Raila’s German friend Dieter Rolf shares untold stories of their 20-year bond

To know Raila Odinga was to know a man larger than life, a political supremo. To be his friend was to know the man who existed when the crowds and his political circle went home.

For Dieter Rolf, that meant football, German beer songs, private jokes and a friendship that outlived politics.

For two decades, he shared Raila’s laughter, his worries, and high and low moments few Kenyans ever witnessed.

One year on, Dieter is left with photographs, memories and a chair no one has sat on since. This is Raila Odinga, remembered not by a political ally, but by a friend.

In the quiet of his home, Dieter Rolf revisits moments that once seemed ordinary.

On his walls and in his phone gallery are pictures never seen or published before, memories of close to two decades with the late Raila Odinga.

Dieter is not a politician. He is a friend who had a front-row seat in Raila’s private life, and Raila had a special seat in Rolf’s living room.

“We would watch football. Raila was sitting there and I was sitting here. That was his chair… we would use it even for interviews and we would transport his chair. Nobody has sat on it again,” he said.

One year since Raila’s passing, Rolf is adjusting to life without his friend and confidant.

“I was born in Germany. I have 30 years in Kenya. I met my friend Raila at a function somewhere and I came to know by some small talk that he speaks perfect German. So the question came: how is that possible? And he was in Germany for nine years… he was in university in Magdeburg. Later on we even went there to meet his professors and everything. Later on, we met again and then he asks me where he goes out and where we can relax,” Rolf explained.

Years of friendship came to a sudden end on October 15, 2025.

“On 15th in the morning, I called him. I didn’t get him. I wanted to get him about Dr Oburu’s birthday because the 15th is his birthday…and I wanted to arrange it because the last time the brother came to our birthday. Because Raila and me we are born on the same day - 7th of January - so it’s possible we make our birthday somewhere private,” he noted.

A planned celebration became a memory of what might have been. The loss was a heavy blow.

“As long as I did not go to the funeral I feel like he is still with me… Funerals are difficult. I just couldn’t,” Rolf lamented.

Away from the political spotlight, the Coast offered the two friends room to unwind.

“We lie on the bed there and play and learn WhatsApp on the tablet. Some years back we looked at how we used that. From there we go say we can get this, we can get that. Simple person… There is nowhere you can say he is high in his head. Absolutely, we were always on the same level. Whenever we were laughing at the jokes we did… even if we were drinking beer together, he made beer songs like Oktoberfest in Germany and he writes perfect German and speaks perfect German… and it was always nice we chat in German so that somebody can read and even sing our favourite beer songs,” said Rolf.

And then there was football, a shared passion. Both were Arsenal fans.

“Whenever we would lose, you would see his face down… but whenever we won he would jump off his chair. He was happy. We would dance, have our favourite beer and all that,” he recalled.

Their bond grew so strong that Raila persuaded Rolf to make Kenya his permanent home.

“He convinced me to get a Kenyan passport, and I did… then we went to the then Minister Otieno Kajwang,” he stated.

It was not always happy. In 2015, at the height of Raila’s rivalry with then-President Uhuru Kenyatta, Rolf was arrested and forced into exile in Namibia for two months.

He recalls: “In 2015 here… they took me at the airport, put me in a cell. They wanted to kill me, and I had not done anything wrong. They say maybe he is a gangster or whatever. The only ‘gangster’ they found was that the people in Germany wanted to bring me money because I had overpaid tax. That is the only reason. The court says you cannot throw him out. I was in Namibia for two months.”

Rolf says he later advised Raila to seek reconciliation with Uhuru Kenyatta.

“I told him the best thing to do was to reconcile with Uhuru so that there is no pressure… so that you work together. Life is better if you work together. So he said, no, he is older than him; I don’t call him. I said, if you are old, I am also old… but I will call somebody also in the office and learn this and that. You cannot just fight and bring people on the street to kill each other. Finally, I think they called him… and much later the handshake happened. And now they come not at night not to kill me… that is better,” Rolf said.

For all the laughter and light-hearted moments, Rolf also witnessed the pain that came with being Raila’s friend. He remembers the death of Raila’s son Fidel and the distress surrounding his daughter Rosemary’s loss of sight.

“There are two lows. The death of Fidel… and then there is Rosemary… that was hard even for me to see somebody lose his sight. But now she is better. We were in Germany with Rosemary,” Rolf asserted.

There was another side of Raila that Rolf found difficult to comprehend: his willingness to forgive.

“Moi put him in nine years… and you forgive somebody who put you in nine years? I cannot do it,” he stated.

His verdict on Raila’s leadership is that Kenyans lost an opportunity.

“You see those who did not vote for him lost a chance of having a good leader… and that chance is gone. They will never have it again,” he said.