Winnie Odinga Opens Up on Running Raila’s Campaign Machine Behind the Scenes

Winnie Odinga has opened up about the extensive behind-the-scenes role she has played in shaping some of Kenya’s biggest political campaigns, revealing that many innovations associated with modern Kenyan politics originated from her ideas, even though she rarely receives public credit.

Speaking candidly about her political journey, Winnie reflected on years spent working deep inside campaign operations during both the 2017 and 2022 election cycles, where she says she handled everything from communication strategy to candidate management while helping transform how political campaigns are executed in Kenya.

According to Winnie, her involvement in politics has never resembled the public-facing style often associated with politicians.

“I often joke that there’s nobody quite like me in Kenyan politics. It’s true. Politicians can do somersaults to get to the microphone every weekend, but I don’t work like that,” she said while explaining how she has spent years operating away from public attention despite being heavily involved in political organizing.

The daughter of the late veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga said she worked intensely during the 2017 and 2022 campaigns, often handling multiple critical responsibilities behind closed doors.

She explained that her work stretched far beyond communications, revealing that she played an active role in managing both campaign logistics and even aspects of candidate coordination.

“During the last two election cycles, 2017 and 2022, I spent months in the campaign. From searching neighborhoods for campaign offices to leading tremendous communication teams and managing a candidate, as well as managing his family because he was too busy managing the campaign,” Winnie explained.

Among the most notable details she shared was her role in introducing branded campaign placards, a strategy that has now become a familiar feature at political rallies across Kenya.

Winnie revealed that the idea came to her after accompanying her father to the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, where Hillary Clinton was running for president under the Democratic National Convention.

She recalled sitting inside the convention auditorium and observing how event organizers handed branded placards to audiences every time prominent speakers like former US President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, or Clinton herself appeared on stage.

Inspired by what she witnessed in the United States, Winnie carried the idea back home and introduced it directly into Kenyan political campaigning.

“So I’m the one who brought placards to Kenya. That’s how I did it,” she declared while recounting how she personally designed the now-famous 10 Million Strong placards used during campaign launches.

She narrated how even after creating the idea, she still had to intervene personally during the candidate launch after the event host hesitated to instruct supporters to raise the placards placed beneath their seats.

Wearing a hoodie and staying out of sight near the stage, she pressured the MC repeatedly until he finally gave the signal, creating what became one of the defining visual moments of the campaign.

Beyond campaign rallies, Winnie also says she pioneered one of the country’s earliest politically focused live-streaming strategies after traditional media outlets became increasingly hesitant about airing opposition rallies.

Faced with the challenge, she says she quickly turned to digital media solutions. That decision led to the creation of NASA TV, a Facebook Live broadcasting platform created specifically to stream campaign events directly to supporters online.

When the NASA coalition dissolved ahead of the 2022 elections, Winnie says she simply rebranded the digital platform into what Kenyans now know as Azimio TV.

“That’s when we went to Facebook Live and we started NASA TV. In 2022, when NASA was finished, I changed the name to Azimio TV. That’s the Azimio TV you’re seeing right now. Till today, if you check, I’m the super admin of that page because I opened this, I opened the damn thing,” she said.

Winnie further disclosed that her contributions went even deeper.

She says she helped redesign presidential campaign stages and even orchestrated efforts that placed a presidential candidate into music culture by featuring him in a song and music video, another strategy that became a memorable moment in Kenya’s political history.

Despite these contributions, she says the recognition attached to her work has consistently been overshadowed by her family name.

Instead of being acknowledged for strategy and execution, she says many people reduce her identity to being simply Raila Odinga’s daughter.

“I’m never referred to as the political communication strategist, only the daughter of. Yes, I am. And I’m proudly the daughter of, I am both and much more,” Winnie Odinga stated.