By George Rugare Chingarande
TOMORROW, Friday April 29 2011 the leader of Kenya's Orange Democratic Movement Raila Odinga is scheduled to visit Zimbabwe in his personal capacity to deliver a keynote address at the MDC-T Congress in Bulawayo. All Zimbabweans, great and small, deserve to know who this man is and what he stands for.
The choice of a speaker to give a keynote address is never taken lightly. After thorough analysis and vetting, political parties often settle for those candidates with whom they share common values, ethos and aspirations, and from whom they believe they have much to learn. The choice of Raila Odinga, therefore speaks volumes not only of what his hosts think of him but also of their values, political ethos and aspirations.

Raila Odinga is an African brother, of Kenyan extraction. In his official capacity he holds the highly exalted and equally highly esteemed office of the Prime Minister of Kenya. Zimbabweans hold their Kenyan brothers with the greatest respect, and venerate with utmost humility the office he occupies.

However, there is a need to make a clear distinction between Odinga, the Prime Minister and Odinga the private citizen of Africa. One's political identity is not defined by the title of the office that one holds, but by his values and the works that proceed from those values.

\Afterall, yore wisdom counsels that just as a tree is known by its fruit, so is a man known by his works. Whereas it is beneath the dignity of Zimbabweans to even imagine of denigrating his governmental office, it would be remiss for Zimbabweans not to subject his credentials and persona as a private visitor to the country to robust, unbiased and scrupulous scrutiny.

We owe it to ourselves to examine closely those figures that our political leaders and those that aspire to lead us cosy up with in public and also in private. Just as birds of identical plumage flock in close proximity, a man's character can also be judged from the company that he keeps.