Raila speaks on daughter Rosemary's 5-country journey to recovery

Raila said his week-long visit to India was to check on his daughter's progress, describing her journey as one of faith and resilience, in an interview with Asian News International (ANI).

The former premier stated that his daughter had traveled to about five countries around the world as the family worked to help her recover her eyesight, which she had lost in 2019.

“My daughter got sick three years ago. She had a brain hemorrhage. She was operated on in Nairobi and in the process, they interfered with her optic nerve,” Odinga told the ANC press.

He stated that they had sought specialized treatment in South Africa, Israel, China, and Germany before being referred to India as their last resort.

“We transferred her to South Africa and was treated for three months but she, unfortunately, was not able to recover her eyesight. We sent her to Israel but again they did not do much," Odinga stated.

"We sent her to China and they did another surgery on her but it did not help her regain her eyesight."

He described how they were on the verge of calling it quits after one more unsuccessful tour to Europe, during which she underwent surgery in Germany but did not recover.

“We then sent her to Germany where they were doing some kind of electrode treatment where they were helping her regain her sight. That was not successful and everybody was now giving up,” Raila explained.

Odinga recalled how, just as the family was about to give up hope, they were referred to the Indian institution where her healing process would begin.

“We sent her to Kerala here in Kochi in 2019 September and she stayed there for three weeks in which they treated her. They discharged her and said she should stay for continued medication where they admitted eye drops and massaging for three months after which further tests would be conducted," Raila stated.

Odinga stated there is  noticeable improvements as compared to previous surgeries.

"After the three months in December that year, they called me and told me to take her to a test in Nairobi and I took her to a specialist who conducted the tests and said there was a substantial improvement in her eyes," he said.

"He prescribed some glasses and said that she could see. When we ordered the glasses, she could see and called me in amazement."

"This is really a big surprise to me and my family that my daughter was able to regain her sight again," Odinga said, expressing his gratitude. She was supposed to return for a review in early 2020, but COVID broke out, and she has been waiting for the last two years until we were finally able to come last Monday."

Odinga is expected to jet back into the country today to continue with his Azimio la Umoja rallies ahead of the August polls.