His wish when he exclusively spoke to the Sunday Nation last week was to meet former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the man he helped to flee the country in a rickety boat 28 years ago. But was Robert Njura really ready for it when he received the call for a one-on-one meeting with the ODM leader?
The call from Mr Odinga’s office came on Wednesday afternoon this week. The former PM wanted to meet Mr Njura — one of the two young men who in 1991 rode him in a boat from the Busia side of Lake Victoria across to Uganda as he fled to exile in Norway — the next day.
The invitation would set off one of the longest days for Mr Njura, 48, as he battled with fear of the unknown.
After the Sunday Nation ran his story, Mr Njura says many people warned him that he should have kept the secret to himself as the same agents of the State that wanted to arrest Mr Odinga all those years ago would now come for him now.
“My mother was particularly worried that I had landed myself in trouble,” Mr Njura recounted.
Hours before the scheduled appointment on Thursday August 27, Mr Njura sent a text message to the Sunday Nation saying he would not turn up for the meeting with Mr Odinga.
“My body is tense. I will not make it,” he said in the message. He also wanted Mr Sylvester Wademi, 51, with whom he steered the boat, to be given time to travel from Nambale, where he is a businessman and church minister, to Nairobi so that they could go to Mr Odinga together.
The phone remained switched off until 8am on Thursday, two hours before he was to meet Mr Odinga. By that time, Mr Odinga had tweeted that he was looking forward to meeting Mr Njura, “who steered me in a rickety boat across Lake Victoria to Uganda as I fled to exile in Norway in 1991”.
The tweet quickly spread online and reached Mr Njura’s workplace in Industrial Area. His employer and supervisors told him he had to honour the appointment. They called a taxi for him to the CBD, where he linked up with author Bethuel Oduo and Stephen Osogo, son of former minister James Osogo,.
Together, they headed to the Capitol Hill offices of Mr Odinga. At the reception, as he waited to go in to meet with Mr Odinga, Mr Njura started shaking.
“I have never been to such an office and Raila’s name is so big that meeting him can be intimidating,” he told the Sunday Nation later.
But more intimidation was to come. Unbeknown to him, Mr Odinga’s office had invited the media, and the former Prime Minister was to address the nation with Mr Njura by his side.
After about 15 minutes in the waiting lobby, Mr Njura was ushered into Mr Odinga’s office, alongside the former PM’s spokesman Dennis Onyango. Their meeting took about an hour.
“Mzee has an incredible memory. He was reminding me of some things that I had long forgotten, like how he had initially declined to take some whisky only to call for it later as the temperatures dropped in the middle of the lake. He also asked me about the other people who were in the boat with us and said he was keen to meet them if they are still alive,” recounted Mr Njura.
At the press conference after the private audience, Mr Odinga described Mr Njura as a “hero.”
“It took us many years to get a new Constitution in 2010. That was a long journey; many suffered, some lost their lives and others were tortured. I celebrate this day with my friend Robert Njura, whose story appeared in the Sunday Nation recently. It is a true story,” said Mr Odinga.
Mr Odinga said Mr Njura and his colleague Mr Wademi navigated the lake using stars and the moon amid torrential rains.
Mr Wademi recalled that the boat they were sailing was christened Hezron Jarateng’ Wuod Sudan (Hezron the Black Man from Sudan). The boat’s owner was Hezron Orori, who has since died.
“It was an abrupt journey,” Mr Wademi said on Friday.
He talked fondly of Mr Orori, and through his narration, a clear picture of why the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga trusted him (Mr Orori) to paddle Mr Odinga across the lake and at night emerged.
“He was some kind of king on the lake and knew his way around all the islands. No one dared cross his path or play around with his goods,” Mr Wademi said of Orori.
“Mzee told me ‘Thank you’. That is more than I could have asked for. Our meeting in 1991 was planned by God and I believe that our meeting yesterday (Thursday) too was planned by God. I did not have the faintest idea that what I did in 1991 in the course of my job would make it to the history of our country,” he said.
