The what if? (they had lived) question is asked sometime after a prominent person has died. E.g. If Kennedy had not been killed, would he have committed the US to war in Vietnam or to civil service reforms that ended segregation? Would Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Abraham Lincoln, and others changed their messages if they had lived longer?
And what if Robert Ouko was not killed in 1990. How would he have reacted to the multi-party movement a year later? Would he have defended the Government so eloquently? And in the multi-party elections of two years later, would he have stuck with KANU and be whitewashed by the electorate of Nyanza? Or would he have joined FORD? How would he have reacted to the co-operation between the Odinga’s and KANU five years later, or later to the Rainbow movement? And where would he fit in today’s political world that revolves around Raila?
Ouko was essentially rigged in by the KANU top brass at the 1988 elections. The electorate wanted (the late) Joab Omino instead. Had he lived, he would probably have stayed on in KANU even w/ the advent of multi-party politics, because Joab Omino quickly filled the role of the FORD point man in Kisumu (plus he helped bank-roll the outfit). Bob would probably have remained like the Dalmas Otieno types, a KANU pointman/ bigwig, with no constituency. Maybe Moi would have nominated him…
I have thought about the same thing you have said some people just leave at the right time and live a legend look at Bob Marley would have lived to be a hero for ragga fans had he died let’s say a decade latter, Look at Oyunga Pala for a while he looked like a hell of a writer with days gone he doesnt jazz people as much with due respect supppose he had left at the right time? yaani not write that column anymore not die, He would have gone on being remembered as the best writer of the time , what about ESIR RIP but would he have rocked as much,maybe we all need to know our exit time
anyway keep informing us love your blog
What if Michael Jakcon had exited @1989?