December 14, 2024

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Why Raila’s Grandfather Killed a Man and Was Jailed and Poisoned while in Prison

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Raila Odinga and his siblings grew up without their maternal grandfather who succumbed to poisoning while in prison where he was serving a life sentence for murder.

Their grandfather was former Chief Justo Odimo who sired their mother Mary Juma but Justo in a fit of rage stabbed a man to death after a provocation.

When Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was marrying Mary in January 1943, her father Justo was incarcerated at Nairobi’s Industrial Area Prison.

Justo, a Maseno School-educated colonial leader was a polygamous man. One day while drinking with friends at a cousin’s place a man identified as Ahomo confronted him.

Ahomo who was also drunk told Justo to donate one of his four wives to his brother. He even offered to facilitate the process but Justo felt offended.

When Ahomo left the house where they were drinking, Raila’s grandfather followed and stabbed him in the stomach killing him instantly.

Raila’s mother Mary Juma.

“There was no witness to the crime but my grandfather overcame with remorse presented himself to Chief Amoth, the man who replaced him and admitted the stabbing, he was arrested and charged with murder” Raila says in his book “The Flame of Freedom”.

Justo was tried at His Majesty’s Supreme Court of Kenya and though he defended himself that he was heavily intoxicated and incapable of forming an intention to kill, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Through his lawyer a Mr Archer, Justo appealed at the East African Court of Appeal but the judge there upheld the life sentence.

He was jailed at Industrial Area Prison where in 1948, Raila then three years old together with his elder brother Oburu Odinga and their mother visited him.

Justo appealed again and his sentence was reduced to manslaughter and later a release was ordered.

Jaramogi Oginga. He married Mary while her father Justo was in prison.

“His adversaries on hearing this news became worried that Justo would return and reclaim the chieftainship and a plan was hatched to eliminate him” Raila writes.

A medicine man was sent to Raila’s grandmother to tell her that if her husband was released from prison without protection he would be killed by his enemies. He advised a cleansing before he left Industrial Area Prison, a ritual she innocently accepted.

The medicine man gave Raila’s grandmother a potion to neutralize the purported curse on Justo. She believed him and as instructed put it in tea then took it to her husband in the prison. After drinking it, Justo died right away.

“My grandmother was completely distraught. She stripped naked, weeping and wailing that she was responsible for her husband’s death. She was only barely restrained from committing suicide and she never really recovered from the incident, which haunted her for the rest of her life” Raila says.

Industrial Area Prison where Justo died while serving a sentence.

The ODM leader and his siblings were thus brought up without their grandfather save for the short time they visited him in prison.