By OTIENO OTIENO

More by this Author

One of the trending topics on Kenya’s social media on Thursday was the presence of the country’s former prime minister Raila Odinga at the Africa Fertiliser and Soil Health Summit in Nairobi alongside seven heads of state and government, including President William Ruto.

Odinga, who lost the last election to the incumbent president with a narrow margin, was presumably at the meeting to campaign for his bid to become the next African Union Commission (AUC) chairperson next year.

Video footage showed President Ruto giving Odinga a firm handshake and briefly exchanging pleasantries before proceeding to introduce him to a number of presidents on their arrival at the conference room.

The camaraderie between the two leaders on show on the international stage was a stark contrast to the simmering tension between them in local politics.

Read: Kenya opposition figures jostle to fill Raila’s big shoes

Odinga, who remains the leader of the biggest opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), as well as the Azimio coalition, has appeared to blow hot and cold on his new truce with President Ruto, believed to have been mediated by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo following widespread anti-government protests last year.

He has particularly felt uneasy about efforts by President Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party to make forays into his political stronghold in the former Nyanza Province by luring several Members of Parliament elected on the tickets of ODM to shift loyalty.

But since declaring his candidacy for the AUC chairmanship in February this year, the opposition leader has largely toned down his anti-government rhetoric, only occasionally coming out to try to dispel speculation that his interest in the Addis Ababa-based office meant he was retiring from local politics.

Last month, Odinga even skipped the burial of General Francis Ogolla, the country’s Chief of Defence Forces who died in a military helicopter crash, at his rural home in Western Kenya in what was seen as part of a crowd management strategy at a ceremony attended by the President.

Read: Kenya army chief who sought peace via diplomacy

Funeral ceremonies for prominent personalities in the region tend to be politically volatile due to suspicions arising from past assassinations.

Odinga, who has a huge following in the region, had earlier called for an independent investigation into the circumstances under which the helicopter carrying Gen Ogolla crashed in Rift Valley on April 18, killing him with nine other military colleagues.

All that would prove to be a lull before the political storm.

While addressing residents of Mukuru slum in Nairobi last Friday, the opposition leader let rip, describing President Ruto’s government as clueless and rudderless in perhaps his most vicious attack on the administration since the announcement of his candidacy for AUC chairmanship.

Odinga, who was visiting the area in the company of other senior leaders of the Azimio coalition including former vice-president Kalonzo Musyoka, criticised the President over the evictions and demolition of houses in some Nairobi slums in the middle of a humanitarian crisis sparked by floods.

Read: Kenya weather outlook 'dire' as cyclone nears

The President appeared to be responding to the opposition’s criticism on Monday, telling residents of another slum, Mathare, that the government would ensure those displaced get alternative shelter.

Some of his political allies have been less restrained in their response to Odinga’s attack on the President, warning the opposition leader that he risks losing the President’s support for his continental job ambitions.

With the election for the AUC chairman’s post still nine months away, there might yet be more twists and turns in the relationship between the two Kenyan leaders.