Jaramogi, like his son Raila, deserved a State funeral and recognition

I had an eerie feeling as the evening set in. Inexplicable fear gripped me making my stomach queasy. A cold chill surged through my body as I walked around the office checking on the doors and locks to ensure my colleagues had secured every station. I stood at the window overlooking the lake and watched the sun; in its golden majesty take its bow.

I had an uneasy feeling and my heart had been beating unusually fast. I couldn’t concentrate on the feature I was writing. Then, the phone on my desk startled me. It was so loud it tore through the silence that enveloped the entire office situated along Kisumu’s Oginga Odinga Street. I dashed towards it and with trembling hands picked it up.

“Bwana Atemi, you need to immediately come to Aga Khan Hospital. Jakom has left us” it was lawyer James Orengo breaking the news that the father of Kenyan Opposition politics, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga had rested.

I called my boss Mutegi Njau to break the news and inform him that I would be filing the story shortly. I picked up my car keys and dashed to the hospital to embark on the coverage of the death and burial of one of Africa’s great sons. Jaramogi died at 6.45 pm on Thursday, January 20, 1994. His body was flown to Nairobi by an Air Force plane and taken to the Lee Funeral home.

In the few days that Jaramogi was hospitalised, I paid him a visit. Orengo was always at his bedside. During one of the visits, Jaramogi jokingly asked me: “How are those Odiero (Mzungu), friends of yours?” He was referring to four journalists from Western media outlets I had taken to his Bondo home during the 1992 election campaign period.  

Jakom had been very energetic and joyful so the news of his demise hit me hard.

Soon, the country was covered in a dark cloud of grief. Emotions ran high especially over the status of his burial. His family, led by his son Raila Odinga, scholars and human rights groups demanded that he be accorded a State burial in honour of his contribution to the country’s struggle for independence and his role as Kenya’s first Vice President.

Prof Katama Mkangi, in a commentary published in the Sunday Nation of February 6 1994, said the vilification of Jaramogi started with the British colonialists who fought any African who; protested, resisted or rebelled against colonial control.

The colonialists and subsequent governments labelled Jaramogi; a troublemaker, a rabble-rouser, a traditionalist, and un-progressive agitator.  The British were angered by his links to the Communist east.

Jomo Kenyatta, who agreed to ‘please’ the colonialists, turned from a terrorist and blood thirsty villain into a grand Wiseman worthy of State power.

“When he died the British honoured him by providing a carriage hearse to carry the remains of the founding father” said Mkangi.

Ironically, without Jaramogi’s magnanimous gesture and sacrifice, Jomo Kenyatta might never have become Kenya’s founding president. Mkangi argued that apart from Dedan Kimathi: “The other two personalities who symbolise Kenya’s struggle for independence are: Jomo Kenyatta and Odinga. Both of them attained the status of:” ‘fatherhood’ and ‘Mzeeship’ while still alive. Why one of them should be regarded as a national hero and another “tribal chief?”

Mkangi said that Jaramogi deserved a State funeral due to his contribution in shaping the country’s history.

By the time of his demise, Jaramogi, chairman of Ford Kenya and Leader of Opposition, was working with the Government of Daniel arap Moi. His son, Raila, a former Prime Minister and leader of Opposition, was also working with the government of President William Ruto by the time of his death on October 15, 2025.

As the calls for Jaramogi’s State burial grew louder, Raila told the media that the Odinga family would: “gracefully oblige if the government ascended to the people’s wishes and allocated a suitable site either at the precincts of Parliament Buildings or at the Uhuru Gardens. Although our father had chosen a burial site in Bondo, he would have been deeply moved and honoured by a State burial.

Raila said President Moi had agreed that Jaramogi be buried at Nairobi’s Uhuru Gardens but wanted a consent agreement from the Odinga family. But as Raila pursued a State burial, a powerful committee of Luo elders sitting in Bondo led by Jaramogi’s elder brother Mzee Joash Ajuma disagreed with the Nairobi burial: “We cannot allow Jaramogi’s body to be thrown in the forest far away and then he will start haunting us,” Ajuma said.

Moi handlers convinced him to reject the request. On January 26,1994, he ruled out any possibility of a State burial.

Jaramogi’s body left the Lee Funeral home for Bondo by road. My team and I met the cortege in Nakuru. The crowds I saw escorting Raila from the airport to Kasarani, reminded me of the thousands of Kenyans who gathered in towns and markets waiting to view Jaramogi’s remains. Thousands travelled from the four corners of the republic of Kenya to attend his interment.

Acting Ford-K Chairman Wamalwa Kijana told mourners that Jaramogi should be honoured by repealing the Preservation of Public Security Act which allowed for detention without trial. Jaramogi and Raila were victims of the detention laws. Raila fought hard for their removal and for the establishment of the new Constitution 2010.

A tearful and sobbing Orengo sparked a political inferno that destroyed Ford Kenya’s cooperation with the Government which he blamed for Jaramogi’s death. “With the wisdom of hindsight I can now say without fear or contradiction that if the Government of Kenya had never been so harsh, cruel and inhuman to Mr. Odinga, he would still be alive today “said the Ford Kenya lawyer.

Orengo told a multitude of mourners at Odinga’s Nyamira Kang’o home that the blindness and greed of Kenyanpharisees and high priests, had denied Kenya the best President it could have had.

His heart-rending voice electrified mourners who cursed and hurled insults at the Government. “Jaramogi was for many years the victim of State violence. As a lawyer, I hold the government and its agents or servants guilty of grievous assault to the person of Oginga Odinga. That is the verdict of the people’s court,” said Orengo

Orengo went on: “To paraphrase the words of Mark Anthony in William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, I come here to bury Odinga and not to praise him. Like Mark Anthony, I can say that my heart is in the coffin there with Jaramogi and I must pause until it comes back to me. In that coffin lies a great man. For many vilified him, abused him, scorned him, called him senile, called him blind and now, have for the past fortnight since Jaramogi died, sang his praises expressing false grief. Inwardly, they mourn him not”.  

Tobias Ajuma, his elder brother, is a living testimony to the vigour and vivacity of Jaramogi’s physical strength. But in 1991, despite his age and physical condition, the government arrested Jaramogi in the middle of the night in Nairobi and took him away wearing only his pajamas. The authorities detained him in a wet, squalid and mosquito ridden police cells and forced him the next day to appear before a magistrate’s court in Siaya, in the same pajamas, to face bogus criminal charges”

I attended the Siaya court, when Jaramogi’s eyes locked with those of the magistrate and with his index finger pointing at him, said; “Young man, you have allowed yourself to be used by the State to oppress justice and muzzle the truth” The magistrate, Aol Ndiga, froze. He looked dazed and terrified and hurriedly scribbled something in his file before pronouncing that the old man was free to go.

Before Jaramogi’s burial I had spent a whole day in Bondo talking to Ajuma. The tall, strong healthy man who had outlived his younger brother, said incarceration had destroyed Jaramogi. 

Throughout the day, people, hundreds collapsed under a fierce sun amidst at times chocking dust.

It was impossible to secure a firm crowd figure but several sources said as many as 300,000 people turned out, perhaps, the largest number of mourners in Kenyan history. They streamed into the compound early morning; old and young, even some lame, blind and dumb. They came on bicycles, Lorries, foot and handcarts. Some were pushed in wheelchairs and wheelbarrows.” Just like Raila’s, Jaramogi’s funeral was described as the biggest ever seen in East Africa. Ford Asili’s national Chairman Kenneth Matiba, Jaramogi’s rival in the 1992 presidential race was missing at the burial. Unlike the former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua who skipped Raila Odinga’s burial, Matiba’s ill health explained his absence.

President Moi described Jaramogi as: “a great son of the country who never wavered in his love for Kenya.”  Moi told agitated mourners that when Jaramogi chose to cooperate with the Kanu Government, it was for the sake of development in Nyanza and for the benefit of the Luo community.

Just like in Raila’s burial where ODM leaders vowed to continue supporting the broad based government, Ford Kenya leaders also promised to cement the cooperation Jaramogi had initiated with Moi.

Jaramogi’s friend, Ramogi Achieng Oneko told mourners that by cooperating with the government: “What Odinga had espoused should be sustained for the good of the areas that were still behind.”

Police and Ford Kenya youth had to beat back the crowd which pushed the army of journalists and press photographers barely two meters from the Head of State.  

At 2 pm, Bishop Joseph Wasonga of Maseno West Church of the Province of Kenya (CPK) conducted a service and then Ford K top officials, among them; Kijana Wamalwa, James Orengo and Munyua Waiyaki, lifted the bronze coloured, flower bedecked casket towards the grave. At exactly 3pm, Jaramogi’s body was laid in its final resting place just two meters from his own home.

Jaramogi’s casket, made by a 90 year old Mzungu carpenter, was curved from a 145 year old tree. Raila told the media that the casket was imported from Britain through Lee Funeral Home. The ornate coffin, together with transport and preservation of the body, cost more than Sh600,000. The Lee Funeral played a key role in the preservation, transport and burial of Raila’s body 31 years later.

The power and influence Jaramogi had over his supporters countrywide, is vividly captured in ‘‘Beyond Belief: the Story of Kenneth Lusaka’’. 

The Bungoma Governor was a young district officer in Muhoroni in 1992, he says: “I trembled with fear and trepidation just at the thought” of Jaramogi being killed under a terrifying stampede and gunfire.” That year, Lusaka defied senseless orders from his boss, Kisumu District Commissioner Geoffrey Mate to stop Jaramogi from addressing a public rally in Muhoroni.  

“Wisdom had to prevail: ‘It does not matter whether I am fired or not but I am not going to have blood on my hands’ I told myself as I gave a nod for the public rally to proceed. I watched helplessly as huge crowds swarmed through the streets of Muhoroni…Thousands of people, singing and dancing had come to listen to their leader, the doyen of opposition politics, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

Lusaka says that the influence and mental image of Jaramogi did not match his tinny body and small stature. Like Mahatma Ghandi of India, the bi-spectacled first Vice President of independent Kenya commanded a fanatical following among millions across the Republic of Kenya. His influence in Luo Nyanza however, bordered on religious.”

“Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was taking a stab at the presidency. Wherever he went, frenzied crowds followed him. The government had given all provincial administration officers orders, to ensure Jaramogi didn’t address any public gathering. It was an order which if followed stupidly could have plunged the country into a bloodbath…It was suicidal to stop Jaramogi from addressing a function in Luo Nyanza in 1992.

Lusaka’s boss, the Nyanza Provincial Commissioner Joseph Kaguthi, had issued firm instructions that he must disperse the harambee (fund raising) and not allow Jaramogi to speak. “The police officers at the meeting sought my permission to teargas the gathering. My mind went wild with images. I visualized a frenzied crowed, a stampede and panic and Jaramogi being trampled to death. The political repercussions would be unimaginable. I told them no. Let the meeting be. That night I went to bed apprehensive about the repercussions from my inaction, but deep down I was at peace” says Lusaka.

Lusaka had learned from his work in Kisii that politicians never had permanent enemies. While working as DO in Kisii: “I was asked to ensure that the most powerful politician in Kisii then, Simeon Nyachae, was trampled upon. District administrators, were given specific instructions from the PC’s office that Nyachae should remain voiceless and invisible. He was not supposed to address any public gathering under our watch. His voice, we were told, should not be heard even at funerals” 

Then; “One day the DC summoned us to a meeting. In a hush tone we were told that President Daniel arap Moi was coming to Kisii and would have breakfast at the Nyachae residence” Nyachae had all Dos transferred. Lusaka landed in Muhoroni.

It is the immense influence Jaramogi had and Orengo’s funeral speech that angered Moi. On February 11 1994, Moi called off the Kanu-Ford K cooperation and warned his ministers of dire consequences if they associated with the opposition.  

Ruto would 31 years later tell mourners at Raila burial that he would jealously guard the broad-based government he established with Raila’s Orange Democratic Party (ODM).

Although Jaramogi was denied a 21 gun salute, the multitudes of people who mourned him made up for it.

However, Ruto has a chance to posthumously honour Jaramogi, who was a friend to great leaders such as; Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Namdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, Felix Houphouet-Boigny of Cote d’Ivoire, and Patrice Lumumba of the Congo. Just like his son Raila, Jaramogi never allowed his deep wounds, personal hurts, insults or injustice to cloud his vision of Kenya.

He refused to nurse grievances. He deserves honours.