Family squabbles are a common occurrence especially in the African setting but rarely do they lead to cold-blooded murder.
However, this is what happened at a party where Raila Odinga's grandfather, Justo Odima, ended up committing a crime that changed their lives forever
In his autobiography - The Flame of Freedom, the ODM party leader explains in detail how his grandfather ended up behind bars.
Justo was one of the most respected members of the community having been handed the chieftainship due to his lineage as well as Maseno School education.
His stature came hand in hand with wealth and success, with Raila revealing that he married four wives not knowing that one of them would one day lead to his downfall.
"One day, Justo and several others were at a home of a cousin (Benjamin Olwoko), when a drunken dispute arose between my grandfather and Ahomo (his clan brother)," Raila explains in the book.
According to the former Prime Minister, his grandfather was known to boast about his 4 wives, leading to the Ahomo's decision to dare Justo to hand one of the wives over to one of his brothers.
"This infuriated my grandfather and when Ahomo left the house, Justo followed him in a rage and stabbed in the stomach, causing a fatal injury,
There was no witness to the crime but my grandfather, overcome with remorse, presented himself to Chief Amoth Awira, the man who had replaced him and admitted the stabbing. He was arrested and charged with murder," reads an excerpt from the book.
Raila's grandfather was tried at His Majesty's Supreme Court of Kenya, where his lawyer (identified only as Mr. Archer) based his defence on the narrative that painted the incident as a case of extreme intoxication.
"The judge found, however, that Justo was not so heavily intoxicated, nor were his general drunken condition and consequent susceptibility to insult considered criteria. Justo was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment," Raila reveals in his autobiography.
Archer then took the case to the East African Court of Appeal, which was presided over by the Kenyan Chief Justice fo the time (1941), Sir Joseph Sheridan.
Once again Archer argued that drunkenness was a factor for consideration on the issue of provocation.
However, CJ Sheridan in his ruling dismissed this factor despite acknowledging that evidence showed that Justo had a good deal of drink on the day of the murder.
"Dismissing the appeal, Sheridan nevertheless directed the Kenya governor's attention to the fact that Justo had been a person in a position of authority and that he was the president of the native tribunal,
Justo was confined in Nairobi's Industrial Area prison, where spent a number of years," reads an excerpt from Raila's book.
In 1948, the third appeal was made and it proved to be a case of third time lucky as his initial conviction was commuted to one of manslaughter and he was ordered discharged and released.
