At home with Jaramogi

By Joe OmbuorAs the first Luo Ker in 400 years and Kenya’s first Vice President, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga will forever be remembered as the nation’s father of opposition politics. In death, Jaramogi and his first wife Mary (Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s mother) remain ‘alive’ in the rich heritage they left behind at the Kang’o ka Jaramogi home where both are buried. Kang’o ka Jaramogi, the Odinga home located about 15 kilometres from Bondo Township, is today a showcase in environmental conservation with various tree species and birds giving it the look of an arboretum. It is a study in the preservation of antics even as the museum ensures Jaramogi’s immense legacy does not wilt.Traditional grinding stone (pong).His mausoleum, a beautiful piece or architecture, peeps from a heavy crowd of trees watched over by singing, whistling, cooing and crowing birds of all colours and sizes. The compound stands proud with its labelled trees and well-paved thoroughfares, which are fascinating to the beholder.It is inside the Jaramogi house, which is in front of the mausoleum, that true genius on the part of the family manifests. Here, in a memorial museum, is palpable proof that Jaramogi lived an open and public life. Visitors have access to all corners of the house.In what was his bedroom, a simple wooden bed stands. This is where Jaramogi slept. The bed is neatly spread as though awaiting his arrival, complete with the pyjamas in which he was arrested in at the peak of multiparty activism in 1991. On the floor below his bed are sleepers and sandals.In the kitchen is an ordinary kerosene stove that was used by Mama Mary in the 1950s to cook for her family and the traditional tools she used to serve him.Everything about Jaramogi’s life is on display, from the clothes he wore, the chairs he sat on, his walking sticks, his thick rimmed thick-lens spectacles, the briefcase he carried to the Lancaster House Conference to the box that kept his clothes. The house is a museum indeed!Odinga’s first house built in 1950.To brush his teeth, Jaramogi preferred supple twigs from local trees known as roko, which are said to have medicinal ingredients suitable for healthy gum and strong teeth. He carried his roko tooth brushes everywhere he went and are a major attraction in his bathroom.To clean his ears of wax, Jaramogi preferred using kondo gweno (chicken feathers). These, too, are displayed in his bathroom.In the sitting room is a pong, a traditional grinding stone complete with its nyapong (grinder) and nyatieng (a hard round stone used to roughen the surface of the grinding stone or quern). According to our guide, Mary and her co-wives manually ground millet and sorghum flour on the pong to prepare nyuk kal (millet porridge) and kuon bel (ugali from sorghum flour) for Jaramogi who relished traditional foods to his very end.Leather boxNext to the quern are ywech (traditional brooms made from dry grass). The traditional dirt tray (odheru) and the sieve Mary used are all on a hide mat on the floor.Nearby is an ajua table for the game he cherished when not boggled down with political matters. The traditional stools (kom nyaluo) that he sat on with his bosom friends are also on display. Women and children were not allowed to sit on kom nyaluos. Entrance to the Jaramogi Mausoleum. Photos: Ngugi Mbugua/StandardAnother table holds a medley of displays featuring items that Mary used to serve her husband — from the decorated calabash used to serve his porridge (agwata wal), to the cooking stick (oludh kuon) and the various pots that cooked Jaramogi’s food, including ohigla, a wide mouthed pot meant for fish only, and dakuon, a larger and deeper pot with a wide bottom ideal for cooking ugali. Sitting close by is the traditional water fetching pot (dapi) and a round contraption for balancing the pot on the head of the carrier (thach). Other items on the table include the cup in which Mary served tea or coffee for Jaramogi, a conventional frying pan and a clay tray. On the floor is the leather box that Mary used for her clothes.Jaramogi fought hard for the release of Mzee Jomo Kenyattta from detention and his ‘no Kenyatta, no Uhuru’ slogan is printed on his favourite pre-Uhuru overcoat, which also bears the words ‘Uhuru na Jomo’. It takes pride of place on the sitting room wall.Next to the overcoat is the ceremonial fibre hat (ogudu) with the national red, white and black colours he wore during important functions. A photograph on the wall shows Jaramogi wearing the hat as he was sworn in on December 12, 1964 as the first MP for Bondo by the then Speaker Sir Humphrey Slade. He donated a similar hat to Jomo Kenyatta on his release from detention. The two often appeared in public donning the matching hats.Jaramogi chose to name his home Kang’o, which is the name given to a hard wood tree that once dominated the area but has since disappeared. The ceremonial hat (ogudu)"There was a particularly huge Kang’o Kang’o tree at the gate to Jaramogi’s home," reveals Monica Swere, his surviving younger sister.She says the trees are now near extinction, thanks to aggravated logging of the tree, which many people considered ideal for construction as neither water nor white ants can destroy it.Life-sized lionThe sprawling driveway in the homestead is tarmacked and lined with exotic and indigenous trees. Dry leaves and flowers fleck the tarmac, giving it an aesthetic appeal. A life sized lion, its eyes red and menacing, sits like an obedient sentinel commanding the entrance to the home. In his hey days, Jaramogi was proclaimed a sibuor (lion) by his adoring followers. On one side of the lion’s curving at the entrance is Raila Odinga’s simba (a young man’s first house). On the other side is Dr Oburu’s simba.Houses in the homestead are arranged according to traditional dictates. As the first wife, Mary’s home (od mikayi), also a museum, has its door facing the gate, indicative of her seniority. Oburu’s simba lies on the right hand side from his mother’s door, which demonstrates his position as Jaramogi’s first-born son. Raila’s simba is on the left. Jaramogi’s bedMary’s first house, which was built in 1950, flanks the museum. This is where the couple lived when Jaramogi was Vice President. His other two wives have their houses to the right and left of Mary’s house respectively. A recent structure to house a Luo hero’s gallery has been put up. It has a revolving top and is an architectural showcase.Over 15 different tree species, indigenous and exotic, are planted on the compound and labelled with their botanical names in local dialects for easy identification.The ornate, red tiled Jaramogi Mausoleum stands at the centre of the compound. Together with the museum, it attracts local and international visitors at the rate of 100 people per day. The entrance to the mausoleum is ringed by Kei apples and choked by trees. Two elaborate lion carvings stand on either side.PhotographsJaramogi’s portrait hangs above the flat, marble epitaph inscribed with the words: "Jaramogi Oginga Odinga mausoleum, officially opened by Olusegun Obasanjo on 20th January 1995".The mausoleum also features photographs of his political life from the time he entered the Legislative Council to his death on February 24, 1994.At the Raila corner of the museum are gifts and prizes he has collected from his trips around the world as well as a collection of books. They include biographies on Moi, Dedan Kimathi, Olusegun Obasanjo, Nelson Mandela, Masinde Muliro, Fidel Castro and Mahatma Gandhi among many others. On the wall is a portrait of him and Ida arriving at a ceremony in marching gear.

At home with Jaramogi

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