A Year After Odinga's Death, the Handshake Is Still Being Argued Over

A year after the death of Kenya's former prime minister, Kenyans are reflecting on what Odinga contributed to democracy and national reconciliation, Deutsche Welle reports. His “handshakes” with political rivals remain the subject of much debate. That argument fits the man, because the handshake is the ambiguous instrument in the story. A deal that pulls rivals into the same government can read as statesmanship from one side of the barricade and as a bargain struck over voters' heads from the other. Whether those agreements preserved the democratic space he fought for, or quietly traded pieces of it away, is the question the country is still left to settle — a year on, with no sign of consensus.