The late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and his wife Ida at the Nairobi Hospital June 29, 2010.

📋 Breaking It Down

The person on whom multitudes have pegged their hopes and dreams falls seriously sick. You are the spokesperson tasked with conveying that information to the public. Where do you start?

Cardiologist Dan Gikonyo, who was the physician for Kenya’s third president, Mwai Kibaki starting from 2002, writes in his book ‘ Doctor at Heart’ that such communication has to contain hope. Those were the instructions he was given before briefing the media about the condition Mr Kibaki was in when he had an accident ahead of the 2002 General Election.

“We need to give Kenyans hope. Therefore, measure your words,” he recalls being told by Mr Kibaki’s aide Alfred Gitonga.

📌 What You Need to Know

Measuring of words is also what former Prime Minister Raila Odinga required of his long-serving spokesman Dennis Onyango whenever he fell seriously ill. Mr Onyango told Nation that Mr Odinga did not seek a concealment of facts; only the message should be packaged the right way.

“With Raila, it was fairly straightforward because his policy was full disclosure; that people must be told the truth when he’s sick. And he was quite categorical about that,” said Mr Onyango, who served as Mr Odinga’s spokesman starting from 2008 until the former Prime Minister’s death in October last year .

By his count, there were three prominent occasions when Mr Odinga’s health became a national talking point. The first was in June 2010 when, as a sitting Prime Minister, he checked into Nairobi Hospital complaining of exhaustion and headaches. He later underwent surgery to remove a blood clot on the surface of his brain.

Read: How simple pain around his waist saw Raila booked in hospital

The second was in March 2021 when he was admitted to the same hospital and tested positive for Covid-19, while the third was the illness that ended in his death in India.

“I remember when he was being taken in for the first time at Nairobi Hospital. We had a brief chat and his concern was: would the communication come out exactly the way he wanted it to come out? Because he knew people would have wanted to manipulate things here and there,” Mr Onyango recalled. “So, he was very concerned that his supporters must get the correct information.”

📰 Source: Nation Africa