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The Forgotten But Juicier Side Of Jaramogi Odinga
#79 - 0--clubafrika--The Forgotten But Juicier Side Of Jaramogi Odinga--2006-03-05 01:43:25
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Jaramogi pictured (right) in his later years.
Any occasion to attend and listen to tales about the life and times of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga is always a cherished moment, more so if speakers include celebrated Luo scholars like Prof. Bethwell Ogot, Okoth Ogendo, story-teller Grace Ogot and his family members like Raila Odinga who knew him intimately.As a child, growing up in the '60s soon after independence, my great heroes of the time were Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Tom Mboya, Argwings Kodhek and many more of Luo legends of the time like Onyango Ayodo, Wasonga Sijeyo, Omollo Agar, Odero Jowi and Achieng Oneko. However when it came to our real idols, none of them could match Jaramogi and TJ Mboya.
I remember the heated debates we always had in our class as young debaters in Awasi Mission School and Kisumu Day that later included Odhiambo Lawi, Odhiambo Small, Otieno Washington, Otieno Flint, Ombwa Loadstone, Aketch Nyataya, Oyier Lumbwi, Obure Indosi, Odiero Omumbo, Obora Ja Kajulu, Achiando Koyote and Oluoch Mzee. - Young as we were, we were so passionate in articulating the virtues of our heroes that the class was always split into the Odinga and Mboya camps at break time with Odiero Omumbo, our young tycoon supplying us with such delicacies like mala, yogart, mandazis or queen cakes depending on his mood and pocket. In return, for the few of us that were more politically aware, it fell upon us to justify our consumption of Odiero's delicacies by delivering the most convincing reasons why Jaramogi was a better leader than Mboya or Jomo Kenyatta or vice versa.
But the more intriguing tales about Jaramogi, Mboya and Kenyatta, albeit, mythical tales about them, have never been recorded elsewhere in any folklore that I know of.
The name Jaramogi reminds me of my village childhood when we used to be told of strange and incomprehensible things he could do when cornered by his adversaries, the colonial Mzungu who had conspired to eliminate him. The story goes that as they sat in a Lancaster House waiting to start a meeting to negotiate Kenya's independence, the colonial masters who had gone to London with them conspired to poison Jaramogi, Mboya and Kenyatta. So, the story goes that as the delegates prepared to have tea break, specific white waiters had been detailed to lace their cups with poison so that after drinking their tea, they would eventually collapse in an hour or two to make their deaths look natural. The conspirators had arranged that there would be no investigation and no post mortems once these stubborn hard headed trouble makers were eliminated.
Somehow Jaramogi's sixth sense told him that something was a miss. So, at the appointed time, he told Kenyatta and Mboya that they should stick together during tea break as tea was served. As waiters approached them with cups, they switched their cups and handed them over to the white delegates standing next to them! On realising the reluctance of the white boys to drink from the same cups, Jaramogi asked them why they did not want to drink from the very cups. On sensing that their plot had been unearthed, they walked away in shame.
The other myth tells of an incident when the colonialists had tried everything possible to eliminate the three while in London and having failed, decided to charter an aircraft for them on their return home. The plan was to plant a bomb in the aircraft, equip the pilot with a parachute so that by the time he crossed the Mediterranean Sea, he would bolt from the aircraft and ignite the bomb so that the plane explodes in mid air so that their remains would not be found.
Again Jaramogi's sixth sense told him that something was wrong. He could not trust their lives to a single white man to fly them back to Kenya. He insisted that they must fly a commercial flight with many other passengers. On realising this, the conspirators planted poisoned needles underneath their seats so that as soon as they boarded the plane, the three victims would be pricked and slowly die in their seats.
As usual, Jaramogi suspected that there was something amiss. This time he convinced Kenyatta and Mboya that they should not use British planes at all but to take a Russian flight to Moscow first before flying back to Nairobi from Moscow! That is how they survived attempts on their lives until independence day.
Beyond the many myths about Double O, Jaramogi's real life situation was as dramatic as it possibly could be. He was controversial, stubborn and very decisive on key things that were dear to his life. He was the kind of person who either believed in you totally or not at all. More than that he was loyal to his faithful friends, their level of education or station in life not withstanding. Another thing, he was a very grassroots person who got involved in the lives of ordinary rural folk, spoke their language, and a master of idiomatic expressions and proverbs. He spoke his broken Kiswahili with the confidence of a truly liberated man He unabashedly spoke Luo-English in Parliament that always made the headlines in local newspapers. For example, to drive home the point that Kenya belonged to black Kenyans, he would tell white legislators in parliament to understand that "Kenya was marwa," meaning that Kenya was ours!
Three characters make me as a child, remember Jaramogi most vividly. In the campaign of 1963, two politicians from Nyando, for reasons we didn't understand, were against Jaramogi's politics. They were the late Nyamolo Okal of present day Nyakach constituency and Mariwa Gek of present day Nyando Constituency. I remember that in the first multiparty elections, Mariwa Gek and Nyamolo Okal campaigned as independent candidates because they were not Jaramogi supporters and neither did they belong to KANU or KADU, the two parties that dominated the politics of the time.
Nyamolo Okal was vying for a seat in parliament while Mariwa Gek was gunning for the same as independents. Meanwhile Henry Agimba was running as an independent for the regional Assembly against another Odinga supporter, Ondiek Chilo. Meanwhile Oruko MakAsembo from West Kano was running for the Senate seat under Jaramogi Odinga's KANU.
In this battle of the giants, Okuto Bala was Jaramogi's point man as the parliamentary candidate for Nyando Constituency. However, there was another Odinga sidekick called Ombok Thim, commonly called Ombok the forest that scared the white men just as Mariwa Gek was Mariwa the hi-cup that continued to irritated white men!
In those days, like now, nick names were very popular with Luo leaders to the extent that such leaders also adopted them permanently. Even Jaramogi was also fondly referred to as "Wuod Alogo A lot Kibul" - meaning son of Alogo, the green vegetable that cannot be roasted on fire!
As the campaign heated for the first elections, popular folklore was spreading like wild fire in Luoland about Jaramogi Oginga Odinga's magical powers. Some likened him to Gor Mahia Makogalo while others thought his powers were beyond magic and human understanding. This mystery around him was strengthened by his unorthodox way of dressing; akala shoes, Luo traditional skin cloth, some times Chinese attire, his beaded headgear and fly whisk. To cap the mystery, he was rumoured to have been born with one arm shorter than the other, a sure proof that the man was no ordinary creature.
One day, Jaramogi went to address a rally in Nyakach, the home turf of his rival Nyamolo Okal to drum up support for KANU and his candidates Okuto Bala and Ondiek Chilo. As the crowd gathered to listen to Jaramogi, little did he know that Nyamolo Okal had arranged for youths to disrupt the rally! The thing happened so fast that Jaramogi did not know what to do! As people ran helter-skelter in all directions, Jaramogi found himself in a millet plantation, surrounded by his supporters. When he finally emerged, he is said to have warned Nyamolo that he would never see the inside of parliament as long as Jaramogi was still alive,
punishment for unleashing violence on his rally.
Folklore insists that he pointed in the direction of Nyamolo with his left hand, the shorter one, to seal Nyamolo's political fate. True to the myth, Nyamolo died twenty years later without winning a seat in parliament despite many attempts, even after Jaramogi was out of government!
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