The village TERRORISTS in Obama’s backyard

Alego’s many highly educated sons fear going home, writes GEORGE OLWALO

Across the globe, the people of Alego are a highly esteemed lot. This is because the son of their son occupies the most powerful office in the world.

What’s more, their grandson, Barrack Obama, has proved that he is a no nonsense man by neutralising America’s chief enemy, Al Qaeda mastermind, Osama bin Laden.

But while the son of Alego Kogello continues to enjoy the limelight in his vanguard role in fighting global terrorism, it may shock him that a silent terror has been tormenting his father’s clan for years. More intriguing is that it is executed by the sorts of terrorists that neither his Secret Service nor the highly rated Navy Seals can vanquish.

So widespread is the belief in black magic in Alego that it has often called Alego tat yien — Alego, the hotbed of black magic.

In Nyanza, it is uncontested that the people of Alego are highly educated. Many of them hold prestigious positions in both public and corporate worlds, but paradoxically, due to the threat of these ‘terrorists’, many villages in Alego are deserted and pathetically under-developed. It is only the riffraff who opt to stay. The successful leave for the cities and only return to be buried.

A Nairobi based public servant who only gave his name as Patrick says he has a colleague who hails from Alego, but ever since the man got a job in Nairobi, he has never bothered to return.

"It has been two decades, but he never gets homesick. He takes annual leave to visit his people back home, but the truth is he never leaves the borders of the city. He dreads visiting his people back in Alego for fear of village witches who are averse to successful individuals," Patrick says.

Patrick’s friend is not an isolated case. Joseph, an accountant based in Mombasa, says he once worked under a boss who hailed from Alego but had cut all ties with his rural folk.

Makeshift house

"He came to Mombasa as a young man. Later, he married a work mate. But much as she insisted that he takes her home to his parents, he firmly refused," recalls Joseph.

Unfortunately the man passed on before she could visit or get to know her in-laws. Her husband was also not a member of any of those numerous clan groups that cater for the funeral expenses when one of their own dies.

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