Siaya Senator James Orengo is well known for his fight against unjust rule, having spent several years in detention as a result.
However, not many people know of a time when he almost joined the countless statistics of Kenyans who have disappeared mysteriously, after a run-in with the police.
Expected to rise on a point of order over a sensitive matter during a parliamentary session, the senator claimed that attempts were made on his life.
His alleged line of attack was to emasculate Parliament, with a motion on the floor of the House on Budget Day 1998, targeting the government.
The firebrand lawyer told KTN News that his plan was leaked and that he was soon faced with 10 mean-looking officers -believed to be from the Recce company.
“From the corridor that leads out to the car park that is adjacent to Uhuru Highway, people came about ten of them, heavily built. And I was told they were from the Recce section from Ruiru. As I was coming out of the chambers, there they were, and they were coming after me and nobody was stopping them,
“When I looked around I said this is not something ordinary - these guys are after my life. So I literally started running and they kept on coming. And what saved me was [Joseph] Mathenge who works with the Daily Nation, a cameraman," the senator narrated.
He went on to explain that the Daily Nation journalist was expecting him to table his controversial motion in parliament and that his delay was what forced Mathenge to step out and look for him.
“When he came up from the steps of the first floor he had a very good view of what is happening and he took a picture as I was running in the corridor of Parliament with these huge guys who were coming after me in a formation.
"I forever said that Mathenge saved my life," Orengo stated.
Over the years, Orengo has been tear-gassed and clobbered senseless in pro-people street riots.
He has collected so many scars on his body, including a disfigured ring finger.
As for his controversial motion, he lost and was duly expelled from the chamber for being grossly disorderly.
Orengo was elected as an MP for Ugenya Constituency as a Kanu candidate in a by-election in 1980, becoming the youngest MP at the age of 29.
