Opiata’s contribution to entrenching reforms has left Kenya a better place

Fare thee well, Comrade Odindo Opiata. Last week, you left us — forever. But you will never be forgotten — not by me, nor those who fight for change. Nor by your enemies. That’s because you’ve left an indelible mark on Kenya. Your legacy will live on beyond the tears that your family— both natural and political — shed for you. But alas, you’ve left us too soon.

Methinks the Kenyan state prematurely killed you, but I will hold that for another day. Today, I just want to indulge in a requiem – for you. I want to tell Kenya, and the world, who Odindo Opiata was. Yours was the undeniable voice of the voiceless — those who can’t speak for themselves.

Today, I just want to bear witness. We first met at the Law School at the University of Nairobi in 1979. We quickly bonded out of a shared commitment to the culture of anti-authoritarianism. Kenya was then a closed society.

It was a de facto one-party state, and Kanu bestrode the land like a colossus. No one but the Government and its sycophants could speak. Only we — the students at the University of Nairobi — could raise our voices against the state.

And we did, even though the state had banned the student government. But we banded together and formed the Interim Committee, a new and popular student government without the sanction of the State, or the university.

The purpose of the Interim Committee was to fight for the welfare of students and to challenge the autocratic Kanu state. Our mission was to decongest state power and introduce democracy. We wanted Kanu to allow multi-partyism, press freedom, and the freedoms of assembly and association. We wanted the State to end human rights violations and detention without trial.

But we also demanded that Kanu allow Opposition doyen Oginga Odinga and his fellow refuseniks the right to stand for elections. Matters came to a head in May 1981 when we organised massive demonstrations in Nairobi to press these demands. Mr Opiata and I — two of the senior leaders of the Interim Committee — were arrested and held without trial.

Mr Opiata and I were held incommunicado for over a week and subjected to harsh interrogations. The Special Branch sought to know whether respected law academic Willy Mutunga had taught us Marxism. The spooks wondered how much money the Embassy of the Soviet Union had given us to bribe students to demonstrate against Kanu. The truth was that none of us even knew the address of the Soviet Embassy.

I refused to eat and threatened a prolonged hunger strike ala Bobby Sands of the Irish Republican Army. We were released, but fled into exile ahead of security agents who sought to re-arrest us. I crossed the closed Kenya-Tanzania border — along the Masai Mara — on foot with only a backpack.

Mr Opiata and the other student leaders soon followed. They included Mwingi North MP John Munuve, one-time Webuye MP Saulo Busolo Wanambisi alias Salim, the late Mathenge Karundi alias Aziz, the late Dickson Miriti, Shadrack Mwariga, George Rubik, and several others. I believe 13 of us went into exile in Dar-es-Salaam. Senator James Orengo and the late Chelegat Mutai were in exile with us in Dar.

In 1982, we were joined by coup leader Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka alias Awuor and his comrades. This much is historic — we were the first Kenyan refugees in Tanzania. In 1983, some of the exiles, including Private Ochuka and Mr Orengo, were abducted by Tanzanian forces and forcibly returned to Kenya.

Mr Opiata, myself, and other student exiles evaded the dragnet that night and survived the capture and illegal repatriation to Kenya. Soon afterwards the late Robert Ouko — then foreign minister — came to Dar and met privately with some of the student exiles.

 I didn’t meet with him, and can’t recall whether Mr Opiata did. But I was told that he had “invited” us back to Kenya with assurances of our safety from arrest. I told Mr Opiata that Dr Ouko couldn’t be trusted, much less guarantee our safety.

Mr Opiata was understandably eager to return home, and took Dr Ouko’s “offer.” Disaster immediately struck. Opiata was arrested and jailed on a fake confession on trumped-up Mwakenya charges.

Mr Opiata served four years in prison and was severely tortured. But he rose up again and did great work in civil society before founding Hakijamii, the human rights group. Our mentors — CJ Mutunga, Dr Oki Ooko-Ombaka, Prof Shadrack Gutto, and Prof Kivutha Kibwana — were proud of Mr Opiata’s commitment to “people power.”

Mr Opiata is one of the unsung fathers of the 2010 Constitution. Although distance and circumstance kept us largely apart after Dar, I will deeply miss my comrade and brother and keep vigil over his noble work.