How Raila rescued his sister from a sadist

ODM leader Raila Amolo Odinga’s memoir, The Flame of Freedom, is a 961-page encyclopaedic masterpiece.

It chronicles an ardent study of a defiantly resolute enthusiast who commands a domineering work ethic and loathes ceaseless graft, administrative incompetence and improvident leadership.

It's a passionate ingenious read and a component for Raila's voice against feminine brutality, prevalent misogyny and gender-based violence. His sister, Beryl Achieng’, concluded her Form Six (‘A’ levels) studies in December 1972.

Otieno Ambala, a prosperous fast-food tycoon, real estate magnate, Howard economics graduate and a consummate opportunist, pursued her relentlessly, concealing an agenda to concoct the Odinga family's endorsement and clutch the Gem parliamentary seat. Raila detected Otieno's deceptive plotting.

Jaramogi disapproval

Beryl, gullible and earnestly beguiled by love, requested her entourage of reluctant relatives to endorse Otieno. With her father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga's disapproval, Otieno lost the 1974 Gem elections to deft Isaac Okero, after marrying Beryl and siring two children, Auma and Chizzy. Their relationship was soon on the rocks, characterised by a sadistic avalanche of wife battery.

Otieno manipulated Beryl to requisition her father Jaramogi, who reluctantly commanded his campaigners in Bondo to camp in Gem and predicate for Otieno. He won the Gem elections in 1979.

After Otieno's triumph, his delinquent emotional and brutal abuse towards Beryl escalated. Beryl vacated her marital home, but Otieno consistently stalked, intimidated and petrified her.

Due to the trepidation, Raila purchased an air ticket for Beryl, to the newly independent Zimbabwe, in December 1980. She travelled with her children to Harare.

When Otieno ascertained that Beryl had relocated with the children, he decamped to Harare. He commenced litigation proceedings, to attain exclusive custody of his children. Beryl was summoned and arraigned in court.

Shockingly, the judge referred the case to the domicile court in Kenya and imposed the sole custody of the children to the patronage of their abusive father.

Legal loophole

Otieno's lawyer calculatingly postulated that the unemployed Beryl, was destitute and too financially penurious to parent her children. She bid a sobbing goodbye to her children.

Upon his return to Kenya, Otieno exploited a provision in Kenyan law, which authorised him to dissipate Beryl's essence. It stated that a woman couldn't obtain a passport, without the signatory permission of her husband.

Otieno wrote to the Kenyan immigration department, withdrawing his consent to Beryl's passport. He exerted his prestige as assistant minister for culture, imposing his stature on the Kenyan High Commission in Harare to impound Beryl's passport and extradite her.

He bragged to his consulate that Beryl would never be employed in Kenya. Beryl sank into depression. Otieno hired a private detective, Patrick Muiruri, to stalk Beryl.

Raila, exhausted by the tribulation, contacted Brigadier Oyite Ojok, chief of staff in the Milton Obote administration. Oyite imparted Beryl with a Ugandan passport to Kampala. She was then spirited to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and incentivised by Raila's acquaintance Mwaboha, chief executive of Tanzania Bureau of Standards.

She returned to Zimbabwe as a bona fide resident. Beryl resolutely regained profound peace healing and an occupation, becoming the first black town clerk of Mutare, the country's third largest city.

She filed for divorce from Otieno. She was later appointed the company secretary of Housing Corporation of Zimbabwe.
In 1983 snap elections, Otieno lost the Gem seat to Horace Ongili Owiti, who, ironically, had been the best man in Otieno and Beryl's wedding.

The enlivening potent support Raila provisioned his sister during her exploitable marital frailty, is invigorating.

Jeff Anthony is a novelist, a Big Brother Africa 2 Kenyan representative and founder of Jeff's Fitness Centre @jeffbigbrother