Raila Odinga's bodyguard Maurice Ogeta recounts using his body to shield him from police bullets

Maurice Ogeta has spent years standing just behind Raila Odinga, close enough to catch a bullet meant for someone else.

One day in 2023, that's almost exactly what happened.

Ogeta, Raila's longtime aide, has opened up about the terrifying day police fired 11 bullets into his boss's car during the anti-government protests known as "Maandamano Tuesdays".

The loyal security detail describes it as the closest brush with death he's ever experienced.

"At that point, it registered, and my blood registered that, okay, we are dying anyway. So, mine was to wait and see how we were going to die. I knew very well that it would be the gunshots that would kill us," Ogeta recalled.

The protests, popularly known as maandamano, organised by the Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya coalition, pulled thousands onto Nairobi's streets twice a week, fuelled by anger over the rising cost of living and frustration with the newly elected Kenya Kwanza government.

But it was one particular demonstration that nearly ended in tragedy.

Raila's convoy found itself trapped in Pipeline, Embakasi, boxed in with nowhere to go.

Behind them, police closed in. Around them, teargas filled the air while goons hurled stones at the vehicles. There was no way forward and no way back.

Then the shooting started.

"In no time, the officers had advanced. They were on our car. We couldn't turn because there were so many vehicles behind us. And, as you probably remember from a moment captured on video that went viral, an officer came to the windscreen of my boss's car. That windscreen was hit so many times that it eventually gave in and cracked. After it cracked, so many shots were fired at that car," Ogeta said.

Inside, there was no time to think, only to act. Ogeta and his team grabbed Raila and pushed him down to the floor of the vehicle, piling their own bodies on top of his, turning themselves into a human shield against the bullets tearing through the car.

"We tried using anything that we could find in that car to cover him up down there... It was now a matter of ensuring that we died first and let them get to Raila last," Ogeta said, his voice heavy with the memory.

At one point, the chaos grew so intense that a fellow officer, convinced the worst had happened, radioed through that Raila had been killed.

"It got to a point when the shots were too much, and I heard one of our officers, who was in charge of security in the front car, say over the walkie-talkie that they had killed Mzee. I, however, radioed back and told them to remain calm because Mzee was not dead. It was such a serious situation because, with the number of officers who came to our car, it was a miracle that we were able to come out of that place alive," Ogeta said.

Looking back, he still struggles to explain how they survived.

"I can only thank God because there is no magic that we performed. As a person, there was nothing I could have done. I was waiting for my turn to die," he said.

When the convoy finally broke free and came to a stop, the damage became clear. Raila's car bore 11 bullet holes, most concentrated exactly where a VIP passenger would normally be seated.

“But we thank God that either we controlled ourselves or God controlled us, and we left that place. At the same time, I thank our security team that used to protect Mheshimiwa Raila because it was not easy. It was not easy throughout," Ogeta said.

The danger didn't end there. In a separate, unsettling turn of events, unknown individuals abducted Ogeta shortly after the shooting incident.

"At some point, I thought it was a case of mistaken identity or confusion because the questions I was being asked were about things that did not concern me at all. But, at the same time, during these demonstrations, I must admit that we made a big blunder. One of my boss's friends got into our car because, most of the time when these things were happening, it was Raila's car that everyone ran to, assuming it was the safest because of how we conducted our operations," he revealed.

What happened next left him baffled. That friend, it turned out, had been filming inside the vehicle the entire time the shooting unfolded.

"So, of course, we had Mzee's friend in our car, and I am still struggling to understand why... I don't know whether it was excitement or whether it was intentional, but he was recording us as we went through all this, filming inside the car. Believe it or not, I received a call from somebody in the US and then another from South Africa, warning me and telling me there was something, somebody, to just check, there was somebody in that car," he added.

The warnings kept coming, each one more urgent than the last.

"Little did I know that so many people had tried calling me. By the time I picked up, I saw the message, and they even sent the clips back to me. When I checked, I saw Professor Makau Mutua in our car, busy filming. I don't know whether it was excitement, and I am even wondering what excitement we could have felt in such a situation," Ogeta said.

Days later, as Raila and other political figures prepared for another round of demonstrations, his abductors, who, he says, already seemed to know everything about him and his movements, snatched him.

Ogeta, long seen by those around him as fiercely loyal to "Baba," also shared the deeply personal story of being present during Raila's final moments in India, where the veteran opposition leader passed away on October 15, 2025.

He recalled an ordinary walk that suddenly turned into something far more serious. Walking just a metre behind Raila, Ogeta noticed his boss beginning to struggle.

"I think he went only a quarter of the way, walking slowly. Then he stopped. Remember, I was just a metre away," Ogeta said.

When Raila made a sound of discomfort, Ogeta immediately asked what was wrong.

"When he made that kind of noise, I asked him again, 'Is there a problem? Is it the back that is now a problem or the leg? Is the pain too much?' Because I knew he had those problems. But he did not respond," he recalled.

Something felt off. Raila seemed disoriented, his gaze drifting upward toward the sky. Ogeta offered to help him to a nearby chair, hoping to figure out what was happening.

Before he could, Raila's full weight fell against him. Ogeta immediately called for a nurse and an ambulance was summoned to rush him to hospital.

Despite the swift response and the best efforts of the medical team, Raila passed away shortly after arriving at the hospital.