Three names, many hideouts: How Raila fled country to exile

In August 2020, when the country was struggling to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga invited Robert Njura to Nairobi, where he confessed that he had helped the now-deceased ODM leader escape to Uganda and later travel to Norway during the struggle for multiparty democracy in 1991.

Raila told the media that Njura’s account of his escape from Kenya to Norway was true, adding that he would not wish what happened to him on any other person.

And though he was persecuted for his push for reforms alongside other Kenyans, he never stopped the clamour for change.

Raila met Njura when the country was marking the 10th anniversary of the Constitution, a moment that also saw him reflect on his tortured political journey — one deeply intertwined with Kenya’s search for a new constitutional order.

From changing identities, switching clothes and moving swiftly under the cover of darkness, Raila made an epic escape from the anti-reform purge by the Kanu regime — a journey that saved him to fight another day.

On that day, Raila revealed it was the first time he was meeting the coxswain who had rowed him through the stormy waters of Lake Victoria, on a rainy night, to the safety of neighbouring Uganda.
And so, Njura saved the man who would go on to define the contours of Kenya’s politics — both in opposition and in government — for over three 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 rural home before crossing over to Uganda and later to Norway,” Raila said.

Tearful journey

“My journey with my friend started tearfully in Nairobi. Some goons had beaten me up at my home. While in hospital, I got information that they were still looking for me, intending to inflict serious harm,” Raila narrated.

He remembered how he was saved by the Catholic Church, which arranged his escape from the capital city. “The Church organised 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,” he said.

The long and bitter journey then took the team through Central, Rift Valley and finally Nyanza. In Kisumu, they went to a Catholic mission on Riat Hill and had a meal before being transferred to Rang’ala Mission.

It was from there that he was moved to his rural Bondo home to hide in a place where no one could find him.

“From my house, I was taken to Sirongo Beach, where 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 manned by a Ugandan businessman who used to bring timber to Kenya and then buy sugar, bread and mattresses to take 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 the late Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko.

“It was night, and it was raining as we journeyed through the waters of Lake Victoria. We crossed the Kenyan waters and I 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.

By then, he had left Njura and his team and was in the hands of Ugandans. “We covered about 20 miles and got to a village in Uganda at 3 a.m.,” Raila said.

There was then another journey from the island to a shore adjacent to Iganga town in Uganda.

“We were to travel from the village by bicycle to catch a bus at Iganga. The distance was about 15 kilometres. It was hilly, so I put my suitcase on the bicycle carrier and let someone ride it. I ran most of the distance to Iganga,” Raila recalled.

At Iganga, they processed Ugandan papers for him, 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 identification but raised no issue with my papers,” Raila said.

In Kampala, he tracked down 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.