The Day Raila Odinga Learned His Mother Had Died Two Months Ago While Detained in Kamiti Prison

When Kenyans remember the late Raila Amolo Odinga, they recall a man who spent much of his life in the trenches of struggle a symbol of defiance, endurance, and hope.

But behind the towering political figure was a son who once faced a heartbreak that would scar him for life.

It was 1984. Raila was in detention under the Moi regime, held incommunicado following accusations of involvement in the failed 1982 coup attempt. Confined in solitary cells and cut off from the world, communication with family was forbidden.

Unknown to him, his mother, Mary Ajuma Juma Odinga, had fallen ill and passed away on November 5 that year. Prison authorities kept the information from him for two months.

One night, he would later recount, he dreamt of her. In that dream, she appeared weak and distant, almost as if saying goodbye. The vision disturbed him deeply.

Days later, a note quietly made its way to his cell from fellow detainee George Anyona. It read simply: “Pole kwa mama yako.” That was how Raila first learned that his mother was gone.

Weeks later, a telegram from his elder brother, Dr Oburu Odinga, arrived — an official confirmation of what his heart already knew. But by then, she had long been buried. He never got to see her one last time.

For Raila, the moment was devastating. He would later describe it as one of the lowest points in his years of imprisonment — the kind of pain that no political cause could prepare him for.

Yet it also strengthened his resolve. In the silence of his cell, he vowed that the struggle for a freer Kenya must continue, so that no family would again have to endure such cruelty.

As the country now mourns his passing, that moment stands out as a reminder of the price he paid for the freedoms Kenyans enjoy today — not just as a politician, but as a son who turned private sorrow into public courage.