Maurice Ogeta, a former gym instructor at the Nairobi Safari Club, has opened up about a tense night in 1997 when he says he helped former Prime Minister Raila Odinga leave a hotel in Nairobi. According to Ogeta, more than ten men in black suits showed up asking to see Odinga, and none of them had an appointment.
Speaking to Citizen TV on Sunday, Ogeta said he became suspicious as soon as the men walked in. They wanted to see Odinga right away, but they did not introduce themselves or explain why they had come. Ogeta says he knew he had to act fast if he was going to get the former PM out safely.
He came up with a plan. Ogeta gave Odinga his own tracksuit and cap to help him blend in, then led him through an emergency exit and across the hotel kitchen. Even in that tense moment, Odinga stayed calm. Ogeta recalls him stopping to pick up a piece of fruit and eat it as they made their way out. Ogeta admits that he was more scared than the man he was trying to protect.
Odinga's driver was waiting outside in a car, but Ogeta decided it was safer to put the politician in a taxi instead. He says the taxi took Odinga straight to Parliament.
To throw the men off the trail, Ogeta says he sent them to Room 1607 on the hotel's 16th floor, a room he claims did not exist. He believes his quick thinking may have stopped a possible attack on Odinga, though the men's intentions have never been independently confirmed.
The episode reportedly brought the two men closer. Ogeta later went on to work for Odinga after he found out what had happened that night.
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