EALA MP Winnie Odinga has urged young Kenyans to build the courage to challenge authority and form their own views, saying blind admiration of leaders would go against the example set by her late father, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Winnie said even respected figures should remain open to questioning, noting that Raila himself spent much of his life challenging those in authority.
“Question even the people you admire, including Raila Odinga. He spent his life questioning authority,” Winnie said.
She warned against turning Raila's legacy into one that demands unquestioning loyalty, saying such an approach would contradict the values he displayed during his lifetime.
“It would be a strange tribute to him if you turned him into somebody who could no longer be questioned,” she said.
Winnie was speaking at the Nairobi International Book Fair, where she represented the Odinga family during Raila's posthumous induction into the Kenya Publishers Association Hall of Fame.
The recognition brought together Raila's contribution to literature and publishing with the wider public life for which he was known.
Winnie used the occasion to encourage young people to develop a reading culture that goes beyond what is required in school.
She said reading could help young people understand where they come from and gain a better understanding of their own experiences.
“Read because there are people who benefit when you do not know your own history,” Winnie said.
She also said books could help young people realise that difficulties they face are not necessarily unique, as other people may have gone through similar experiences.
“Read because somebody somewhere has already felt that thing you're going through, that you think you've never faced before,” she said.
According to Winnie, gaining knowledge should also help young people become more willing to question ideas and think independently.
“Read because the easiest person to lead is the person who has never learned to question, and then think,” she said.
Raila's contribution to literature was also highlighted during the event. He authored The Flame of Freedom, a memoir covering his life and political journey.
Winnie further told young people that leadership should not be viewed only through the lens of political office, formal positions or titles.
“Not necessarily from Parliament or State House, not necessarily with a title, definitely not with a rifle. Lead wherever you are,” she said.
Reflecting on her father's life, Winnie said his experience had shown her that leadership could sometimes require a person to take a stand without the backing of others.
“My father's life taught me that sometimes leadership means standing at the front, and sometimes leadership means standing almost completely alone,” she said.
She added that Raila's influence remained present through the ideas and arguments he left behind, even after his death.
“Today, however, he is not alone. His words are here, his ideas are here, his arguments are definitely here, and judging by Kenyan politics, some of those arguments are not finished,” Winnie said.
Winnie also spoke about her father's love for Kenya and his belief in the ability of Africans to imagine a different future.
“Dad loved this country. He believed fiercely in its people, and he believed that Africans must have the courage to imagine something better than what we inherited,” she said.
She called on Africans to take greater responsibility for recording and sharing their experiences, saying history could be shaped by others when communities fail to tell their own stories.
“A continent that doesn't write and share its own story eventually discovers that somebody else has written it for us,” she said.