As the country marked the 10th anniversary of the Constitution yesterday, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga reflected his tortured political journey whose fate is intertwined with the country’s search for a new constitutional order.
From changing identities, switching clad and moving swiftly under the cover of darkness, Raila made an epic escape from anti-reform purge in a journey that saved him to fight another day.
Yesterday, he was also meeting – for the first time – the coxswain who rowed him through the stormy waters of Lake Victoria, on a rainy night, to the safety of neighbouring Uganda. Robert Njura saved the man who would define the contours of Kenya’s politics for the next few decades.
“I thank him for saving my life. I was a fugitive running away from injustice. I was beaten at my home in Nairobi, hospitalised at Nairobi Hospital and the Catholic Church helped me escape to my home before crossing over to Uganda and later Norway,” Raila said.
He hosted Njura in his Nairobi’s Capitol Hill office. Njura had last week talked to the media about his role in helping Raila escape Kenya.
Saved by church
“My journey with my friend started tearfully in Nairobi. Some goons had beaten me up in my home. While in hospital, I got information that they were still looking for me to harm me,” Raila narrated.
He remembered how he was saved by the Catholic Church who arranged his escape from the capital city.
“The church arranged my journey and I was accompanied by Father Okwiri and Sister Diane from the US. I was wearing a collar and dressed in white as Father Augustino from Machakos.” The long and bitter journey then took the team through Central, Rift Valley and finally Nyanza.
“In Kisumu, we went to a Catholic mission up Riat Hill. We had a meal then I was transferred to Rang’ala mission. At night, I was taken to my home and I hid in a place where no one could find me,” said the ODM leader. He said the story of his escape from Kenya to Norway as told by Njura was true, adding that he would not wish what happened to him to happen to any other person. And though he was persecuted for his push for reforms together with other Kenyans, he never stopped the clamour for change.
“From my house, I was taken to Sirongo Beach and I boarded a makeshift boat to Ndede Island. Here I met Njura and his team, who were being organised by the late Hezron Orori,” Raila said. There, they met another boat being manned by a Ugandan businessman who used to bring timber to Kenya and then buy sugar, bread and mattresses back to Uganda.
Raila recalled that they passed another island and found only one Kenyan living on it. He later established that the man was related to late Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko. “It was at night and it was raining as we journeyed through the waters of Lake Victoria. We crossed the Kenyan waters and was handed over to a Ugandan boat. Inside the boat, there was a sick woman. I took off my jacket and covered her,” he said.
He had by then left Njura and his team and was in the hands of Ugandans. “We covered like 20 miles and got to a village in Uganda at 3 am,” Raila said.Then there was another journey from the island to a shore adjacent to Iganga town in Uganda.
Bicycle journey
“We were to travel from the village by bicycle to catch a bus at Iganga. The distance was like 15km. It was hilly so I put my suitcase on the bicycle’s carrier and let someone ride it. I ran most of the distance to Iganga,” Raila recalled. At Iganga, they processed for him Ugandan papers and he travelled to Kampala as Joseph Ojiwa Odera.
“I was even given a certificate for having paid taxes in Uganda for three years. At Owen Falls, security demanded for identification but they did not raise any issue with my papers,” Raila said. At Kampala, he tracked his friend Shem Konga who helped him register with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
“Shem received me well in Uganda but we got wind that Kenya’s security personnel were looking for me. The UNHCR quickly processed my papers and I travelled to Norway via Amsterdam as Haji Omar dressed in a white kanzu,” he said. Njura was happy to have met the man he saved and hailed the new Constitution for enabling him to go public on his secret mission.
“I feel great being here and thanks to the 2010 Constitution, it has made me appear in public,” Njurasaid. Raila appealed to security officers not to harass Njura. “He is a hero who helped me escape and saved my life. Police should not harass him. If anything, they should come for me,” Raila said.
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