By Anderson Ojwang
In one of the blood-chilling narrations of how Suba South MP Millie Odhiambo and her six entourage escaped an alleged attempted assassination in Lake Victoria, residents were moved to tears and consternation.
The chilling narration of how the events unfolded and the six hours, dreary and scary, deep in Lake Victoria left the seven crew in harrowing shock while mentioning their last prayer before a possible last call by death.
Millie said she and her six members of her entourage survived a possible alleged attempted assassination deep inside Lake Victoria.
Millie said the speedboat she and her entourage were using to return home after a funds drive on one of the islands in Lake Victoria had its engine explode into flames deep inside the lake.
At the funds drive, Millie had a bitter confrontation with a local political leader from Homa Bay County and chased away the youths who had been brought to boo her at the function.
“After the funds drive, we left to return to my home in Mbita but deep inside the lake, far away from dry land from both ends, we just heard an explosion inside the boat. We were seven people aboard,” she said.
Salt as an explosive
Millie said she was later told that the explosion could have been as a result of someone having added salt inside the engine before they took off.
“I was told someone could have added salt into the engine. Salt is known to trigger explosion in the engine. Those who know about it say once the salt is added, after 30 minutes of sailing, the engine will explode.
My people, what I saw and why one of us, Pauline, continued to cry, I knew I was dead,” she said.
Millie said the situation could have been worse because inside the boat they had carried 40 litres of petrol.
“We knew that if the fire had moved to the petrol and we would be dead within five minutes. It was a horrifying experience,” she said.
Millie said she contemplated diving into the lake until she was pulled back by one of her team members.
“I went and stood by one side of the boat at the corner to jump inside the lake, but this lady wearing white, Joan, came and told me she found me praying. She found me almost jumping inside the lake but pulled me back.
She told me, Mweshimiwa, kindly walk away from there, come this side,” she explained.
Millie said to cheat death, they looked for a mechanism to stop the fire and eventually succeeded.
“One of us said that we should pour water on the fire but I stopped them. We checked if there was anyone of us with a blanket or heavy jacket but none. The coxswain had a towel. For the first time he tried, the flame became bigger but when he covered the engine with the towel, the flame gradually died out,” she explained.
Rescue
Millie said she made a telephone call for a rescue team but that was not possible because they could not give definite directions.
“We did not know what happened. I made a telephone call to Ochieng Kenya, I hope you know him. Told him of our tribulation. He asked whether they could send another rescue boat.
He asked me where we were but I told him, in the lake there is no stage,” she said.
Millie said the team prayed and embarked on a slow-paced sail to the nearest dry land along the lake.
“We prayed and I told them, let us just sail. The first place we will see dry land, that is where we will dock. It took us between 2–3 hours sailing slowly and by God’s miracle the first place we arrived was where I am building my new home.
The first dry land, Ukowe, is my home, where I am currently building. From there, we knew the way back home and arrived back at our destination at 11.00pm,” she said.
Don’t kill for power
Millie told fellow politicians that it was needless to kill a colleague over political differences.
“To my political opponent, politics is not a matter of life and death that you want to kill someone’s child.
I appeal to my political opponents, allow me to become the first woman president in 2032,” she said.
