Ngugi Wa Thiongo has acknowledged Raila as the Father of Democracy in Kenya.The Nobel Prize finalist spoke fondly of a man Jubilee would wish he wasn’t born a Kenyan.Here is the Author’s opinion about the Enigma:
“Raila had refused to eat, he was on hunger strike, he had grown thin and pale, his right palm had become dark with clotted blood and the same arm had lots of pimples and boils as well. His left arm was twisted, Raila Odinga was receiving extraordinary punishment due to his stand against dictator Moi.
Seven years in jail but he still kept his words, to him, Kenya needed fresh air than he needed freedom. He was willing to pay the ultimate price. When I came to see him, he was denied the chance to meet me, he however managed to smuggle a written note to me, the note read, “tell Ida to ask a doctor to prescribe for me these drugs, am slowly dying”. Soon his mother died and his aunty followed later but he was never allowed to attend any of the burials.
He was later transferred to Kamiti Maximum Prison and moved straight to the torture corner, the isolation block, the Detention camp. A prison within a prison. Here was served half cooked ugali and vegetable soup daily.
During torture, the blows to his dead dazed him, he used to fall in the floor and lay there unconscious while Rono and other GSU officers would jump on his unconscious body from his head to his genitals, it’s here where his left leg got twisted and was later confirmed broken, you see how he walks? With his left leg dragging behind? His eyes were already spoilt, they were ever swollen and teary, his voice was no more. But still the son of Odinga refused to give in, Dictatorship had to end.
In February 1988, he was released from prison but refused to go home. He felt insecure, he thought they were still going to come for him. Instead of going home, he came to my house on the same day, with the same clothes out of prison, Odinga asked me to join him in crafting ways through which changes could be effected in the society through education of the masses, he insisted on peaceful ways.
It is through this that we achieved Multiparty in Kenya, and now Odinga is back to fight for electoral justice, he is back, Raila Odinga is back!!”
