Dalmas Otieno had respect for Jaramogi, but had no time for his son Raila

 He looked at me from across the desk. His chin sat on his folded arms with elbows resting on the wooden surface of the sparkling Victorian masterpiece. His eyes dilated in horror and with trembling lips he said:

“He is not an ordinary person. I swear, he is a man with extraordinary powers. A good man though”

His voice trembled as he spoke.

“When I was a young man in the provincial administration, we would guard his house here in Kisumu’s Milimani area ensuring he was inside. We had armed Administration Policemen watching over him 24 hours a day. However, there were occasions we would receive reports that he was addressing people in his Bondo home. It was frightening to have a man physically appearing in two places simultaneously” he said quickly gulping water, his hands shaking. 

Simon Chacha spoke with fear. Sometimes he would lower his voice to almost a whisper. I glanced around his office to confirm we were alone. Chacha, the acting Provincial Commissioner, Nyanza and I were discussing, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, during the time he was placed under house arrest in 1982 by the then government.

This was not the first time I had heard about Jaramogi’s mystical powers, but coming from a senior administrator, fuelled my curiosity. I was conducting research and interviews on the topic of economic development in Luo Nyanza. I was looking into why the Luo had endured suffering and State inflicted ‘backwardness’. Jaramogi and Bishop Henry Okullu are among the people I interviewed.

Jaramogi hailed my efforts to resist pressure from an aggressive PC who pestered me, even with threats, to write a feature claiming that Luos were dying of HIV/Aids due to wife inheritance. I refused to be used by the system to fight, soil, and smear and profile a community.

Many years later, I sat at Nairobi’s Serena Hotel with Dalmas Otieno, then minister for Public Service to discuss the development of Luo Nyanza and the Odinga factor in Luo politics.

Dalmas had been accused by some of being an enemy of the Odingas and of fighting his own community:

“I have a lot of respect for Jaramogi. His influence over the Luo and larger Kenya was immense. He sacrificed a lot for Kenya and for the Luo community. He was not a selfish man. However, I can’t say the same about his children,” said Dalmas.

“But is it true you have been fighting them and your entry into politics was to try and tame their influence in South Nyanza?” I asked him

“I have never fought the Odingas. It is a misconception. Don’t forget I got to Parliament in 2007 on ODM ticket. Actually, I think my objective and that of the Odinga family is the same. But our approach and intentions might differ. Since I was elected to Parliament in 1988, all I have desired is for the political emancipation and economic growth of our people. When you fight government, your people suffer the consequences of neglect and marginalisation. I am sure my sister Phoebe Asiyo whose book you are writing has told you how major projects she initiated were killed by the State and the ruling party. She suffered and her people paid the ultimate price for being seen as anti-government,” said Dalmas.

Dalmas said that the Luo community had suffered because of the anti-government tag. Our discussion delved deep into the issue of the marginalisation of the Luo, a topic I had been pursuing since my meeting with Chacha. And it was on this point that he had a ‘quarrel’ with Raila, a man he considered a friend.

When Jaramogi was being released from prison in 1971, Dalmas was graduating from Makerere University with a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Economics. Jaramogi had been imprisoned for 18 months after serious disagreements with Jomo Kenyatta after the October 1969 confrontation in Kisumu during the opening ceremony of the Russian Sponsored Nyanza General Hospital. Presidential guards opened fire at a hostile crowd which was hurling stones at the presidential dais. Hundreds were massacred.

Jaramogi was subsequently arrested and incarcerated. His community endured years of neglect, brutality and abuse from State organs.  However, some aligned with the State. Dalmas grew up to become a painful blister in the armpit of the Odinga movement. He developed an allergy to some of their tactics.

Both Jomo and Daniel arap Moi kept the Luo community on the country’s economic periphery, leading to the death of almost all institutions in the entire Luo Nyanza. Marginalisation of the Luo inflicted serious economic wounds and abject poverty in the lake region.  Jaramogi had, since independence, made numerous tactical blunders leading to the isolation and social ostracism of his community.     

The late Tom Mboya had made several attempts in vain to reconcile his differences with Jaramogi for the sake of the lake region’s development. Dalmas, like Mboya, believed that the Luo should never isolate themselves because they would risk sinking into economic oblivion.

Silas Nyanchwani, in an October 30, 2017 article titled the Luo Problem, argues that: “The Luo body is denigrated by the State, stripped of its life, and has been at the receiving end of State brutality, time and time again. What makes the Luo constantly agitate for their rights stems from the diseased body politic of Kenya. If we learn to see it as a quest for equality, not just for the Luos, but for every Kenyan who suffers from the silly government policies, corruption and nepotism, it will bring us closer to relating to the humanity of the Luos”

The war against the Luos began with the assassination of Argwins Kodhek and Tom Mboya in the tumultuous 1960s. The two were seen by the Kiambu mafia as potential presidential candidates. They were swiftly eliminated. Jaramogi, in a moment of anger had resigned from his position as Vice President and now stood alone, isolated.

Then, on September 10, 1978, a few weeks after the demise of Jomo Kenyatta, Jaramogi secretly met with acting President Daniel arap Moi. He was hopeful that Luos would be given their rightful place in Kenya. He pursued the cooperation agenda, even welcoming Moi to his Bondo home.

I covered the Bondo meeting and rally where Moi promised goodies to the people of the lake region. The cooperation helped ease the pressure Moi had felt when Luos topped the ranks of coup planners in the August 1982 attempted overthrow of his government.

In the 1990s, I covered riots and protests in Kisumu and the larger Nyanza Province. Foreign Affairs minister Robert Ouko had been murdered, the Berlin Wall had collapsed, and the Cold War had frozen. The country was now boiling as people demanded change and democratization. I documented tales of horror, with the police breaking into people’s homes; looting, raping women, defiling girls and sodomising boys and men. There was a frightening, unwritten government policy and belief in certain parts of Kenya that ‘the lives of Luo’s didn’t matter’

Corruption and politics of evil and vengeance killed the sugar industry in Western Kenya. Kisumu Cotton Mills (KICOMI) textile factory died. The Kenya Breweries plant closed down. The fishing industry stagnated. Thousands were thrown into unemployment and poverty.

As Dalmas and I reflected upon these ills directed at a people and a region, I recalled Chinua Achebe’s stand on the Igbo of Nigeria. In his book, The Trouble with Nigeria, Achebe argues that:

“The Igbo are a necessary ingredient to the modernization and development of Nigerian society. It is neither necessary nor possible to suppress them. Nigeria without the inventiveness and dynamism of the Igbo would be a less hopeful place than it is”

The Luos too are an essential ingredient of the modernization and development of Kenya and the Great Lakes region. Just like the Igbo, the Luo are culturally outspoken and can be loud when need arises. They always speak truth to power. I couldn’t visualize a Kenya without the Luos. 

However, Dalmas’ biggest departure with Jaramogi’s son, Raila, was: “the way he cuts deals. Jaramogi, from the onset, set out to help his people. In fact, his biggest quarrel with Jomo Kenyatta stemmed from the issue of land and land ownership. To him, land was communal and couldn’t be divided for individual use. That is why my respect and support for Jaramogi was high,” said Dalmas.

A towering figure, Dalmas was always sharp and smartly dressed. His voice was not a roaring ocean; it was a gentle breeze sweeping over a silent river. Its effects would reverberate long after he had left the scene.

We spoke, analyzing the phenomenon of Odingaism. In 2007, post-election violence resulted in 1200 deaths and displacement of over 600,000 people. Raila had accused Mwai Kibaki of stealing the presidency. Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan led the peace talks that gave Raila the Prime Minister position in the Grand Coalition government.

In the 2017 general elections, Raila lost the presidential race to Uhuru Kenyatta. He, however, won at the Supreme Court when the court nullified the presidential vote. Raila, however, boycotted the rerun and Uhuru was reelected. At this point, millions of his supporters rallied around him. Anyone, especially from the Luo community, who befriended Uhuru was condemned and branded a traitor.  Dalmas was thrown in this category.

Then in March 2018, Raila and Uhuru shook hands and initiated the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI). The ‘traitors’ were vindicated. Dalmas was already at the table eating with Uhuru. In 2022, Uhuru endorsed Raila over his own deputy William Ruto to run for the presidency.

When Ruto took oath of office, in 2022, anyone on his side was considered a Raila enemy. While his supporters were digging in for a long grueling war, Raila, in late 2023, held a secret meeting with Ruto in Uganda, brokered by President Yoweri Museveni. Another handshake had just happened.

Ruto then led a massive continental support for Raila’s bid for the chairmanship of the African Union Commission (AUC). Some of Raila’s ardent supporters who had hurled unprintable epithets at Ruto were left bewildered and confused.

In June 2024, scores of youth were killed in street battles. Angry protestors were annoyed by the passing in Parliament of the 2024/2025 Finance Bill. On June 25, 2024, the protesters defiled Parliament when they set the Senate Chambers ablaze. The police unleashed raw brutality against them. Many were killed.

Just when Ruto’s opponents thought he was fatally wounded, Raila entered the scene with a rescue handshake, which birthed a broad-based government. Officials of Raila’s ODM party such as Hassan Joho, John Mbadi, Wycliffe Oparanya and Opiyo Wandayi joined the government as Cabinet Secretaries.

Dalmas smiled and posed:

“Has Raila ever been a real reformer and agitator for justice? In my view, he has not. Unlike his father, Raila is a shrewd politician, tactician and opportunist. He is in for personal gain and rarely has the interest of the Luo community or Kenyan’s at heart”

Raila’s frequent handshakes are what Dalmas dismissed as selfish, and individualistic.

“He is interested purely in promoting elite power and growing family business empire. This makes his indulgence in democracy purely cosmetic” argued Dalmas.

But Dalmas and other Raila critics forget that his forays have not been in vain. The Raila Odinga-Moi cooperation in the late 1990’s to 2000, saw the tarmacking of the Kisii-Kisumu highway. Kisumu was made a city.

The port of Kisumu, which literally shut down during the 1990s, yawned its way back to life after the handshakes between Raila and Kibaki and Raila and Uhuru. A breath of life was pumped into the fresh waters of Kisumu. Uhuru, through the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF), revamped the ships and ferry that had been left to rot in the port. The fragrance of trade and tourism are now a sweet aroma in the lake region. The Kisumu International Airport was expanded and modernized. The city has become the most attractive centre for education, research and conference tourism in Western Kenya.

Those who understand power and effects of isolation argue that the Ruto-Raila handshake should reap even greater benefits for the Luo community and the entire Lake Victoria region.

While eulogizing Dalmas, Raila said he was: “a committed public servant who believed in the power of effective and efficient public service as a cornerstone of good governance.”

Dalmas was indeed a distinguished public servant and shrewd politician. He was an exemplary performer in all the dockets he held.

He served as Minister for Industrialization, Labour and Transport in the Kanu administration. He later served as Minister for Public Service in the Grand Coalition government. It is while he was in Public Service that I tasted some of the reforms he introduced in the civil service. Together with the then Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, Dalmas introduced performance contracting, enhanced the retirement age for public servants to 60 and established the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

He shaped public administration and reforms, restoring order, dignity and professionalism in the civil service. He was a decisive leader who conducted his duties with authority.

Between 1988 and 1991, as minister for industrialization, he championed industrial development at a time Kenya was grappling with a growing demand for economic reforms. Between 1991 and 1996, he managed the transport docket as a minister. He oversaw infrastructure development, growth of road networks, and transport systems.

Dalmas successfully defended his seat in 2013 on an ODM ticket. He then did the unthinkable; he formed his own movement, Kalausi (whirlwind) in 2014, to challenge the ODM dominance in South Nyanza. He wanted to wriggle Raila’s grip of the regions politics and emancipate the people of South Nyanza. He failed miserably.

In the 2017 during the ODM primaries, he lost to his nemesis Paul Abuor and ran for the Rongo seat as an independent candidate. He lost.

From my interactions with Dalmas, I saw in him a man who was impatient with petty politics, individualism, and selfish pursuance for self-gain.

Unlike Chacha, Dalmas didn’t fear the Odingas. He had a respectful, love-hate relationship with one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Kenya.