The name of Opposition leader Raila Odinga is among those picked to identify bean varieties developed during an eight-year research to improve agricultural yields in five counties.Researchers said farmers had named one of the bean varieties Raila because of its crisp dark tone similar to the pigmentation of the towering opposition leader.The bean is one of the popular varieties identified as best suited for growing in coffee zones and lower regions in Tharaka Nithi, Embu and Meru counties during the project called the Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA).The Australian funded project by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research (Karlo) was running in the Eastern region counties as well as Bungoma and Siaya counties in Western Kenya.
The adoption of the opposition leader’s name for the bean variety is not a novel. In the past few, a bean variety had been named Saitoti, again because of its skin tone similar to late former vice president Prof George Saitoti. Another bean variety developed during the 1980s was given the name Nyayo apparently in recognition of the political era of retired president Daniel Moi.