Raila Odinga’s journey of pain and hope: Detention, exile, and betrayals that shaped him

He was born in 1945 at Maseno the then citadel of the Anglican Church in Western Kenya and where his father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga worked as a teacher. It was a time of great social transformation when western churches were beginning to shape different aspects of African society, resulting in a clash with African traditional customs.

Jaramogi, being a traditionalist, had insisted on baptising his children with African names. However, when he presented his three children - Raila, Oburu and Agola for baptism - Reverend Nyende who was presiding over the baptismal service, turned them away. Raila’s mother was so angry with the humiliation that she walked out of the church.

In his autobiography Not Yet Uhuru, Jaramogi recalled how he wrote to the archdiocese in Nairobi to complain about what he saw as an injustice against his children. The bishop of Nairobi wrote to the Maseno diocese stating that there was nothing in the Church’s constitution that stopped one from being baptised using an African name. But still, no African priest was ready to baptise Raila and his siblings.

Although a European priest at Maseno agreed to carry out the baptisms, Jaramogi was faced with another problem.” My wife would not help me carry my children to church.” This was because of the humiliation she had suffered earlier. In the event, Jaramogi sought the assistance of his students in carrying the children. Fortunately, his wife calmed down and joined them in the church. Raila was baptised as Raila Amolo Odinga, Oburu as Ng’ong’a Molo Oburu and Agola as Ngire Omuodo Agola.

Cold War intrigues 

In 1962, Raila, at the age of 17, became a victim of Cold War Intrigues when he was denied a passport by the Kenyan colonial government because of his father’s connection with the Communist world. This had resulted in Jaramogi’s own passport being confiscated by the colonial government, but he managed to secure a Ghanaian one courtesy of Kwame Nkrumah.

Jaramogi, being one of the leading nationalists, had become a darling of the Soviet Union and its allies, who saw him as their point man in their bid to penetrate East Africa. For this reason, they gave him huge sums of money to support his political activities and made him a channel for their scholarships. Among the beneficiaries of these scholarships were his two sons, Oburu and Raila.

The first to leave was Oburu, who travelled to Moscow via London in the company of his father, who was travelling to London for the Lancaster Conference in February 1962. According to MI5 intelligence documents, he flew with his father on the same Ghanaian passport to London before proceeding to Moscow. On February 11, 1962, the night duty officer at London Airport wrote in a report to the Special Branch: “Jaramogi travelled on Air India Flight 115 with son Oburu Oginga, who was included on Father’s passport.”

Five months later, it was time for Raila to leave for East Germany on one of the 50 scholarships his father had secured in Dar es Salaam during his meeting with East Germany’s Representative to the Tanganyika independence celebrations in December 1961. The meeting was also attended by Jaramogi’s two assistants’ - BFF Oluande K’Oduol and Wilson Okondo Onyango.

Since it was difficult for students heading behind the Iron Curtain to secure passports, Jaramogi deliberately circumvented Kenyan immigration by making a secret agreement with the new Tanganyika government to issue Tanganyika passports to Kenyans heading behind the Iron Curtain.

Among those who made the arduous journey to Dar es Salaam to collect their travel document was Raila, who then proceeded to East Germany. In this regard, the Direction of Intelligence Kenya Colony wrote, “It has been reported that Jaramogi’s son, Raila Odinga, in company with two close relatives of Odhiambo Okello and one other person, left Kenya for Tanganyika on or about July 24, 1962, en route behind the Iron Curtain. They were in possession of travel documents valid for entry in Tanganyika and expected to be issued with passports in Dar es Salaam.”

Raila returned to Kenya in 1970 to find his father in detention over the pandemonium that ensued during the opening of the New Nyanza General Hospital, now Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital, by Jomo Kenyatta in 1969.

The detention took a financial toll on the Odingas as their family businesses closed down and creditors came knocking. Some of Jaramogi’s children had finished school but couldn’t find jobs because Odinga was considered a threat to the government.

Odima frustrated

Driven by the need to find other sources of income to keep his family afloat, Raila established the Standard Processing Equipment Construction and Erection Limited, which later became Spectre International.

But just when he thought the stars were beginning to align, he suffered another tragedy when his brother Frederick Odima Odinga took his own life in Ramogi Achieng Oneko’s home in Woodley Estate, where he was being accommodated in 1975. Odima had become frustrated with the harsh realities of life.

Two years later in 1978, the Odinga family home was wiped clean by auctioneers. Not even cooking pots were spared.

In 1982, both Raila and his father were arrested and detained. The father and son, after years of oppression by the Kenyatta and Moi regimes, had been radicalised into pursuing social justice through alternative means. Even in prison, where he was subjected to harsh conditions and torture, tragedies continue to stalk Raila.

He lost his mother in 1984, with the prison warden only informing him two months later. Within that same year , he lost his brother Omuodo Agola, who died shortly after coming out of prison, where he had been confined on an allegation of causing an accident.

Agola was diabetic and depended on regular insulin injections to control his blood glucose. But for unknown reasons, prison authorities blocked his medication, worsening his condition. He was taken to Kakamega Hospital by prison officers who chained him on his hospital bed. Even though Omuodo was later freed by the court, which found him not guilty of the offence, it was too late because diabetes had completely ravaged his health. He died young, in his 30s. Four years later in 1988, Raila’s wife Ida Odinga, was dismissed from her teaching job at Kenya High on the basis of “public interest” and ordered to vacate the teachers’ quarters.

These personal grievances, and the prevailing social injustice in the country, spurred Raila into radical politics of transforming Kenya’s political system through social and structural changes and radical reforms. When he was released after a long stint in prison, he became one of the leading agitators for multipartism and constitutional changes. This made him an anathema to Moi’s government, which arrested him again alongside other heroes of the second liberation such as Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia.

While Matiba and Rubia’s plights attracted the attention of western governments which pushed for their release, Raila was mostly shunned and left to fight it alone with the support from friends, relatives and Amnesty International. This is well highlighted in a secret note R.J Edis of the Foreign Office sent to the then British Secretary for Overseas Development and Africa, stating Baroness Chalker , “One other detainee, Raila Odinga, remains in prison but his case has attracted little domestic or international interest, perhaps because of his record of involvement in Subversion, “ Edis wrote.

Raila was released on June 21, 1992 but his attempts to travel to Europe for medical tests for suspected heart disease were rejected, and soon he became a target for state agents who harassed him and monitored his every move. On October 10, 1991, 10 police officers stormed their home in Kileleshwa and harassed his wife Ida to reveal his whereabouts.

When Ida lodged a complaint, the police returned six days later and arrested their watchman Dick Odhiambo who was taken to court for obstructing police officers. On October 16,1991, Raila came out openly to complain that police were making his life miserable and threatening his wife and children through anonymous phone calls. The windscreen of his Mercedes Benz had also been smashed outside his office at Spectre International, and on another occasion, two cars trailed him to his gate where the assailants alighted and stoned his car, injuring him on the head. He was taken to The Nairobi Hospital, where he remained for three days.

One week later, Raila, fearing for his safety, fled Kenya through Lake Victoria and ended up in Uganda where he sought asylum. To protect its ties with Kenya, Uganda quickly handed him over to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Uganda (UNHCR). But despite numerous approaches by UNHCR representatives to Western diplomats, no Western country was willing to offer Raila asylum.

In a confidential letter dated October 1991, the British High Commissioner to Uganda wrote: “Farah, the UNHCR representative, called to see me this afternoon at his urgent request, accompanied by his assistant. Farah said that Odinga’s first option for political asylum was Germany and this was being pursued vigorously. A similar approach had been made to a Scandinavian country and the United States. I added that I had no information whatsoever about any willingness to help in this case by Her Majesty’s Government or by the High Commission in Nairobi.”

Raila eventually ended up in Norway but after a year he decided to return to Kenya to continue with the struggle. The only problem was that he had no Kenyan passport to travel back to the country. For this reason, he flew to London to meet a senior British opposition politician to help raise his concerns with the Kenyan. Indeed, when the then Attorney General Amos Wako visited London in January 1992, Baroness Chalker, the British Minister for Overseas Development and Africa, raised with him the issue of Raila’s passport. A record of the meeting marked “restricted” reads: ‘‘Wako said that he had issued instructions in Nairobi that no Kenyan should be refused a travel document to return to Kenya. Raila Odinga could collect a travel document in London to return to Nairobi.”

Raila returned to Kenya in 1992 and became one of the leading voices in Ford which later split. He lost his father a couple of years later, a situation that resulted in a power struggle within Ford that resulted in him walking out to form his party NDP.

He later worked with Moi in Kanu and played a central role in bringing Narc to power in 2002, but he was side-lined as soon as Mwai Kibaki occupied the House on the Hill. In 2007, he led an aggressive, well-oiled presidential campaign in a political contest many strongly believe he won but was rigged out.

Perhaps his biggest tragedy was losing his firstborn son Fidel Odinga, who was viewed by many as his heir. Even though he put on a brave face, it would be doubtful to imagine he overcame this loss.

 At the time of his death, Baba was no longer the uncompromising radical politician of the 90s but a statesman who knew when to push hard to gain concessions from the government and when to pull back especially when he thought the stability of the country was in jeopardy. After a life punctuated by struggles, he has eventually found eternal rest.