Daystar University and Odinga Family Announce Landmark International Scholarly Conference to Immortalise Raila Odinga's Legacy

From Left:  PhD student, School of Communication, Ms. Onsomu Marcellah, Prof. Levi Obonyo, Canon. Amb. Dr. Ida Odinga, the Vice Chancellor of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Prof. Emily Akuno and Eng. Ken Odegih.

By Infospot Correspondent

[Bondo: 15th May 2026] The Daystar University Institute for Strategic Communication, Journalism and Media Studies, and the School of Communication are collaborating with the family of the late former Prime Minister, Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga, to host the inaugural Raila Amolo Odinga (RAO) Academic Conference.

The conference was announced by Prof. Levi Obonyo on Friday 15th May 2026, at a press conference held at the late Hon. Raila’s home in Bondo.  Prof. Obonyo was accompanied by Ms. Onsomu Marcellah, a PhD student in the School of Communication. Ms. Onsomu is also a member of the conference organizing committee.

The academic conference, scheduled to take place from 12th to 14th August 2026 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi, is intended to interrogate the life of the late former Prime Minister with the objective of teasing out lessons from his life and political career, in order to immortalize him in scholarship.

Speaking on behalf of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Obonyo noted that the Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga left a lasting mark in politics, with the 2010 Constitution and the birthing of a devolved government, earning him the deserved title of the father of devolution.

“The conference will seek to translate the lessons drawn from Raila Odinga’s life, leadership, and democratic struggle into practical knowledge and usable frameworks for strengthening democratic practice across Africa, while generating a lasting body of published scholarship that will preserve his legacy for future generations,” he observed.

It will bring together scholars, former heads of state, media practitioners, political strategists, and civil society leaders to study how Raila Odinga shaped Kenya’s democracy, communicated, and built movements for over four decades.

It further aims to turn those lessons into practical tools for strengthening democratic practice across Africa, as well as publish research for posterity.

The conference, which will run under the theme Future-Proofing Democracy: Resilience, Adaptation, and Opportunity (RAO2026), takes its framework deliberately from the initials of the man it seeks to honour.  The three pillars of Resilience, Adaptation and Opportunity, are drawn from the defining qualities of Raila Odinga’s political life: his endurance through detention and decades of opposition, his ability to reinvent himself at every turn, and his commitment to building the infrastructure, both physical and democratic, that gave ordinary citizens a voice.

The conference positions Raila Odinga’s legacy as a body of knowledge to be studied, debated, published and taught, placing it alongside the scholarly treatment afforded to figures such as Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, and Julius Nyerere.

Speaking at the press conference, the widow of the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Canon Amb. Dr. Ida Odinga, expressed her gratitude to Daystar University and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST), for honoring the late Raila Odinga, saying that visiting the home uplifts their spirits.

Making reference to the late John Mbiti’s writing on the living dead, Amb. Ida Odinga noted that although Jaramogi and Raila are long gone, their spirits live with Kenyans, because their names are always on people’s lips.

“There was no day Raila’s name was missed in the news,” she observed, further appreciating Daystar University for planning the conference, which she termed an even bigger thing in memory of Raila Odinga.

Also present was the Vice Chancellor of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Prof. Emily Akuno, who introduced Amb. Ida Odinga as a person who walked the Kenyan journey together with her husband, the late Hon. Raila Odinga. “Ida worked behind the scenes, supporting Hon. Raila Odinga as he labored for Kenya, said Prof. Akuno.

She thanked Daystar University for the opportunity to partner in hosting the inaugural Raila Amolo Odinga (RAO) Academic Conference. “It is exciting to know that JOOUST can work together with Daystar University in realizing the conference,” she said, further assuring Prof. Obonyo of her support.

On the same day, the Daystar University delegation also had an opportunity to tour the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Mausoleum and Museum at Kang’o ka Jaramogi, which gives a rich historical context and anecdotes about the role of Odinga family’s in Kenya’s struggle for democracy.

Canon Amb. Dr. Ida Odinga makes her remarks during the press conference held in Bondo on 15th May 2026.

Prof. Levi Obonyo addresses the Press during the announcement of the inaugural Raila Amolo Odinga Academic Conference at the late Hon. Raila Odinga’s home in Bondo, on 15th May 2026.