Ayah stood out in a bygone era when public service meant great sacrifice

There was always a friendly, but rather competitive relationship between Luo students who went to Maseno High School and those who attended the Alliance High School. Matters were made more complicated by the fact that Edward Carey Francis, the famous Cambridge educated mathematics teacher, first headed Maseno before he moved to Alliance in 1940. Old boys of both schools claimed the best out of Carey, even when he had long left their alma mater.

At independence in 1963, almost all the educated “who is who” around the shores of Lake Victoria, were most likely old boys of these two schools, Wilson Ndolo Ayah being one of them, having graduated from Maseno before he joined Makerere University College. They were men who eventually left behind them long trails of accomplishments, imagined or real, about which they always taunted each other while partaking of the fruits of the vine in their adult years. Wilson perfected this art very early in life.