KNOW YOUR FUTURE KENYAN PRESIDENT: WHO IS THIS MAN RAPHAEL TUJU?

Raphael Tuju, former Advisor to President Kibaki

Compiled by Jerry Okungu

Nairobi, Kenya

February 9 2012

Raphael Tuju was born on 30 March 1959 in Rarieda in Siaya District of Nyanza Province

With his parents living in the Eastlands of Nairobi, he attended Starehe Boys Centre for four years when he sat for his O Level examinations.

After Starehe Center, he worked for several years as a free-lance news caster with KBC from where he picked his media production skills and set up his own production house, ACE COMMUNICATIONS mainly producing NGO sponsored documentaries on HIV and Aids.

Later attended University of Leicester where he obtained a Master’s degree in Mass Communications.

He shortly relocated to Washington DC in the United States and only came back to Kenya after the 2001 September Al Qaida bombing of the Twin Towers of New York and the Pentagon in the Washington area.

On his return to Kenya on the eve of the 2002 elections, Tuju was introduced to Raila Odinga by Raila’s then personal assistant, Ambassador Rateng’ Ogego as the possible contender for the Rarieda seat then occupied by Hon. Odeny Ngure.

In December 2002 Tuju joined politics under NARC’s LDP constituent party and was elected a Member of Parliament for Rarieda constituency

In 2003 he was appointed   Information and Communications Minister by the Kibaki government

However, soon after his appointment to the cabinet, he fell out with Raila Odinga under mysterious circumstances, claiming that he gave Raila Odinga some cash to earn his nomination as NARC candidate for Rarieda.

Ironically, this fallout was followed in quick succession by the departure of Amb. Rateng ‘Ogego as Raila’s personal assistant also under mysterious circumstances. Soon after Ogego left Raila’s camp, he was appointed Kenya’s High Commissioner to Canada then then to the USA. All these appointments took place when Tuju was Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Prior to his appointment as Foreign Minister, Tuju campaigned vigorously for Kibaki’s constitution in 2005, an acrimonious campaign that saw the deaths of several innocent youngsters in Kisumu rally that was convened by Tuju. From then on, his constituents turned against him and even rejected his mobile clinic he had launched in Rarieda.

In December 8, 2005, he was appointed Foreign Minister following fallout between LDP and NARC Coalition.

In December 2007, Tuju lost his Rarieda parliamentary seat after falling out with Raila Odinga and subsequently campaigning for Kibaki against Raila in the ODM stronghold

Following his loss of Rarieda seat, President Kibaki appointed him as one of his advisors on media and ethnic issues soon after Kibaki had signed a Coalition pact with Raila.

He remained the President’s advisor from 2008 to 2011 when he resigned to launch his presidential campaign in August 2011.

 Although he has not declared which party ticket he will vie for his presidency, he has of late joined forces with the G7 of Kalonzo Musyoka, William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta among others. Whether the G7 will name him as their compromise candidate still remains to be seen.