Harrison Wayoga 

 

 

If I were to mourn the death of  the Hon. Michael  Kijana Walmalwa , Kenya's eighth Vice President, I would write  a book. It is just too much I have to say, but I have tried to refrain from saying anything since his demise a few days ago in London.  I have taken time to reflect on the loss of  lives in the new government of NARC and the President Mwai Kibaki.

 

 I'm  sitting here  in my  digs (abode) pecking  the key board with my left index finger (pinky)  I trust my little finger of  all the fingers.   Any errors encountered  in the process, blame it on the pinky. You don't have to  mind typologies either or the subsequent aphorisms. I haven't  been having a good day. Kenya is in my mind.

 

If there is, anything  pinky treaded on including some  toes, you only need to comprehend, pinky did it, not the big finger...... You  have to realize the laptop keys are  the most dangerous weapons in the world today. I can  sit here, put my act together  with my jaws locked in anguish, tap only once, and the whole world  blows to dust particles including the universe. That is how dangerous these keys  are. The precision guided weapons are  just a matter of tapping with a finger and the damage it causes, its ramifications  are  felt from the north pole to the south pole.

 

I had to give you the bad news first:

 

Now the good news, " I'm 13000+ miles away from home in  the middle of nowhere. Albany, Georgia is the Timbuktu of America and the entire northern hemisphere. It is the core of the deep south. The english here is whacky.  I wondered if the VP who spoke the Queens English, could come here and take a grasp of it. It would  drive him nuts. Pundits agree that a Timbuktu  is the name of a place in the middle of nowhere, and Albany, GA. it is. Albanian folks still ask me if where I come from (Kenya)  we still sleep on trees or in the caves?.

 

How I revert  to that is rather simple! Yes we are, and my big tree is now the residence of your country's Ambassador to my country. My cave is the Embassy of your country's diplomatic missions. Gidit? That is get it here in the south. He hasn't been paying his rent of late tho', and I will soon evict him. The envoy and his family will have to look for another tree to live on,  not my Boabab. Some people from Kenya are trying to explain things here and what kind of life it is in Kenya. I really don't have that much time but to give an  American detailed explanations of the place I come from. I  have to give them a direct reply of what they want to hear. It is a big jungle out there.

 

That is how far you can see I'm from the motherland. Also that is how much of a Timbuktu the City of Albany Georgia is, detached from the rest of the world. Yet with this magic, I'm able to keep up with the daily news from Kenya and now the programs of the VP's burial  in my former neighborhood, (Milimani Kitale)  a place I grew up wanted to leave, so that I can go around the world and see it all. Now I'm growing old hated to have left it."

 

The rest of my family still lives there, and when I get enough of the USA, I will wrap myself in a small bundle and get back home. Now I get home sick because so much is being spoken about Kitale. The last time I spoke with the VP, it was about when am I going to go back  home? Like the rest of Kenyans out here, I have always been having lots of excuses.

 

THE FUTURE OF KENYA.

 

I did read something said by an Indian Stargazer almost a year ago. He was predicting the future of  the Republic. I was to pay so much attention for anything that is being said about the motherland. It was a time Kenyans were anxious to know what bad omen is in store for the future of the country, or whatever the prophets, sooth sayers and astrologers will have say of the future of the country. There was so much commotion in readiness for the big elections to remove President Arap Moi and his cronies. The late VP and the current president Mwai Kibaki were having several merger meetings everyday to come up with a solution on how to way lay the former dictator. I never believed these astrologers and their astral influences. Until now when things are beginning to turn out just like he said it.

 

I tend to give astrologers some  very little attention. Infact, I don't read horoscopes, period. But now I'm fast forwarding what this Stargazer predicted that the future of Kenya will be like in the year 2003 onwards.I quote  the stargazer.  He said, "Kenyans will go to the polls probably  with the largest merger of all the opposition parties which will be a force to thrust president Moi out by virtue of the- ballot box, not the  bullet.

 

When that time came, Raila had already crept into KANU, tricked Moi into a merger with the ruling party. At the back of his mind, Raila knew one thing, "if you can't beat them, join them" then turn around and tear them up like my dog simba always did with a feather pillow. Raila  then took  a large chunk of Moi's loyalist with him to form a a big merger with Mwai Kibaki and now the late VP under the umbrella of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). The Stargazer already saw the regime of president Moi  being  beaten in a complete embarrassment. It did turn out to be just like that.

 

He said, "It will be a walk over for the merged opposition parties. The Kenya's economy will pick -up at a stunning speed to the surprise of the world watching in disbelief. The Gazer still went on to say, "Kenya will be a model for the Africa's economy and democracy, it will even be a threat to the first developing  nations, the super power and the veto nations" I was thinking aloud, if this is what the future of my country is going to be like, I can give this astrologer a chance.  I've always felt these people are a fraud and I'm not buying into their prankster tricky juju gimmicks.

 

Then he closed on me with a frigidity I never expected after giving me the good news. The bad news was that the  incumbents will not finish their term, he did not elaborate how. He left me on a cliff hanger without saying how they won't finish their term. But, he assured his readership not to panic. Nevertheless, he said, those who will replace them will  be much better, far much better.

 

It will be a point of no return for the country of Kenya but to move forward and  catch up with the first developing nations, and even surpus some within a very short period of time. I never took the gazers words seriously. I read it in the Nation Newspaper and I guess in their sister paper the East African for those who wants to go back into the archives and prove me wrong. Now, immediately NARC romped home in  a landslide victory with Mwai Kibaki and his running mate Kijana Wamalwa (Mike) Just within eight months in power, the NARC government have already lost a bunch of personalities by way of death, some of natural death, some of  accidents (plane crash etc) and only God knows what is still coming up.

 

 

 People say  that our country is experiencing bad luck.  There are just too many calamities befalling the NARC government. In the meantime, the NARC government despite all this, is doing a superb job. Infact, the late VP was still working even in his  death bed. He held tight to his briefcase. As you can see, our  country is on the road to become probably one of the most democratic countries in the entire world with a zero tolerance in corruption. Not even in America has the president and his government officials ever offered to declare their wealth to the public, and  how they acquired it. If the people feel there is shoddiness in it, then they are free to take it away. Not in Africa!

 

Both our president and the VP have been in and out of the hospitals before and after they were elected. Infact, the president was elected on a wheel chair as a result of a horrible road accident. He and his running mate now dead, were admitted in the same hospital  in London, missed their crucial campaign schedules almost by half, but when they returned, it didn't matter, they romped home to victory. Kenyans rewarded them big time.

 

 President Moi was humiliated, people threw mud and crude object at him. They chased him away like a wild dog. He was bitter, but just swallowed it. He refused to have lunch with the new president, took his bags into the military copter  and left to his Kabarak farm. Infact if I quote him he had only but one single sentence to express his feelings " Only God can tell why the heart of man is evil" President Moi could not believe why Kenyans hated him that much that day. Yet he was  relinquishing power in good faith? He could have decide to cling and cause bloodbath just like African nations.

 

At the state house, his aides, friends and those whom he rewarded were weeping tank full of tears wailing left and right It felt like the old man is dead that day. To them, it was the end of the world. The new president Kibaki ( on wheel chair) and Kijana Wamalwa  now dead, were basking and wallowing in the love of Kenyans.  Right now  Kenyans can't come to terms with the death of the VP whom eight months ago, was beaming with joy and vigorous health. You can see how the mood is gloomy in the country. Everything is shut down, and will continue to be in the next two weeks. Nobody is in the mood to do anything. Not even Jesus christ was mourned like that.

 

This is very unusual. The death of one man can not shut down the whole country.  I thought 911 could shut down America, but it didn't. Not even some parts of New York City. That was indeed a tragedy which could have brought America into the mood like the one we now have in Kenya for the death of our VP. But America tackled this issue with so much things still working to keep the economy running. They did not give up.The impact that this action  (two weeks mourning of the VP) will have on  the economy will  be realized later. Right now nobody wants to talk about the repercussions and the aftermath of it.

 

Now that the journey begins to eternity, the VP's remains lies on the speaker's walk, the most sacred place in  parliament with Kenyans paying their last respects  to  their hero, the guy whose oratorical skills can only be compared to Martin Luther King in America.  I have decided to emerge from my cocoon to mourn my mentor          in public. He is the one who made me admire politics. He is my inspiration to go abroad and  study political  

science.  After I got to know him personally, he became my mentor, a guru.  There are so many things wich are not his nature. He does not have a Bukusu accent, just as much as a racist tribalist attitude. I'm a Luo by the way!

 

We came from Subaland to settle in Kitale. I grew up in Kitale. Infact my  younger siblings are more of Bukusus than they are Luos. They speak the most fluent Bukusu and the language of the Pokots. While a teenager growing up in Kitale, I didn't know who Michael Kijana Wamalwa was.  I never heard of him. My interests were not in politicians. Talk with me about Musicians and sportsmen and you got all my attention. All we did back then was to frequent Blue Room. A famous teen club behind the then historic Kitale Hotel.

 

In Blue Room, it was clubbing (Disco) day and night. Those were the days of the famous dance called Electric Boogaloo. Back then it was only Masinde Muliro in Trans-Nzoia we know because he was not only a big politician but he owned the Kitale Hotel with partners. Kitale is a multi ethnic town with all 51 Kenyan tribes plus Asians, Europeans and Americans combined. The Bukusus claim it to be their town but in reality it isn't.  Therefore, Mike was not only representing the Bukusus in parliament but he got his votes to win mainly from the multi ethnic groups living in town.

 

There are some densely populated low income estates, like Mitume, Soweto, Diwani, Machinjoni Masaba Phase I, Matisi, Kisumu Ndogo ( full of Jaluos with their own councilors) Matecha, Namanjalala, and the lower belt of Milimani,  a sprawling slum called Shimo-la-Tewa. Bikeke (Kwa wameru) and top station. There is also a high and middle income areas around town  but still populated areas like section 19, section 6, Laini Moja (old town)etc. These places alone minus Saboti rural gave Mike the winning vote for the rest of his political career.  As you can see the people living in these areas are not Bukusus alone. He was a leader of all Kenyans.

 

Later on when we lived in the Milimani area, where the VP will be buried next Saturday, Milimani and is a melting pot. It is a place of who is who in  in Kitale.  Line Member comes second. In Milimani there were upto 12 American families, some wealthy Africans, Asians and Europeans. Milimani and Line Member are  the Rundas of  Kitale. Big  names.  Now,  in the district of Trans-Nzoia, the VP was not only voted to parliament by the Bukusus but as you know TN is the only place in Kenya you can think of  any tribe living there and big names in the former Moi regime  they have a huge chunk of land (farm) or a big house there they bought or grabbed.

 

Give me a name of a fat cat  who served in the Moi government, and I will point to you his farm or a huge house you need a map to go thro' and find your way around. There was a time the notorious Cyrus Jirongo of YK92 was rumored to be building a 42 bed room house off the Kapenguria road. I never got to see it. I never lent my ears to rumors either. But rumors was rife in town. Back then I was a leader of the operation Moi out (OMO) a rivaling group of YK92 and the last thing I wanted  was to be caught by YK92 operations peeping on a Jirongo home.

 

When I first met the VP he was not in the limelight like he was from the time Kenya  became multiparty. Even back then, I just realized later on he was a big name in Trans-Nzoia.  He was already in politics since the seventies. He was already famous being the son of the Kenya's first black senators. Kitale was a new place for me, I could still hardly  know who he was  until one day I was with some of my friends at the snacking parlor of the Bongo Hotel buying ice-cream with my friends who knew who he was.

 

A sleek BMW convertible  pulled in the drive way and  a guy the size of an American football player thrusts out. He was tall  and dark, he wore faded jeans and stilettos, wind breakers, and an arm band like a rugby player. That was him. He was tight back then.

 

I was like dayuuum, who is that? they  said that is Kijana Wamlwa Mike. He walked into the Hotel lobby very quickly. His bodyguards followed him,  picked-up the keys and they went upstairs. I realized he was staying there. After all Bongo Hotel  was the most luxurious Hotel back then in town, a hub of tourist and good life.  Living in the Hotel become an issue during campaigns. His opponents were using that. But Mike was witty. He knew how to defend himself. When asked, he replied with a question. he asked " what would you do if you were in my shoes? When the bad guys come over when you are a sleep and burn down your house? Aren't you guys seeing land clashes with everybody looking for a place to stay? what is wrong with me staying in a hotel and don't bother anybody to put me up?

 

When asked why he never got married (snr BA) he defended with a question in return. he said " do you think I just don't want to get married? I have been in it but I was heart broken. All of you know how much pain (heartbrake) it is when your marriage colapse. You really don't want to get into it that soon. I mean you don't want it to happen twice. He top dressed it with a very convincing word. Once the clashes settles, and we can go back and build houses we can get married. what of those whose wives were killed in that incident? what would you ask them? he told the people that even in America, Senators and congresmen  who can't find apts. in Washington, D.C. live in Hotels. What is the big deal?

 

Then that name started to be  common to me, more or less a household name, but again TN has big names including the Duke  of Glocestshire whose Castle is in Cherangani hills. But the Moi governenent took it and made it a presidential state house.

 

My second  encounter with Mike was quite interesting. As much as I tried to catch his attention, I couldn't because when he woke up from the Bongo, he has a very  tight  schedule in the morning. He goes straight to           the breakfast room, and in there his aides already lined up hundreds of his tribesmen who wants to speak with him  for different reasons. I realized all they wanted from him is money and a bunch of domestic needs.

 

They asked  him for everything, eg school fees, farm inputs, money for food,  clothes, hospital bills, etc. Some even asked  for money to pay dowry to their wives relatives, and boy, do I tell you they brought with them all the gossips to feed him? fitina (tele-bukusu).  To my amazement, he paid them all. Not only meeting their needs on his breakfast table but he paid for their breakfast in the Hotel as well as giving them bus fares. That was an everyday thing. It occured to me he was like the father of all the Bukusus.

 

I squeezed my way in to  pass  a message from Aunt Barb but the pressure was too intense for me, I gave up and left.  I told Aunt Barb, it will take 2 days for me to  squeeze my way to relay your message to that guy (that is how I was referring to him back then). But Barb said, what guy? His name is Michael. Now youngman  I want you to go back to the Bongo Hotel and tell Michael I want him to stop by my house on his way to his farm, I need his help with my school.  I can't get to him on the phone in his Hotel, the phone is permanently engaged.

 

He could  save my  school from those who wants to grab it. Aunt Barb is one of those people you don't talk back to, I had to go back and try. The closest I got to him after squeezing my way thro, I was just about to tell him Aunt Barb wants you to stop by her house on your way out,  she needs to speak with you. Some people (samaki kubwas) are taking her school away  and they are giving it to someone who don't deserve it. You know when you are young and you have no guts to get your act together, and when you think you get it, it falters.

 

I was just about to relay my message, when he turned around and scared the hell out of me. Well, to him he didn't know he scared the pulse out of my heart. I just didn't know how to approach such a person or any other grown ups when I don't have my act together. It was just within seconds I know I got it and I was walking directly to his table.

 

I was walking past the table where the breakfast is set up, but that was a coincidence because he was also turning around to ask some waiter for a refill of the juice. When our eyes met, he asked me  to pass to him a big jar of paw paw juice, whatever it was pineapple juice, the juice of Mango et al,  I passed it on  and he gave me a big smile and a big thank you. He asked if I would like some but I said no. I just had some toast mayayi and tea I was full.

 

 That was all   then he turned around  to continue with  conversation with some grown-ups (Wazees) Those Vizees had tore up jackets, big walking sticks and  muddy boots. Some had missing upper teeth.  I went back and told one of the aides what I need to speak with him about.  He wrote it down and told me to wait. I sat there waiting pensively.  When he came up, he told me to tell aunt Barb he will be on his way to stop by in a few minutes.

 

In those days he would leave his Hotel room, to the breakfast, and then walk across the street with everybody following him into the bank. The commercial Bank. The Bank Manager would see him thro' the glass and he would come out quickly to meet Mike and then usher him direct into his office. He was a Kalenjin by tribe, his name was Korir, he had his arm amputated to the elbows.

 

The second time now I met the VP and spoke with him was later, much later... when Jaramogi was tired of Moi and he decided to mobilize some bright young fellows in the country to help him remove the dictator. After Ford  was launched Masinde Muliro chipped in, then Ken Matiba and others. That was the original FORD. It was so powerful it was like NARC, but something went wrong and Ken and Shikuku split. Jaramogi remained with all the younger people who were the top brains and a group of intellectuals. Then the rallies started to go around the country and that day Jaramogi the god of opposition was coming to Kitale.

 

It was like the end of the world Kenyatta stadium was tore up. I guess 200,000 people. I was to be introduced  to this crowd as the leader of the Operation Moi Out (OMO) by Mr. Zachary Simechero. I had my best suit on , a black jacket and a black tie, sleek pants and gato. Young and shy. I never spoke to such a crowd before. Usually in those rallies they start  from the lower ranks and  then the upper ranks going  on to the big man. Jaramogi arrived and  the town shut down. We met him at the Kitale Club and the convoy snaked into town thro' Laini Moja to the Stadium, and the hell broke loose. The only people who could sit was jaramogi, Mike, GW Kapten and a bunch of other dignitaries.

 

When I was introduced, I froze. I said just a few words, people started to ask me questions, like who are you, where do you come from and where can we find you later.....? All my answer only here in Kitale.Then  I gave Simechero the Microphone back, shook Jaramogi's hand. That was also my first time to come closer to this god. When I shook his hand, I spoke dholuo,   and he said "erokamano Arson" meaning "thank you Harrison". Then at the dinner Mike was luoghing at me how I handled the crowd. he told me if I hang around him, he would teach me how to deal with questions coming from a large croud of that nature. It was the beginning of our  mentoring.

 

to be cont........

 

Next....

Living in the same neighbood (he was a jirani mwema) people thronged his home with needs and he met them all after feeding them.

 

His eloquent speeches (only second to Martin Luther King. dont forget he had no accent of the Bukusus, and don't forget he spoke the most fluent Kiswahili as well. One day the people of Mombasa wanted to know if he really was not born and raised in mombsa? are you not some Digo who is lost in Western Kenya?).

 

Accompany him to public rallies ( people always wanted  him to continue speaking no matter what is happening. One day in Kisii Gusii stadium, the people demanded that he speak in Englsih again after he finished giving his speech. Plice were blowing tear gas and it was raining hailstorm and  thrunder in Kisii but the people refused to    leave the stadium they want to hear him again)

 

The beatings we recieved in Kisumu ( they just parted ways with Raila and the convoy over 200 vehicles from Kitale, Kakamega, is heading to Homabay for a fund raising. At Kondele jaluos wants to know if Raila is in that convoy, Orengo stick his neck out with a bull horn to tell jaluos Raila is behind. You don't full Jaluos that Raila is coming behind in Kisumu. Agwambo must be the one leading.That day I knew Kisumu is the Kenya's stone throwing Headquaters, it rained rocks all the way to ahero. At Ahero prof. Anyang' was waiting with another group whose stones were more powerful that hand grenade vehicles were dented)

 

The beatings in Oyugis ( Police who were acting for Moi were fiatuaring bundukis like crazy teargas like clouds and thousands of people running helter skelter. it was cheotic. )

 

The beatings in Kisii ( Kanu youth and police were on us like bees, Gusii stadium tore up with people, it is raining hailstorm but unless he repeat his speech in the queens English with kisiis taking notes like it is some classroom, they won't allow us to leave the stadium)

 

Why he love Cartoons ( there is just too much intelligence in cartoons, people tend to ignore where the knowledge is)

 

Why he love table games, chess, etc ( he said it makes you think another way he menotered the young people, how do you calculate your next move when you are in a fix?

 

His role models and personality idols

 

Favorite dish and drink

 

 His friend Kuka Nyongesa ( a whiteman turned Bukusu people thought he is CIA,  he was everywhere in Western province)

 

His philosophy (be generous, he gave all he had to his people, he could arrive in a market place and gave everybody he found there money)

 

Whom he loved to qoute (JF Kennedy and sir Churchill)

 

He and Raila were never really rivals ( only idealogies were different, he spoke great of Raila, he admired his courage) there was a day Raila whacked  the face of a DC who refused to let them address the people, Mike just became the chair of Ford-K. After Raila slapped the hell out of DC police started to sting. Raila then grab  Mikes hand and took him the the plane amid chaos. Raila stood by the door of the plane to make sure everybody got in safe before the plane took of from Garissa. That is how couragious Agwambo was and the VP always spoke about it. People think they were like political enemies.

 

 

Later....