Raila Odinga's last walk: Bodyguard Maurice Ogeta recalls moment ex-PM collapsed in India

Maurice Ogeta remembers the walk, an ordinary stroll, nothing unusual about it, right up until the moment everything changed.

Ogeta, Raila Odinga's longtime aide, has opened up about the final moments he shared with his boss, walking just a metre behind him in India on the day the veteran opposition leader collapsed and later died, on October 15, 2025.

It started as nothing more than a quiet walk.

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

Something in Raila's pace changed. He slowed, then stopped altogether. Ogeta noticed immediately, close enough to catch the shift before anyone else could.

Then came a sound, one that made Ogeta's instincts kick in.

"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," Ogeta said.

No response. That silence, Ogeta says, was the first real sign that something was seriously wrong.

Raila's expression had shifted too. He appeared disoriented, his eyes drifting upward as though searching the sky for something.

Ogeta, still unsure exactly what was happening, offered to walk him to a nearby chair, hoping a moment's rest might reveal what was troubling him.

Before Ogeta could guide him there, Raila's body gave way entirely, his full weight collapsing against his longtime aide.

In that instant, Ogeta made the call that would set everything else in motion, summoning a nurse from the facility immediately, while an ambulance was urgently called to rush Raila to hospital.

Doctors and nurses worked quickly once he arrived, doing everything within their power to save him. Despite their efforts, Raila passed away shortly after.

Alongside his account of that final walk, Ogeta moved to correct the record on a video that has circulated widely online, one many assumed captured Raila's last moments before his death.

The clip, showing Raila dressed in hospital attire with Ogeta walking behind him, circulated widely as footage from his final day in India.

He clarified that someone recorded the viral video much earlier, in Dubai, following Raila's first surgery, not in India, and not near the time of his death.

For Ogeta, a man who had spent years standing close enough to shield Raila from bullets during Kenya's most dangerous protests, this was a different kind of helplessness altogether, one where loyalty and instinct could do everything except change the outcome.