Humble but firm: Host Engstrom recalls Raila's life in exile in Norway

Military officers escort the casket bearing the body of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga to the graveside at his father's home Kang'o ka Jaramogu in Bondo, on October 19, 2025. [PCS]

Sometime in 1991, when Raila Odinga was forced into exile at the height of the struggle for multiparty democracy in Kenya, he found an unlikely sanctuary in the quiet, snow-covered suburbs of Norway.

So intense was the political turbulence then that when the Norwegian Embassy waded in following a dispute over the arrest of a political activist, a diplomatic spat ensued.