In his new memoirs 'Soaring Above The Heights of Passion' Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi reveals that he was among the victims of the 1982 failed coup.
The coup was plotted by rogue Kenya Airforce officers under the leadership of Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka, against then-president Daniel Moi's leadership, but was defeated hours later.
Mudavadi paints an image of a victim of what he didn't know, revealing that he was arrested and transferred across several police stations over claims that he was a participant in the coup.
Then a student at the University of Nairobi, he says that he became curious after hearing gunshots at night. The next day, he decided to go to the streets to assess the situation.
He says that after seeing the situation in the city, after "gathering courage", he decided to seek refuge at his uncle's house in Nairobi West, which he ruled out for safety purposes.
He instead sought refuge at his friend's home in Upper Hill, but state officers who spotted him in the streets would later track him to his father's home in Mululu, Sabatia, where he was arrested.
"Unbeknown to me, this (city) street presence would come to haunt me. One afternoon, a white Land Rover materialised at our home (in) Mululu…” says the leader, who would years later represent the constituency in parliament.
After drinking his mother's tea, he says, the officers took him to Chavakali Market to pick three other students, and later Kakamega Police Station and then Webuye.
Three days later, he says that he was taken to Turkoman Carpet in Nairobi. His next stop was the Administration Police Training School in Embakasi, after which he was released.
Years later, 37 to be precise, he is yet to understand why he was nabbed for allegedly planning to topple a government where his father Moses Mudavadi, who was at the time away in Mexico, was a Cabinet Minister.
Mudavadi would later serve as the Vice President and Minister of Finance in the very same government.