How Raila disguised priest in torturous new dawn journey
Eric Wainaina @EWainaina
Opposition leader Raila Odinga yesterday gave a harrowing tale of the sacrifices reform veterans made, some of whom paid the ultimate price in the tedious journey towards the Second Liberation and the 2010 Constitution.
From detentions by President Daniel Moi’s regime, an escape to Norway through a long and painful route in Uganda and Netherlands, setting up an international office for the Opposition abroad and amending the old Constitution, Raila explained the torture he endured to be part of the forces that gave Kenya “a new dawn.”
According to Raila, the repeal of Section 2A on the independence Constitution in 1992 by Moi, to allow for multiparty democracy following local and international pressure, was the turning point in the reform journey that would yield a new supreme law 18 years later.
Hired goons
“We have been in that struggle for many years, people have been taken into detention, way back in the 60s, the 70s and the 80s, some people died in the process but some of us were lucky to escape the forced detentions because I was there three times and those details are in my book-The Flame of Freedom,” Raila said as the country marked 10 years since the enactment of the 2010 Constitution.
He recounted how hired goons attacked him at his Nairobi home 28 years ago, leading to his admission to hospital in what he believed was a calculated plot to suppress those who were agitating for democracy against an authoritarian rule.
Thereafter, he got wind that he was being sought by people “who could have harmed him due to his stance against the government, forcing him to flee the country.
From disguising a Catholic priest and a sheikh to hide identity, spending days and nights in islands while crossing the border, sleeping in a mosquito- infested hut to forging identification and tax compliance documents in the neighbouring Uganda, Raila’s told of a torturous experience that explains the pain and passion he attaches to constitutional reforms.
“The journey started here in Nairobi, I was evacuated through the grace of the Catholic church by one Father Mark Opiyo and a Catholic nun Sister Dyane from the United States.
That early morning, the priest was wearing a white collar, the sister was wearing white and myself was also wearing a collar and my name was Father Augustine from Machakos,” Raila recounted.
Night ride
He added: “He passed through all roadblocks from Nairobi, all the way to Kisumu and we went to a Catholic mission up on the hill and I was introduced there as Father Augustine.
After a meal, that evening I was transferred to Rang’ala Mission in Ugenya (Siaya County) and from there, I was taken home and put in a house where nobody knew of my presence.”
Raila said he would later be moved out of his house in an afternoon and taken to Sirongo Beach where he boarded a makeshift boat to Ndeda Island.
Here he met boatmen led by late Hezron Oroli and Robert Njula, including Ugandans who would transport timber through Lake Victoria but would return with other products such as sugar, clothes and mattresses.
They gave him and his team a night ride, 20 miles past Market Island but before they arrived on the shores under a heavy downpour, they spotted a boat which they initially thought had police officers, only to learn that it was ferrying a sick woman and Raila generously offered his jacket to cover her.
“We were well received (in a village at the destination). We arrived there at around 3am in the morning.
We were taken to a hut to sleep. I have never been into a house with such big mosquitoes. In the morning, we worked up and arrangements were made for me to get Uganda documents,” he said.
His name, he said, was changed to Joseph Opiyo Odeya.
On the day forged documents were found, Raila despite heavy rains took off to another island in a “boiling” bus and here he found a relative of Robert Ouko, who lived in a small hut with his family. He offered them shelter until the rain stopped.
The following day, they headed to Iganga in Eastern region of Uganda where they took a taxi to Jinja and he switched to another taxi to the capital, Kampala.
“At the entrance (Jinja), we found a law enforcement block and they were inspecting identification.
I showed them that my name is Joe Adeya and I also had certificates of tax showing I had paid tax for three years and that is how we ended up in Kampala,” Raila said.
Raila was also registered with the United High Commission for Refugees, a situation that helped him secure an air travel to flee Uganda where he had also learnt that he was being sought.
The former premier disguised himself as a Muslim cleric named Haji Omar complete with a kanzu and with this identity, he managed to travel to Entebbe Airport and boarded a flight to Amsterdam enroute to Norway where he remained for years.
In Norway, Raila was adopted and eventually given an office in Oslo which he turned into an “international” Ford party office, and would use it to mobilise support for the party’s agenda globally through media interviews mostly on BBC and Voice of America stations because leaders in Nairobi could not speak.
Move a motion
“Eventually, our (1991) Kamkunji rally, which was the reason why we were being arrested, happened. On the day it was supposed to take place, our people including Martin Shikuku and James Orengo were bundled in pick-ups.
I was the one who pulled international attention on what was happening. Through that, we mobilised a lot of support for our struggle here.
That rally was what eventually moved to the repeal of Section 2A of our Constitution and allow for the formation of political parties.
Everybody took a risk for this country. It was not easy,” Raila said.
He added: “That was just one chapter, and the next was the Constitution being changed and overhauled.
That journey started immediately after the formation of political parties in 1992.
It went on and I remember in 1997, when we demonstrated in Parliament on a budget day saying , “No reforms no budget.”
In 1998, Raila would then successfully move a motion in Parliament to create a select committee for the review of the Constitution, which he chaired to form the Constitution Review Act, and appointed commissioners led by Yash Pal Ghai who he fished from exile in Hong Kong with help of the Commonwealth secretariat.
The process of creating a new constitution started in Bomas of Kenya where a draft was prepared but according to Raila, “at the tale end there was a split among delegates some of whom staged a walk out” and later went to court to block the commission from tabling the draft in parliament.
