Raila Odinga Junior is back at Kang’o ka Jaramogi, and this time he brought his phone along to show Kenyans exactly how far along his father’s mausoleum has come.
In a TikTok video shared on Tuesday, September 22, Junior is seen arriving at the Bondo construction site in a brown shirt, walking the grounds and pulling the contractor aside for an on-the-spot progress update.
He doesn’t just stand around either — the camera follows him as he inspects the workmanship up close before panning out to reveal the full structure taking shape.
What the Mausoleum Looks Like So Far
The exterior is already giving people something to talk about. The design leans heavily into sharp triangular forms, with one striking feature near the roofline rising into a smaller, pointed, almost horn-like shape.
It’s distinctive, to say the least — and it’s clearly meant to be.
But the video also makes one thing obvious: there’s still work to do. Sections of the structure remain bare concrete, still waiting on paint and final finishing.
The tombstone area itself isn’t done either, with tiling yet to be completed on parts of the surface.
A Sh30 Million Race to the Finish Line
The mausoleum, which is being built by the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) under the supervision of the Ministry of Defence and the Kenya Defence Forces, carries a reported price tag of Sh30 million, according to the original NMK tender documents.
Construction had reached the halfway mark by August 20, when Defence Principal Secretary Patrick Mariru toured the site and confirmed steady progress just a month after groundbreaking.
Since then, the pressure has been on to finish before October 14 — a single day before the first anniversary of Raila’s death.
Raila died on October 15, 2025, aged 80, and was laid to rest four days later at Kang’o ka Jaramogi, right beside his father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kenya’s first Vice President.
“To Honour My Father, I Need to Be More Present”
Junior’s regular visits to the site reflect something he’s spoken about more broadly in recent months — his own way of processing the loss and stepping into the space his father left behind.
Speaking at an earlier event honouring his father, Junior admitted that being in the public eye doesn’t come naturally to him, but that grief has pushed him to show up anyway.
“I will continue speaking. I will continue being outgoing, and I am not going to go back or back down, because I feel that to honour my father, I need to be more present and show more leadership, especially to the youths who need more leadership,” Junior said. “I will continue speaking out even though it is not my style.”
The existing Jaramogi mausoleum next door is also set for a facelift as part of the same development.
