Former President and founding father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta enjoyed a good relationship with his Vice President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga from 1963 until 1966 when Oginga resigned.
As a result of the bitter fallout, the two immediately turned into the worst of enemies, and though Kenyatta was President, he would later learn the actual magnitude of their enmity on October 25, 1969.
On this day, Kenyatta visited the lakeside City of Kisumu which also doubled up as an opposition block and one of the strongholds of Oginga who had slipped into the opposition.
And when he landed in Kisumu for the official opening of the New Nyanza Provincial General Hospital (Russia), an event also set to be attended by Oginga who had sought funds for the construction, he was met by hostile protesters.
They chanted Oginga's Kenya People's Union (KPU) Dume! Dume! slogans, at the same time accusing Kenyatta of facilitating the assassination of another of the region's political don Tom Mboya earlier in July.
According to Mr Charles Mathenge, then a broadcaster with the Voice Of Kenya and who was to air the event live for other Kenyans across the nation, the situation worsened when the crowd pelted stones at Kenyatta.
In response, the presidential guard opened fire, leading to a stampede and confusion, with Kenyatta himself having to be saved from the flying missiles by one of his bodyguards, one Mr Gicheru who was a bouncer.
According to Mathenge, Gicheru literally hoisted the President on his shoulders and carried him feet off the ground to his presidential limousine parked some meters away.
“It was a terrible moment. I saw one of the presidential guards, Mr Gicheru, a hefty bouncer hoist President Kenyatta on his shoulders and dash with him feet off ground to the parked presidential limousine some distance away from the dais.
The security realised the President was in danger of being injured as missiles flew in the air directed to the dais," he is quoted by the Standard.
The President, however, refused to leave the place without accomplishing his mission, and was escorted by the military and police officers until he was out of Luo Nyanza after the commissioning.
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