Kenyan authorities release opposition leader Raila Odinga’s bodyguard

July 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Maurice Ogeta, the bodyguard of the Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, has been released this past dawn after several days in detention amid the latest protests against the government.

Ogeta’s release has been confirmed by Philip Etale, the head of communication for the Orange Democratic Movement, the party led by Odinga and heads the great opposition coalition Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya.

On his Twitter account, Etale explained that Ogeta “has been released from police custody a few minutes before 01:00 this Saturday, driven blindfolded and abandoned in the middle of the road in Ruai towards Kangundo”, referring to two neighborhoods in the capital, Nairobi.

“His car has been totaled. He is happy to be alive, but he is still distraught and in shock,” Etale added.

According to the Kenyan newspaper ‘The Star’, Ogeta was approached by the Police last Wednesday when he was going to work. Odinga’s party denounces that the opposition leader’s bodyguard was forced into the trunk of his own vehicle.

Nearly thirty people have died in the context of the latest demonstrations against the government of Kenyan President William Ruto, who defeated Odinga in the disputed elections last year. The protests in recent days called by the opposition leader have shaken the capital, Nairobi, and other cities in the country, amid harsh repression by Kenyan security forces.

The African country’s Human Rights Commission has issued a joint statement with several NGOs this Friday denouncing the “clear intentions” of the security forces in killing those who go out to protest. “Some agents pose as journalists to arrest and execute protesters,” he warned.

Odinga, who was prime minister between 2008 and 2013 and who rejected Ruto’s victory in the August 2022 elections – which he ran with the support of the outgoing president, Uhuru Kenyatta -, made an appeal at the end of June to a campaign of civil disobedience against the increase in fuel taxes.