A man identified as Simon Mwangi Muthioria has hailed the late Raila Odinga for how he cared for freedom fighter Peter Kihara Young, his grandfather, and even built him a house. In a heartfelt Facebook post, Simon said that when they laid their patriarch to rest, they did not just bury a man — they laid to rest a chapter of Kenya’s unbroken struggle for justice, dignity, and freedom. “I remember vividly how the R. Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga, then Prime Minister, visited our home in Matuguta, Githunguri — three times. The day he learned of Guka’s passing, during the memorial service, and again on the burial day. He came not out of politics, but out of brotherhood forged in fire,” he said. Apparently, Raila and Peter Young shared an indelible bond as they had both been prisoners of conscience, detained for years under successive regimes — men who had dared to imagine a freer Kenya when imagination itself was treason.
According to Simon, Peter was a bridge between generations of resistance and was first arrested in 1954, barely nineteen, for joining the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (Mau Mau). According to Simon, Peter was a bridge between generations of resistance and was first arrested in 1954, barely nineteen, for joining the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (Mau Mau). After independence, he was detained again in 1969 under the Kenyatta regime, tortured, and buried neck-deep alive by Special Branch officers — yet he never recanted his beliefs. “In the dark days of the Moi dictatorship, his home in Githunguri became a sanctuary for hunted men. I remember tales whispered at night — of Raila Odinga, Kenneth Matiba, and Charles Rubia hiding in our village as the state unleashed its wrath on dissenters,” he said.
“Guka would move them quietly under the cover of darkness, feeding them, protecting them, believing that freedom was a duty, not a privilege,” he added. At one point, President Jomo Kenyatta offered to make him a Provincial Commissioner, to buy his loyalty and isolate him from Raila Odinga but he refused. It emerged that he even turned down a parcel of land in the Rift Valley — land that today would be worth billions. “For him, principle was priceless. In 1986, he was again taken from his home, locked up at Nyayo House, tortured, and detained for four years under accusations of sedition and membership in the underground Mwakenya movement,” said Simon. “Yet through all this, Peter never lost his humanity. He lived humbly, without bitterness, with a quiet pride only known to those who have seen both the dungeon and the dawn,” he added. Politician Mumbi Ngaru, Pter Young Kihara and The late Raila Odinga. Source: Facebook Why did Raila build Peter Young’s house? Apparently, Raila is not among people who forget after someone has helped them, and years later he honoured Guka’s loyalty by taking care of him in sickness and building him a dignified home — a gesture that spoke louder than politics ever could.
“That is why our family can never hate Raila Odinga. For us, he is not just a politician; he is part of our family’s story — bound to us by blood, by history, and by sacrifice,” he said. “He belongs to that rare generation of Kenyans who gave their youth, their comfort, and their peace so that others could inherit freedom. Men who chose principle over position. In the final account of this nation’s conscience, Peter Kihara Young will not be remembered for what he owned, but for what he refused to sell. #HappyMashujaaDay,” he added. Man leaves wife in morgue to bury Raila In a previous story, Japheth Muriuki, who impressed the country 11 years ago with the ‘Baba while you were away’ slogan left his wife in the mortuary to go and bury Raila. Raila was returning to Kenya after a three-month sabbatical in the USA to a thunderous welcome from his supporters. Muriuki shared that he had lost his wife on the same day Raila died, and when he was going to bury him.
By Susan Mwenesi
