The Priest Disguise That Saved Raila from Moi’s Deadly Trap

Raila Odinga // Photo Courtesy 

Raila Odinga had walked through Kisumu, Ugenya, and Bondo without causing a commotion. That alone was a miracle. The man whose mere presence could bring a town to a standstill was now just another stranger in a priest’s robe, introduced as Father Augustine from Machakos. He even nodded solemnly like a true man of God, though deep down, he knew he wasn’t heading for a sermon – he was running for his life.

The government was out to finish him and this wasn’t a regular arrest. The US Embassy had picked up intelligence that Moi’s regime had lost patience. Raila had already survived years in detention. This time, they weren’t planning to put him behind bars. They were looking for a more permanent solution. He had two options: wait for them to come or disappear. He chose the latter.

When police raided his office at Agip House, Raila had already slipped away to James Orengo’s office in the same building. Before they could figure it out, Orengo had called in backup – Martha Karua, Japheth Shamalla, Martha Koome and a swarm of journalists. The officers had come for a quiet arrest, but now they were on the news. Furious, they stormed out, empty-handed.

Orengo, Anyang’ Nyong’o and Raila knew the game was over. The government was desperate and desperate people don’t play fair. He had to go underground.

Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi offered him a safe house, but the police were closing in fast. Kituyi’s wife took charge of his disguise, shaving his head, fitting him with glasses and sneaking him past roadblocks to the US Embassy. But America wasn’t ready to anger Moi again. They wished him luck and showed him the door.

He moved house to house, never staying in one place too long. Jalang’o Anyango took him in next. Then Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth stepped in. A white American nun and a Kenyan priest dressed him up as one of their own. Raila, by now a seasoned fugitive, climbed into the back seat, held up a newspaper and faked interest in the headlines as they passed through police roadblocks. The disguise worked perfectly.

In Kisumu, he was booked into a Catholic mission as Father Augustine. From there, he was smuggled to Bondo, where he met his father’s driver at midnight. The next stop was the lake.

At 4 p.m. the following day, Raila boarded a diesel-powered boat at Ndeda Beach. The boatman, Hezron Orori, had one mission to get him across the Ugandan border. The first two hours were calm, the moon and stars lighting the way. Then the storm hit. Wind and waves tossed the boat violently. Orori’s sick wife, who was on board, started shivering. Raila, ever the gentleman, gave her his jacket. Now freezing himself, he reached for the bottle of vodka a friend had given him. It wasn’t a warm blanket, but it did the job.

Finally, Orori whispered, “We are in Uganda.” Raila let out a deep breath. He had made it.

In Kampala, Kenyan intelligence was already sniffing around. The UNHCR hid him while trying to find a country willing to take him in. The US, Britain and Germany all avoided him—they didn’t want to upset Moi. But Norway, which had already cut ties with Kenya, stepped forward.

To board the flight, Raila had to become someone else again. This time, he was Haji Omar, a pilgrim on his way to Mecca. Dressed in a kanzu and fez, he walked past an old friend at the airport who didn’t even recognize him. When he landed in Oslo, his own sisters stared blankly at him before realizing who he was.

Back home, Ida Odinga was fighting her own war. Police raided their home, left death threats and even dumped a bucket of human waste in their backyard. But Ida wasn’t one to back down. She called the press and made noise. When the police told her to tell Raila to surrender, she shot back, “If anything happens to my husband, I will hold the government responsible.”

Raila had escaped, but the battle wasn’t over. From exile in Norway, he kept up the fight against Moi’s regime. A year later, he returned to Kenya and won the Lang’ata parliamentary seat.

This story has been drawn from The Flame of Freedom (2013) by Raila Odinga and Raila Odinga: An Enigma in Kenyan Politics (2011) by Philip Ochieng. In his memoir, Raila offers a gripping firsthand account of his political struggles, detailing his repeated arrests, detentions, and the dramatic escape that saw him cross Lake Victoria under the cover of darkness, disguised first as a priest and later as a Muslim pilgrim. He lays bare the personal sacrifices he and his family endured in the fight for multiparty democracy.