NASA leader Raila Odinga.[www.independent.ie]
In an era of widespread human rights abuse by the state of the day, Raila Odinga was placed under house arrest for seven months.
This is after evidence seemed to implicate him along with his late father Oginga Odinga for working closely with the plotters of a failed coup attempt against President Daniel Moi in 1982.
The attempted led to deaths of hundreds of Kenyan civilians and thousands of rebel soldiers.
A biography released 14 years later in July 2006 with Raila's approval, indicated that the NASA leader was far more involved in the attempted coup than he had previously admitted.
Among some of his most painful experiences was when his mother died in 1984 but the prison wardens took two months to inform him of her death.
Raila was released on 6 February 1988 only to be rearrested in September 1988 for his pro-democracy and human rights agitation.
This came at a time when the country continued to descend deeper into poor governance and the despotism of single-party rule multi-party democracy.
His encounters with the authoritarian government generated an aura of intrigue about him and it was probably due to this his political followers, christened him "Agwambo", Luo for "The Mystery" or "Unpredictable", or "Jakom", meaning Chairman.
Raila was released on 12 June 1989, only to be incarcerated again on 5 July 1990, together with Kenneth Matiba, and former Nairobi Mayor Charles Rubia who were multiparty system and human rights crusaders .
Raila was finally released on 21 June 1991, and in October, he fled the country to Norway amid indications that the increasingly corrupt Kenyan government was attempting to assassinate him without success .