a constitution that moved power and resources from Nairobi to the villages.
We honour that legacy. We have gradually increased the resources we send to our counties every year. In 2022, counties received KSh370 billion. Today, they receive a record KSh428 billion. That is more than 20% of nationally raised revenue, well above the constitutional minimum of 15%. We have gone beyond the letter of the law because we believe in the spirit of devolution.
But let me be clear. Devolution was never meant to create new local centres of opulence and privilege. It was meant to serve wananchi. Every shilling sent to a county belongs to the people of that county. They deserve to see it in clinics with medicine, in roads that are passable, in markets that work, and in water that flows.
Baba spoke against those who undermined devolution. He was categorical that the place of oversight should not be turned into extortion. Where counties deliver, we will support them. Where counties fail, the people have every right to demand answers. That is what Raila would demand. That is what we must all demand.
Building Canaan: classrooms, farms and sugar
Raila often spoke of a journey to Canaan: a Kenya that becomes a first-world economy. When he spoke of Canaan, he gave a name to the hopes of millions. He meant a country where work earns a decent living, where justice protects every citizen, and where every community belongs.
Canaan is not a place we wait for. It is a nation we build. We have not arrived. But look how far we have come.
We are building Canaan in our classrooms. We have transitioned to Competency-Based Education. In four years, we have hired more than 100,000 teachers, the most in our history, and we will recruit 20,000 more by December this year. We have built over 23,000 classrooms and 1,600 laboratories. We have reformed university funding so that it follows student need and merit, and we have rescued our public universities from collapse. We are empowering a generation for the economy of the future.
We are building Canaan on our farms. Nearly nine million farmers are on a digital register. They receive fertiliser and seed directly, without middlemen. A bag of fertiliser has fallen from about KSh7,500 in 2022 to KSh2,000. Seed maize now costs half what it did, from KSh300 to KSh150. We have broken the grip of the cartels and profiteers who grew rich on the sweat of our farmers.
Also Read: Inside Raila Odinga’s Mausoleum and the Meaning Behind Its Pentagon Design
We are doing the same in our sugar belt. For years, Baba stood with sugar farmers and demanded an end to the debts, inefficiencies and vested interests that had crippled the industry. In our engagements, he consistently pushed for reforms that would put the farmer first and restore sugar as a source of prosperity for Western Kenya.
Together, we advanced that cause. We have written off the historic debts of public sugar companies, restructured the industry and brought in investment to revive and modernise our mills. The revival of Kenya’s sugar industry was a cause Raila fought for, and its success will be part of his enduring legacy.
Investment, stadiums and Africa’s place
We are building Canaan on the ground. Roads, rail, ports, airports, and stadia: the foundations of a modern economy are rising. Through the National Infrastructure Fund and the Sovereign Wealth Fund, we are paying for that progress without mortgaging our children’s future.
And the world has taken notice. Foreign direct investment has more than doubled, from $1.5 billion in 2022 to a record $3.2 billion last year. Last week in Lamu, we broke ground on the Dangote East Africa Petroleum Refinery, a record KSh2.2 trillion investment.
And that momentum extends to the industries of the future. Just yesterday, our Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Endelevu Enterprise Corporation for a proposed $3 billion investment in electric mobility, in partnership with Geely Auto Group. The plan will establish electric vehicle assembly in Kenya and 1,000 solar-powered charging hubs. From the Dangote refinery in Lamu to electric mobility, our direction is clear: we will build in Kenya, add value in Kenya, create jobs in Kenya, and manufacture for Africa.
Investors do not bring their money to a nation in the wilderness. They bring it to a nation on the move. A nation on the rise. That is the rising Kenya Baba envisioned. This is the nation I speak for in the United Nations, at the AU and in every forum, locally and internationally.
In Nairobi, the 60,000-seat Raila Odinga International Stadium at Talanta is complete. It will be Kenya’s largest sporting arena and the main venue for AFCON 2027. It will carry Baba’s name before the eyes of the whole continent.
That is fitting. Raila was a true pan-Africanist. He served the African Union as High Representative for Infrastructure Development. He believed Africa must speak in one voice and build with one vision.
When he sought the chairmanship of the African Union Commission, the Government of Kenya stood behind him with full conviction because he embodied the best of Kenya. We continue that commitment. Kenya will remain a voice for multilateralism, for peace, for regional integration, for climate justice, and for Africa’s rightful place in the global order.
Country first, justice, and the duty to vote
Raila was a fighter. He pushed hard to extend the boundaries of our democracy. But unlike many politicians, he knew when to step back. Whenever insisting on his way would block the path to national unity, he chose the nation. When some sought to exploit our nation’s crisis in 2024 for political expediency, Baba chose to hold the nation together. That same spirit brought us together in the Broad-Based Government.
The Broad-Based Government was not a pact for power; it was a commitment to Kenya. At his last ODM Parliamentary Group meeting on 22nd September 2025, he said: “Whatever the differences and misgivings we have as parties or leaders, we must have a country first. Only then can we set about discussing how to perfect the nation’s imperfections and even who is to lead the nation.” That spirit lives on.
In the final years of his life, Baba pursued electoral justice with great passion. That pursuit gave birth to the compensation of victims of protests. We set aside KSh billion. Hundreds of families have already been paid, and we will not stop until every verified victim receives justice. This compensation will extend to the families of the many whose bodies were recovered in the River Yala and other victims of extrajudicial disappearance.
Baba’s quest for justice had another pillar. He believed every eligible Kenyan must have a fair chance to choose their leaders. That chance begins with an identity card and a voter’s card. That is why we removed the discriminatory vetting that denied many Kenyans in border regions from getting identity cards. We are also taking registration to remote villages and isolated islands. No Kenyan should have to struggle to prove they are Kenyan.
People of Siaya, people of Nyanza, the people of Kenya, Baba fought all his life so that your voice would count. Do not silence it yourselves. Register as a voter. And next year, wake up early and vote. An eligible Kenyan who fails to register, or an adult who fails to vote, goes against everything Baba stood for.
A living classroom, not a silent grave
And this now brings me back to Kang’o ka Jaramogi, and the reason we are here. This mausoleum will not be a silent place. It will be a living classroom. What we have completed was just the first phase. In the next phase, we will build the Raila Memorial Library Museum and Research Centre. Young Kenyans and visitors from across Africa will come here to learn what courage looks like.
This site will become a major heritage destination in the Western Tourism Circuit. Through Tembea Kenya, we will turn the heritage that Jaramogi and Raila left us into a hub of historical knowledge, and into jobs and incomes for the people of Siaya and the wider region. The sons of Siaya gave their lives to Kenya. Kenya now gives back to their legacy.
Baba once said: “I bear the scars of liberation with pride and embrace the blood, sweat and tears they cost me.” He paid a heavy price so that we could be free. Detention. Exile. Loss. Yet he never stopped believing in Kenya.
Our duty is not merely to remember Raila. Our duty is to finish his work: to believe in Kenya as he did, and to trust that, united, we can overcome any challenge, whatever our differences. We build in stone to remember him. We build in policy and action to honour him.
Every road in a forgotten region. Every home rising in Kibra and across Kenya. Every elderly Kenyan supported. Every farmer empowered. Every public office that truly serves the people. That is Raila’s true mausoleum.
May his memory inspire us. May his vision guide us. And may God bless Kenya. Asanteni sana.”
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