The Day Jaramogi was caned by Carey Francis for stealing Paraffin at Maseno

Jaramogi Oginga Odinga arriving at Nyayo Stadium during Madaraka Day in June 1993.(File, Standard)

It was school closing day and excitement among the boys was palpable. To ensure all was well, the school assistant captain who also doubled as the food prefect did his rounds and in one of the stores he found some paraffin. He emptied it into a tin and joined other students making their way out.

But as the prefect, Adonija Jaramogi Oginga Odinga happily marched out of school with plans of uninterrupted studies during the holiday now that he had oil to burn at midnight in pursuit of academic excellence, he was jolted back to reality.

It took the hawk-eyed principal, Carey Francis one look and couple of questions to analyse the situation.

“I am going to arrest you and take you back to school for punishment!” thundered the principal as he hauled young Jaramogi back to school.

Carey Francis, Jaramogi writes in his autobiography, ‘Not Yet Uhuru’ then carried out his threat. “The principal thrashed me four kibokos and detained me in school for five days for being a thief.”

His encounter with the most dreaded teacher, Francis was traumatising. Jaramogi, who was in his Fourth Year at the school which he had joined in 1929, had been quite spectacular.

The principal had met the assistant captain as he was leaving school and wondered what he was carrying in a tin. When he learnt what one of his most trusted prefects, was up to, he exclaimed; “that is thieving.”

You are in a position of trust and you have taken paraffin without asking for permission.

This was not the first time the budding scholar who would later become Kenya’s first vice president would receive punishment for disobeying school rules.

Slept hungry

Earlier in the term, Jaramogi forgot to inform the authorities that food supplies were running out and was shocked when the cooks declared there was nothing to feed the hungry students. That day the boys slept on empty stomachs.

Later, when he and three other boys cleared their course in 1934, Francis wanted him to become a teacher at Maseno but Jaramogi, who believed he had a higher calling resisted, insisting that he continue with education.

Not used to his orders being questioned, Francis threatened to throw Jaramogi out of Maseno School but the the independent-minded scholar dared him.

“If my desire for education was to be the cause of my leaving the school, I would be pleased to leave. I packed my bags and left” Jaramogi said.

However, Francis rushed after Jaramogi in his car and took me back to the school and thrashed him, promising that he would consider his case for further education.

The love-hate relationship between the teacher and his pupil had started earlier in 1929, when Jaramogi after graduating from Maranda Primary School had sat his common entrance examination at Maseno but after his 35-kilometre walk to the institution, was appalled at the reception.

When he first set foot there, Jaramogi thought teachers treated pupils shabbily. His age was recorded as 10 years although he insists at the time he was nearly 16.

The food too was terrible and so when he was instructed go home to fetch the Sh60 needed for school fees, he vanished.

For a whole year he gave Maseno School a wide berth as he lived in hibernation, away from home. His exile was however cut short when Shadrack Osewe, the head of Maranda Primary School found him and took him to Francis.

Jaramogi says in his book that since Osewe knew he did not like Maseno School, he wanted to apprentice him as a telegraphist at the Post Office and sought the assistance of Archdeacon Owen so that he could convince Francis to give him a recommendation letter to secure the job. However, when Owen went to Francis in 1929 for recommendation, the principal urged Jaramogi to continue with his studies as he was still young. The principal insisted that he stay at the school but Jaramogi and another boy ran away to Kisumu but he was apprehended and returned to Maseno School.

When he failed to attend school citing his inability to pay the Sh60 required for fees, Francis secured Sh20 from his own mother and gave it to Jaramogi, advising his folks to raise the balance. He organised with another teacher for Jaramogi to be employed as a servant and in return earn a Sh6 salary, which went towards purchase of books and payment of fees.

Francis’ philanthropy was evident even after Jaramogi defied him and opted to continue with education instead of teaching. When he ultimately cleared his education at Alliance High School and was admitted to Makerere Univeristy in 1937 to train as a teacher, Francis came to his aid yet again.

This time he loaned his brilliant but troublesome student Sh180, which he was to repay with his salary, once he graduated. This explains why when he finished his training Francis was eager that he returns to Maseno School as a teacher.

As a teacher at Maseno School, Jaramogi’s teaching methodology in mathematics clashed with that of Francis, who insisted that African teachers wear uniforms of bush jacket, shorts and long stocking and were expected to be disciplined like the school boys they were teaching, especially in the presence of the Whites.

Francis however distrusted the African teachers such that he insisted they be supervised by their white colleagues while teaching, which brought constant conflict.

Francis, who was a bachelor ruled that unmarried teachers from Maseno School were not to receive or entertain women at night in their quarters; he appointed a teacher to enforce this.

Jaramogi enlisted the services of a tailor, John Owour of Kina, Bunyore to make him a suit which he wore and complimented with a wide hat and a walking stick in defiance to Francis’.

One day he had women in his quarters and when the master of the African quarters came to warn him that he had to either send them away or organise they spend the night in the married quarters, he ignored the warning.

The following morning he was reported to the principal and this stoked such a huge controversy that Francis was forced to scrap the repellent laws.

He also won a major score when he insisted that he would only use his African names and was supported by some teachers although Francis was quite upset and at one point took to the pulpit one Sunday, chastising men who thought they could only be ideal if they wore suits, swaggered with a walking stick and hat.

Maseno School in the 1930s was quite different from the days a lone missionary peddled his way in the wilds of Nyanza, in September of 1900, raising dust and speculation.

Finally when a gang of naked boys gathered enough courage to confront the spectacle of a man with a strange skin complexion floating on metal contraption which resembled an iron donkey, they dedicated their energies to chasing after him.

Unperturbed, Reverend James Jamieson Willis peddled on and planted the first seeds of curiosity, which would later earn him quite substantial following. The minuscule grains he planted exactly 110 years ago when he once again approached chiefs and elders and requested that they bring their sons to him so he could teach them the marvels of the white man’s education have blossomed.

Those who ventured into Maseno School continue to call the shots in Kenya’s political, economic and social spheres.