Nation journalist in hospital after kidnap ordeal
A Nation journalist is nursing serious injuries in a Kisumu hospital after his narrow escape from kidnappers, in the latest attack targeting media workers in Kenya.
Mr Barrack Oduor, who covers the expansive Homa Bay County, escaped death on Monday by risking it all: Jumping out a moving vehicle at Nyangweso market on Homa Bay-Kisumu road.
Mr Oduor on Tuesday said he took the daring step on feeling that his fate had been sealed after the abductors bundled him into a car with tinted windows and drove off at a high speed.
MEET A NEWS SOURCE
Mr Oduor had gone to meet a story source in Migori before the plot thickened and turned into a life-saving performance mirroring scripts in action movies.
The source, identified as Michael Oyamo, works by day as Migori Governor Okoth Obado’s personal assistant.
He had arranged to meet Mr Oduor with details of an alleged scandal in the company of a woman, only identified as Sharon, also associated with the governor.
Mr Oduor says Mr Oyamo’s request was a “normal call-up” and that he never suspected anything sinister.
“The governor’s personal assistant had initially called the lady, Sharon, for us to meet for a tip-off in Rodi Kopany township (in Homa Bay) but changed the venue of the meeting to Rongo town in Migori County,” said Mr Oduor.
VENUE NOT CONDUCIVE
After waiting for Mr Oyamo for about one hour in a hotel, he appeared only to claim the venue of the meeting was not conducive.
He told Mr Oduor that a vehicle was waiting outside to take them to “favourable place” for the ‘bean-spilling meeting’.
The journalist and the woman got into the black vehicle that had a driver and a co-driver before the it sped off.
Minutes later, two tall, mean-looking men stopped the vehicle within the town before Mr Oyamo alighted and the driver sped off towards Homa Bay town.
“We were ordered to switch off our phones and hand them over to one of the men in the vehicle,” said Mr Oduor.