Emerging details indicate that opposition leader Raila Odinga was a ‘hard-headed’ young man during his childhood days.
According to his elder brother Oburu Oginga who is two years older and with whom they studied at Maranda Primary School, Raila was a troublesome child.
On one occasion, he was repeatedly caned by a teacher for refusing to salute him after an initial caning, according to the law that dictated that one had to salute the teacher after being caned.
Raila had used a language the teacher did not like leading to the first dosage of the stick, and was again caned and in protest, he walked out on the teacher after the third caning.
The teacher retaliated by reporting him to his father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, an alumnus of the same institution.
‘’The teacher protested to my father and Raila was compelled to obey rules,’’ Oburu was quoted in a Daily Nation publication dated 29, October, 2006.
On several occasions, the two would sneak out of school to go listen to the afternoon news on a small transistor radio Jaramogi had bought them.
One day, Raila sneaked out alone leaving Oburu behind, and when the teacher noted and asked him, Oburu denied knowing his brother's whereabouts.
When Raila was asked the same question the next day, he admitted having escaped to listen to the radio and was thoroughly caned.
When the mischief went overboard, Oginga decided to separate the two by sending Oburu to Kisumu Union in 1955.
The two would only meet during holidays henceforth.
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