What Raila’s biographer said on links with rebels

File | NATION Scenes in Nairobi in August 1982, in the aftermath of the coup attempt. Police and soldiers subjected civilians to thorough security checks.  

In Summary

• He notes: “After the detention of (George) Anyona, Raila briefed Sumba on the ferment in the military and the efforts of the Ochuka group to overthrow the government of President Moi. The two agreed that there was a basis for collaboration with the Ochuka group.”

• What Raila’s biographer said on links with rebels

In the biography, Raila Odinga, An Engima in Kenyan Politics, Nigerian lawyer and political scientist Babafemi Badejo writes that in his interviews with Raila for the book, the politician did not admit or deny his role in the planning of the 1982 coup.

According to the author, the discontent that led to the coup stemmed from “the perception, rightly or wrongly, that the Moi government did not care about non-commissioned officers.”

He continues: “The air force plotters were mainly from the Luo ethnic group and were equally unhappy with the political developments which had marginalised the Luos in the affairs of the nation.”

Particularly unhappy with the system was, notes, Babafemi, Senior Private Waore Dianga, who could not stomach the corruption in the air force when it came to procurement of air force equipment.

Dianga would recruit Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka because he was charismatic and popular with other junior soldiers.

However, Dianga’s plot was discovered after which he was imprisoned by a court martial.

With Dianga in prison, writes Babafemi, Ochuka took over as the coup leader.

During his trial after the coup was quashed, Ochuka confessed that he acted because there had not been proper presidential elections since independence and because his people had been abandoned by the government.

He was also wary of a rumoured coup by Kikuyu officers whom he had to beat to the game, insinuates the writer.

Once Snr Privates Ochuka, Snr Sergeant Pancras Okumu Oteyo and Sergeant Joseph Ogindi Obuon met Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and received his blessings, it was all systems go.

However, Babafemi writes that “two other civilians associated with the coup plotters were Raila and Patrick Sumba also known as “Paddy Onyango.” The duo, he writes, was fed up with dictatorship.

He notes: “After the detention of (George) Anyona, Raila briefed Sumba on the ferment in the military and the efforts of the Ochuka group to overthrow the government of President Moi. The two agreed that there was a basis for collaboration with the Ochuka group.”

To avoid detection, writes Obafami, Raila and Paddy agreed that “given the nature of the project, information management was crucial.”

As such, adds the author, they would operate with others on a-need-to-know basis.

“They decided to avoid a large open planning group. Raila was to be the contact point with the military men in relaying views on important issues.”

According to Obafemi, coup leader Ochuka wanted to overthrow Moi when he was out of the country handing over the AU chairmanship to Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.

But Raila and Sumba had a different view. They wanted him to be ousted while in Kenya in order to deny him an opportunity to rally external support and return to power by external forces.

They were also careful about civilian deaths.