"I'm still expecting a miracle:" Raila's friend struggles with his death

President William Ruto and other leaders during the burial of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Kang'o Ka Jaramogi in Bondo Constituency. [File, Standard]

It is a quiet evening at Bar Okwiri village in Yimbo, Bondo Constituency and an elderly man appears to be in deep thought as he watches birds chirping in his compound.

Mzee Olang'o Nyabola, a Luo traditionalist and elder, was a long-time friend and advisor to the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga for decades.

Nyabola still struggles with grief following the death of a man whom he knew not as a national political figure but as a personal friend with whom they shared dreams, secrets and brotherhood.

"Honestly, I have never imagined in my life that Raila would die. I believe everybody could die, but I don't know why I never had that feeling that one day this country would be without Raila," he says.

"I don't know what others feel, but I'm still in pain. He was a good man, he was a kind man, he was a very simple person," he added.

Perhaps to distract himself from the constant pain of losing a loved one, Nyabola has chosen to believe that Raila will someday return back to like.

"As I talk to you right now, I am expecting a miracle to happen. I am Luo and a Christian, and I believe in miracles.  I am expecting a miracle to happen that one day some news will come to me that Raila has risen from the dead. I don't know if I will live to see that, but that's what I'm expecting, and I am consoling myself with that faith," he said.

Nyabola's relationship with Raila started in the early 1990s through his numerous engagements with various cadres of the Luo Council of Elders leadership. From their initial meetings, the two never looked back, taking on a journey of trust and mutual friendship which survived numerous ups and downs over the decades.

"He visited me here several times. If you look at this home, it's one of the simplest homesteads you can find around, but whenever he was in Bondo, he would visit here, and we would sit for hours reflecting on several issues," he recalled.

"He would talk about what he described as an ideal country and would ask me to pass these messages to other elders during our meetings," he added.

Nyabola, a retired school teacher who operates various small businesses in Bondo and Kambajo market, remembered with nostalgia how the late Raila was happy when he informed him that he owns a village bar at Kambajo market where he meets and interacts with fellow elders and retirees. Raila agreed to make a visit to the bar, and that one initial visit became the beginning of hundreds of other visits to the little-known Pentagon Bar at Kambajo market.

The name Pentagon, according to Nyabola, was inspired by the creation of the  ODM Pentagon in 2007.  However, the mini pentagon in Kambajo was not composed of politicians but elders who believed in and supported Raila's vision for the country.

"In 2007, when ODM was formed, and it had a pentagon as its top leadership, we also formed a pentagon at the village bar in Kambajo. That pentagon was composed of five elders who are my friends. Later, we decided to expand its membership to include more elders," he said.

The many sessions at the Pentagon and also at his home in Bar Okwiri, as well as meetings at both Opoda Farm and Kang'o Ka'Jaramogi, were spent not only discussing politics but also initiating grassroots conversations aimed at changing the lives of the people at the grassroots level.

"He believed that our community would be better if we embraced business. He urged us to talk to our people to initiate small businesses. He also wanted farming, even in the rural areas, to be given a business approach," Nyabola said.