OTIENO: No red carpet reception for Winnie Odinga at Gor Mahia

While you were pre-occupied with the twists and turns in the English Premier League run-in, my favourite local football club, The Mighty Gor Mahia, landed a big name signing.

Winnie Odinga’s arrival to head the media and communication department at Kenya’s most successful club easily makes hers the highest-profile deal since the Rwandese hitman Jacques Tuyisenge signed up three years ago.

It isn’t clear yet what wacky moniker, so beloved of Kogalo fans, she’ll have on the back of her jersey. But many club commentators on social media refer to her as Nyar Kingi (the King’s Daughter).

Winnie is, of course, the last-born daughter of Raila Odinga, Kenya’s former prime minister who has come close to winning the presidency in the last three elections.

Mr Odinga is also the party leader of Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), which shares its bedrock following among the Luo community with Gor, and the club patron.

Media photos and footage of Winnie beside Mr Odinga at a number of politically significant events, including the March 9, 2018 ‘handshake’, have elicited speculation that she is the apple of her father’s eye.

In Miguna Miguna’s tell-all book about the 2017 Raila Odinga presidential election campaign and its aftermath, Treason: A Case Against Tyrants and Renegades, she comes off as having packed quite a punch in the inner circle.

Her executive appointment at Gor is probably meant to spruce up the club’s legendary rough image and make it more attractive to sponsors like the betting firm SportPesa.

The problem for the Ambrose Rachier-led club committee is that Winnie hasn’t received the kind of rock star reception many had expected.

The fan sentiment on social media, where much of her work will be directed, has been anything between lukewarm and outright hostile.

Much of that hostility has something to do with the wide perception that the media and communication department isn’t one of those that particularly needed strengthening anyway.

Volunteers like Tony Anelka, aka Nera (Uncle), are thought to have done a fairly good job, and the decision by the Winnie team to release them hasn’t gone down well with the fan base.

Away from football club politics, the Winnie situation significantly highlights the paradox of the Luo love affair with the Odinga clan and the dilemma for the dynasty.

While the community members would readily show affection for Raila, they seem to loathe the idea of his relatives claiming top positions.

A few years back, attempts by Raila’s siblings Oburu Oginga and Ruth Odinga to become the governors of Siaya and Kisumu respectively elicited public outrage.

Rosemary’s interest in the Kibra House seat in 2017 caused some disgruntlement, too. Welcome to the hate-and-love relationship world of the Luo and the Odinga clan, Winnie.