Retired officer reveals how protecting Odinga’s family made him poor

A former bodyguard of Kenya’s first vice president claims he was sacked from the police service more than four decades ago for failing to spy on his boss.

A former officer, who worked for Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, has narrated how being loyal to Kenya’s first president made him languish in poverty.

Photo of Solomon Mulang'a, the old man who was dismissed for not revealing a high-profile secret.

Solomon Mulang served in President Jomo Kenyatta’s security detail, he was a close friend of Odinga

before he was unceremoniously dismissed from the service because of the relationship he had with the VP.

 “I had been recalled to general duties from Jaramogi Odinga’s escort detail after he formed the opposition party, Kenya Peoples Union (KPU), when one day I was told that Mr Hinga wanted to see me at his office in Gill House. I froze literally,” narrates Mulang’a.

 

“He told me he had heard that Mr Odinga and I enjoyed a deep relationship. After a pause, he looked me straight in the eye and said he wanted me to tell him what Mr Odinga and Ugandan President Dr Milton Obote talked about when the two leaders met at the Rock Hotel in Jinja.”

“My conscience could not allow me to betray Jaramogi who had treated me well for the three years that I had been with him."

Solomon and his wife. Image Courtesy

"What followed was a bombshell when Hinga ordered Mulang’a to go back to his rural home in Kitui District and not even venture in Kitui town for five years.

"His certificate of discharge seen by the Nation reads the officer had resigned after serving the force for seven years, four months and 17 days, but Mr Mulang’a says the certificate was illegally issued to cover up his unlawful dismissal.

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“And to ensure I never pursued any legal redress over my unlawful sacking, Mr Hinga further ordered me never to set foot in Nairobi for five years

“I gave up on any hopes of ever getting justice, I couldn’t have appealed as the Attorney General then was Charles Njonjo, a man known to have political differences with Jaramogi, the man I was accused of supporting,” he said.

This is no doubt a pathetic tale; when did being faithful become a problem that could rob one of an everlasting key to happiness?

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