This archive report was first published on 27 October 2019.
It's been over five decades since Kenya's political temperatures were at an all-time high. In October 1969, President Jomo Kenyatta visited Kisumu Town to open the Nyanza General Hospital, now known as the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Referral Hospital. The event was expected to be a grand affair, but it turned violent as opposition leader Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and his supporters clashed with the President's security detail.
According to Geoffrey Kareithi, the head of the civil service at the time, President Kenyatta was advised not to attend the event due to security concerns. However, the President was determined to go ahead with the visit, saying, 'Why tell me not to go to Kisumu, is Kisumu not part of Kenya? And I am the President of Kenya!'
As the presidential motorcade entered Kisumu, it was met with boos and stones from the crowd. The presidential guards responded with gunfire, and the situation quickly escalated. Opposition leader Jaramogi Odinga moved forward to face the President, and the two engaged in a heated exchange.
President Kenyatta accused Odinga of being responsible for the violence and warned him to warn his followers to behave. Odinga, however, refused to back down, telling the President to detain him at Manyani if he wanted to. The exchange ended with the crowd booing the President, who responded by shouting back at them and threatening to beat them up himself.
