Seth Panyako, who was recently defeated in the Malava Constituency mini-polls, has revealed how the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga introduced him to politics.

Speaking on a local podcast on Thursday, December 4, 2025, a week after his resounding loss, Panyako has begun sharing his story of how Raila Odinga gave him a launching pad into elective politics.

Panyako narrated that in 2012, after resigning as a nurse and founding the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN), where he served as chairman and became the face of the union championing nurses’ rights, some constituents from his Malava backyard spoke on the radio, urging him to return home.

They expressed confidence in him as the person capable of defending their rights and representing them in Parliament.

After listening to his constituents, he told them that, since he had long admired the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM)—having voted for Raila Odinga in 2007—the only way he could enter elective politics was through the ODM party.

Panyako then visited Raila Odinga at his Karen home to discuss his parliamentary ambitions. According to him, Raila welcomed him into the party and promised to guide him through the murky waters of politics, a promise he says was kept.

Raila gave him the green light to contest the nominations in 2017, where he competed against two other candidates and emerged victorious in the ODM primaries.

“Since I was an ODM person, I went and saw Raila at his Karen home. He welcomed me into ODM and promised to hold my hand politically, and he indeed did so. Raila was the one who encouraged me to join politics and gave me the ODM ticket,” Panyako said.

Life after nomination

He also highlighted the usual challenges faced within political parties, where obtaining a nomination ticket can be a struggle if you are not favoured.

For him, however, he said he never faced this hurdle because the late leader allowed him to contest freely in the nominations, where he won.

After securing the ODM ticket, he visited Raila again at his Karen home before competing against other candidates in the 2017 general elections, where he lost to the late Malulu Injendi.

This recent defeat comes after he was dwarfed by David Ndakwa, who scooped 21,564 votes, with Panyako coming second with 20,210 votes.