How Raila Odinga was exiled to Norway via Uganda disguised as a priest [VIDEO]

It all started with a series of cat-and-mouse games with the police, who were looking for Mr Odinga in Nairobi. In the weeks preceding his dramatic escape from under the noses of President Moi’s ruthless police and Special Branch as the clamour for multiparty democracy intensified, he kept moving between the residences of his pro-democracy friends.

A political attaché at the US Embassy in Nairobi, Alan Eastham, had warned him that they had intelligence that the Moi regime had concluded that Mr Odinga no longer feared detention and security agencies could therefore be looking to physically harm or assassinate him.

As the police were looking for him ahead of a mega rally the pro-democracy groups had called, he took refuge in Dr Mukhisa Kituyi’s family home in Mountain View estate, among other places.

Eventually, he was smuggled out of Nairobi onto Kisumu, Rang’ala in Ugenya and eventually to Uganda, all the while disguised variously as a Catholic priest and a Legio Maria adherent.

Having set aside their plans to spend the evening dancing to Okatch Biggy, Mr Njura says they climbed into their single outboard engine boat and set off. Coming along with them was the boat owner, Mr Orori, and his wife.

“This did not look like a normal assignment because instead of just setting off straight for our destination we headed towards the mainland and eventually docked at a lonely part of the island,” he said.

According to Mr Njura, since he could not question their boss, he concluded they were going to pick some goods to smuggle to Uganda.

“We were fishermen, yes, but a lot happened in the lake, including facilitating illegal trade, and that was not unusual,” he said.

In Babafemi Badejo’s Raila Odinga: An Enigma in Kenyan Politics, Mr Odinga is said to have boarded the boat that took him across to Uganda at Olago Beach, and that the logistical nightmare, including fuelling the boat, was managed by a local businessman in Bondo, Simon Chiambe Oloo.

As they waited to be ordered to retrieve the goods they thought their boss had hidden among the rocks on the beach, a man emerged.

“He was dressed like a Legio Maria adherent. All alone. You know, at the lake fishermen believe in so many things. What crossed my mind when I saw this stranger was that perhaps the boss had invited him to pray for us before we embarked on our journey,” Mr Njura told the Sunday Nation.

The stranger boarded the boat, greeted them then went to sit with Mr Orori at the front. Mr Njura and his friend Mr Wademi sat at the back. They were to steer the wooden boat. By the time they were setting off for Uganda, it was almost 5pm.

For the duration of the journey, the coxswains focused on steering the boat, with occasional instructions from Mr Orori on the direction to take and the obstacles to avoid.

According to Mr Njura, for the duration of the journey Mr Orori and his stranger-friend conversed in Dholuo, which he and Mr Wademi did not understand.

Along the way they passed by several islands, including Mageta, and when they arrived at Sigulu Island near the Ugandan side of the lake — some 12 hours after they set off from Olago Beach — they stopped for some time because the lake was quite rough, they were tired and it was getting bitterly cold.

They all got out of the boat and Mr Orori, who was a well-connected man, led them to a nearby house, which Mr Njura later learned belonged to Mr Orori’s uncle.

At the house, they found an elderly man and, cold and hungry after hours on the lake, they were served hot porridge.

“Then they started introductions and that is when we learnt who this stranger in religious garb was. Hezron (Orori) introduced the stranger as Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s son, Raila. The old man’s focus quickly shifted from us to Raila, who he asked about his father (Jaramogi)” he said.

The old man then asked if Mr Odinga also “works in the lake”. “Without hesitation, he (Mr Odinga) answered in the affirmative. He did not say anything that could give away his true mission. He was posing as a trader dealing in timber and he managed to convince the old man. It seemed like it was something they had discussed with Hezron because Hezron did not contradict him,” recalls Mr Njura.

“For Sylvester (Wademi) and I, because we had some little knowledge of what was going on in the country at the time, Raila was a name we were familiar with because of his association with the fight for multiparty politics, but at that time we could not say anything. In any case we had only heard of him but had not seen him before,” he added.

After the short rest, they set off their final destination, with the target being to get to the Ugandan side of the lake before sunrise. They did not go to their usual beaches but docked at a place “with a lot of shacks nearby” whose name he could not tell. Mr Njura said it seemed arrangements had been made for Mr Odinga to be picked.

“As soon as we docked, Hezron and his friend (Raila) got out of the boat, walked a short distance and joined some people. They then walked from our view and disappeared among the nearby shacks,” he said.