Checkout When Raila Odinga Drove Ambulance Carrying the late President Kibaki

On Tuesday, December 3, 2002, just 24 days before Kenya’s historic general election, presidential candidate Mwai Kibaki suffered a life-threatening road accident on the Nairobi–Mombasa highway near Machakos Junction.

Kibaki’s Range Rover registration KAH 016G swerved to avoid three pedestrians, collided with a matatu, rolled three times and landed in a ditch.

Two people in the matatu died instantly; Kibaki broke his leg, ribs and ankle, and suffered internal injuries.

The late Raila Odinga, campaigning in the same NARC convoy his car was third in line), rushed to the wreck.

Fearing sabotage by the outgoing Moi KANU regime, Raila refused to trust the first ambulance driver.

He personally took the wheel and sped the 60 km from Machakos to Nairobi Hospital with Kibaki on the stretcher in the back.

Following the traffic incident, Kibaki supporter Raila Odinga apparently did not trust the ambulance driver who arrived on the scene and took control of the vehicle himself.

In a previous interview, political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi stated that Raila was the one who drove the ambulance from Machakos to the hospital in Nairobi.

Mwai Kibak and Raila Odinga (prime minister 2008–2013, opposition icon) never started as “friends,” but their stormy 20-year partnership became one of Kenya’s most consequential political friendships one that twice saved the nation from collapse and left three lasting gifts: