Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga and his father and founding Vice President Jaramogi Oginga have repeatedly been linked to the 1982 attempted coup on then President Daniel Moi's government.
This resulted in Oginga's house detention while Raila was arrested shortly after and held without trial, and though some think he was unfairly targeted, in his book "Flames of Freedom", he admits that he was indeed involved.
"We had been quietly engaged in operations designed to educate and mobilise the people in order to bring about the necessary and desired changes in our society — not through violence but through popular mass action. The full explanation of our efforts to bring about popular change will have to wait for another, freer, time in our country’s history," he says.
The arrest first landed Raila in the hands of Special Service officers, who were then known for their brutal treatment of suspects, with the plan being to force a confession from him.
Raila identifies Josiah Kipkurui Rono as the officer who led the way in torturing him, saying that his refusal to speak saw Rono break off the leg of a wooden table before hitting him repeatedly in the head.
“The blows to my head dazed me and I fell to the floor, and as I lay there, Rono and the others jumped on my chest and my genitals.Through the blinding pain, I heard them cock their guns, then Rono’s voice: I was either going to speak and tell the truth or I was dead meat. I waited for the end… But it did not come,” he says.
Raila says that he was later returned to the cells, where the torture continued, including being held in a water clogged room without any proper clothing.
When sleep attacked, he would attempt to sleep while standing and leaning on the wall, which too was futile thanks to the cold that was hitting him.
“That is when I learned how long the night is,” he says.
On refusing to speak, he was handed over to the General Service Unit (GSU) for further torture, under then Police Commissioner Ben Gethi who too attempted to force out a confession.
And though Raila agreed to write one, he implied a trick, where he implicated then Attorney General Charles Njonjo on the coup, basing on a rumour he had heard before.
He says that Gethi, a close ally of Njonjo, was angered and left him and went away, Raila speant nearly six years in prison in line with the charges.
Raila would again be held in 1989 and 1991 over his push for multiparty democracy, only shortly before winning his first elective seat, the Langata Parliamentary seat.