Oluoch Kanindo: The End of a Colourful and Controversial Political Career

The Late Phares Oluoch Kanindo

One of the most colourful politicians in Nyanza and Kenya over the last 40 years or so has been the late Phares Oluoch Kanindo, who passed on at the Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu shortly after mid night on Saturday May 24/25, 2014.

He was burried on June 13, 2014 at his Komolo Rume home near Sony Sugar Factory in Awendo Constituency of Migori County. The burial ceremony attended by key political figures in Nyanza and beyond, among them the former Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga.

Kanindo was a likable personality, full of humour and was an acclaimed orator who would leave the crowd in stitches, even at funerals. He was an adept Dholuo speaker who understood the nuances of the language and would always have choice words, phrases, parables and quotes befitting different occasions. 

People who knew him always looked forward to listening to his speech. He was also straddling a generation within the Luo community, between the older generation who took time to know and and value people and the younger group. Kanindo knew many people and their families intimately and could relate with them and ask about their family members whenever he met them. 

It is perhaps easy mien that made him charm his way into the hearts of voters in the then large Homabay Constituency in 1979, beating a crowded field of seasoned politicians from where he rose to become an Assistant Minister in the Kanu government of retired President Daniel Arap Moi. 

The then larger Homabay has since then been split into Rangwe, Homabay Town, Rongo and Awendo constituencies. He served as the Homabay Constituency MP from 1979-1988 when he lost at the "mlolongo" (queue -voting system)  nominations to Dalmas Otieno.

As an Assistant Minister for Education, Kanindo will be membered for helping many young people from South Nyanza access college education and teaching jobs before he was sacked by Moi after he was seen greeting the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga in Nairobi. At the time, it was politically suicidal to associate with the Odingas. 

Raila Odinga

Jaramogi parted ways with the Kanu establishment following the 1966 controversial Kanu conference at Limuru during which the then ruling party created 8 Vice Presidents, and even in Nyanza , he was edged out of the pary’s leadership even though he was the country’s Vice President. 

In Nyanza, the Kanu vice Chairman became the late Lawrence Sagini from Kisii in an orchestrated party coup that marked part of what ails the country to date.  Kanu strategiss Tom Mboya was widely believed to have been ingeneered this coup at the behest of President Jomo Kenyatta, and of course Mboya himself who was Odinga's rival within the party and in Nyanza. 

Odinga was to immediately thereafter form the Kenya People’s Union (KPU), an opposition party to give space to those whofelt uncomfortable in Kanu. Although KPU brought together politicians from different communities including Bildad Kagia from Muranga, the government was to create a most restrictive and intimidating political environment ever seen at the time, coupled with propaganda, which emasculated the nascent opposition party .

But the Luo saying goes, "Ondiek chamo wendone!". The Kaimbu mafia under Kenyatta were soon scheming to get rid of Mboya, even more violently that TJ, fondly known as "Oke G'Odhiambo" could imagine, after he helped them tame Odinga.

Mboya, then the Economic Planning Minsiter and Kanu's Secretary General was cruelly assassinated in broad daylight on July 5, 1969 on Moi Avenue. Another senior Luo politician and a prominent lawyer, CMG Argwings Kodhek had also died the previous year in a suspicious car accident near the Deparment of Defence in Nairobi. 

The Luo nation was seething with rage against Kanu and the Kenyatta government. The president skipped Mboy's burial in Rusinga amid the demos in Nairobi and Kisumu. However, three months later, Kenyatta drove into Kisumu from Kakamega, to preside over the official opening of the Russia Hospital (Now Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital), which was built with aid from the Soviet Union, through Odinga's influence.

Tom MBoya: His killing enraged the Luo

 During the function, Kenyatta got into a furious argument and quarrel with Odinga leading to one of the worst massacres of unamed civilians in Kenya's history. Chaos erupted in Kisumu, with angry members of the crwod stoning Kenyatta's motorcade which literally shot its way out of the city, with Kenyatta's body guards, in the process, killing more than 100 people by various accounts, although the government put the death toll at 30. 

The government blamed the incident on the opposition party KPU and Kenyatta immediately banned it, throwing most of its leaders, including Odinga, into detention. 

From that point on, it became suicidal to associate with the Odingas if you wanted to survive in the Kanu regime or in politics generally. Odinga himself was to be kept in political Siberia for decades until the return of multi-party politics in 1992.

When Moi took over and announced he woulf "fuata Nyayo" (follow in the footsteps of Kenyatta) then all those who wanted political rehabilitation knew they had to disown Jaramogi to make it to the Kanu eating table or be in the neighbourhood to even smell the aroma, wafting from the ruling party's eatings chief's table and kitchen.

Yet Kanindo’s father Anindo Wuon Nyakachunga was Odinga’s long -time friend and one of the key elders within the Luo community and Kanindo his son and Odinga’s eldest son Oburu, went to Pe-Hill High School together and would often stay at Anindo’s Awendo home during the holidays. 

By meeting and talking to Odinga when he was an Assistant Minister, Oluoch Kanindo risked his position in the government. Such was Oluoch’s daring nature which Oburu told mourners at his burial on June 13, adding that the late Kanindo could take risks for the sake of friends.

Kanindo often took very controversial positions in Luo politics but he was never vilified as much as other politicians who went that route. This was because he was skillful in his political operations and was “sungura mjanja” so to speak, retaining a leg and friendship in the opposition with the rest of the Luo over the years even as he benefitted from the Kanu largesse.

“An achalo muok. Kweya ni edhoga. Lewani ema achiemogo!” (Literally, he meant that it was his power of speech (residing in his mouth and tongue!) that kept him going and made him reap benefits from the political establishment, helping him survive between the opposing political forces). And survive he did!

Part of the crown at Kanindo's Burial

Following the introduction of multi-party politics in 1991, Kanindo quickly joined the original Ford and later followed Jaramogi and the rest of his Luo community to Ford Kenya when the original Ford split up, with Kenneth Matiba and the late Martin Shikuku taking away one part of it, which they named Ford Asili. 

But Kanindo was to take an about-turn in late 1992 after he lost the at the Ford Kenya nominations for the Rongo seat. He was beaten by the late Linus Aluoch polo who went on to become the MP for two terms. Kanindo issued a strong statement denouncing Jaramogi and Ford Kenya, a statement which the state radio and Kanu propaganda machine then, KBC, aired prominently for nearly one week.

The Luo community was appalled by the statement and Kanindo became, at least for a while, a pariah, feeling the heat from every quarter. The Luo community viewed him as a sell-out, betraying his father’s longtime friend, Jaramogi.  

Unfortunately for him, he could not get the Kanu ticket as the current Rongo MP Dalmas Otieno had wedged himself firmly as the then ruling party’s favourite candidate at the time, having been propped up by the then powerful Internal Security Permanent Secretary the late Hezekiah Oyugi in the 1988 “mlolongo” elections.

Dalmas Otieno (r) with President Uhuru Kenyatta

After Polo became the MP, Kanindo sought rehabilitation within Ford Kenya unsuccessfully. But he never held grudges and would attend political forums, meeting his rivals and using his oratory skills to endear himself to the people even as he poked fun at them and his rivals. 

“Eeh wuod gi Nyuando! Polo wuod gi Nyuando!” (Nyuando was Polo’s cousin so Kanindo would praise him as a "Nyuando's brother!"), he would fondly call out to the Rongo Ford Kenya MP whenever they met at public places and funeral, sometimes as he welcomed him to address a gathering. 

Kanindo was never re-elected as MP for Homabay or for the Rongo seat which was split from the larger Homabay, but he maintained relative political relevance and proved quite a thorn in the flesh to his rivals. 

In the 1990s he would often team up with Otieno Dalmas, campaigning for Kanu, first in 1993 for Charles Owino Likowa who had that year defected from Ford Kenya to Kanu, leaving the Migori seat vacant and in 1994, for Tom Obondo in Ndhiwa who also left Ford Kenya for Kanu.

However in Migori, Owino Achola beat Likowa on Ford Kenya ticket and represented Migori for two terms while Obondo was replaced in Ndhiwa by the late Joshua Orwa Ojode. In between, there were also some civic by-elections where Kanindo joined Otieno to drum up support for Kanu candidates.

Former Migori MP Owino Likowa

In 1995, Kanindo also joined Otieno and other Kanu luminaries in Nyanza to campaign for Ochola Ogur who had also defected from Ford Kenya to Kanu. However Ogur was beaten by the late Tom Akuoro Onyango who went in on Ford Kenya ticket.

At some point, between 1995-1996,  Kanindo got tired of playing second fiddle to Otieno Dalmas in Kanu. He waged a determined effort to dislodge Dalmas as the Migori Branch Kanu Chairman. 

Kanindo teamed up at the time with John Dache Pesa, who had just retired from being the Migori Teachers Training College Principal, in an unsuccessful attempt to take over the Migori Kanu Branch Chairmanship from Otieno and his team. Pesa later joined ODM, in 1997, to become the MP for Migori from from later that year to 2013 when he was dislodged by Junet Mohamed.

During the struggle to replace Otieno, Kanindo and Pesa at one point mobilized truckloads of supporters including cane cutters from Awendo in an attempt to take over the Kanu Branch Office in Migori town located at Pand Pieri near the Juakali sheds. 

Dalmas, then a powerful cabinet minister got support from the provincial administration and the police, which sent the Kanindo-Pesa axis fleeing from Migori town. But a section of the crowd later gathered at Girango Hotel, which was then being run by Pesa, for a meal which had been prepared in anticipation of victory. 

Such was the drama that characterized Kanindo –Otieno relationship but they remained politically tolerant of each other with bouts of love-hate relationship. 

Kanindo somehow maintained his own direct access to Moi even though Otieno was the only Luo cabinet minister through whom most delegations would go to Moi. Kanindo would always find his own way to Kabarak, to see Moi, who twice appointed him the Chairman of Sony Sugar Company.

He was a very clever political operative and could sometimes make his opponents most uncomfortable at public places and even use some of his own supporters to painfully prick both Dalmas and Polo. 

Oburu Odinga (in yellow shirt) with Raila at kanindo's burial

In one instance, he mobilized an anti –Otieno wave in Rongo, using Ford Kenya councilors, led by the late Omolo Miguna and Were Ogango. The group issued statements which called on Otieno to discourage delegations to his Kangeso home saying this divided the people of Rongo, and made Dalmas compare with President Moi who was also receiving delegations to his Kabarak home!

The statement appeared in the media at a time when President Moi was visiting Nyanza and at a time when Otieno, as a cabinet minister was under surveillance to gauge his loyalty to Kanu.

The Moi regime was still smarting from the after effects of the grisly murder of the then Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Robert John Ouko, whose body, with gorged out eyes, was found at the foot of Got Alila in Muhoroni, Kisumu County. So the Kanu loyalty barometer was on Otieno.

The late former powerful PS and Otieno’s mentor, Hezekiah Oyugi Ogango (Kalambe duong!” – the one with a big pen!”) had died abroad under suspicious circumstances after he was arrested and later sacked as he prepared to to and give evidence at the Ouko Commssion of Inquiry then sitting at Kisumu.

Oyugi was arrested together with the then Moi confidant and powerful Minister Nicholas Biwott. But the Kerio Valley MP was quickly freed and later re-appointed to the Cabinet.  

Kanindo’s activities caused quite some unease for Otieno who reportedly got a tongue lashing from Moi. Biwott,o was back in the Cabinet, with increased influence in the Moi government remained deeply paranoid of all Luo politicians after he was blamed for Ouko’s killing.

Characteristically, Kanindo often emerged unscathed after fomenting trouble for his political rivals. He had his way of explaining himself out of tight situations and even though Otieno blamed him for undercutting him as the only Luo Cabinet Minister, a sizeable chunk of Rongo and Luo people sided with Kanindo. 

In one case in 2002 before the General Elections which saw Moi beaten by the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), Kanindo, who was angling for the Rongo seat within Narc had to explain his reported presence at President Moi’s Kabarak home. 

At a funeral at Ranjira near Awendo, Kanindo disarmed the agitated crowd who were unhappy that he had been spotted at Kabarak when he claimed he was in Narc and the Liberal Democratic Party led by Raila Odinga at the time thus:

“Achiedh nade mamiyo dhiang’ kaw lewe mochiemogo to kendo ochako onang’ogo olunde ema nyocha omiyo adhi neno Moi Wuod Odongo!. Nyocha ung’eyo ni ne awito migoka dalaka koro nadhi ni Jaduong Moi mondoo yuora e chandruok, to kane awuok to aromo kod jothurwa moa Migori ka e rangach! To kanyo ema picha mar television omenya kamoso yawago! Koso ne kik amos jothurwa mabende ne odhi dwaro mogo ir Moi? An ne ok an kodgi! 

The point he was making in very persuasive Dholuo was that his being seen (on TV) at Moi’s Kabarak home was out of a tough choice he had to make becuase he had lost his daughter and because he was in dire need of assistance and had visited Moi's at Kabarak. He dismissed claims that he was part of a Kanu delegation from Migori at Kabarak at the time, saying he was captured on TV as he greeted members of the delegation, which he could not avoid since they were from his district! 

Dalmas had led the delegation to Kabarak, along with remnants of the Kanu supporters, apparently to pledge loyalty at a time the Narc wave was beginning to sweep across the country and the whole Kanu brigade was treated with utmost disdain by most members of the Luo community.

Kanindo’s last stab in elective politics was in 2013 when he unsuccessfully vied for the Migori Senate seat as an independent candidate.  He lost to Dr Wilfred Machage who stood on an ODM ticket. However, he never faded from view and was before his death concerned at the apparent bad blood between Raila and Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero.

"Uneno kaka jomoko tiyo gi jo gaset thuwo joluo?(Do you see how some people are using them media to create bad blood between Luo leaders?", he told mouners at the burial of the wife of the late former Maranattha Mission of Kenya Director James Nyambuoro at Agongo Village in Sakwa, Awendo early this year.

Kanindo’s demise leaves a yawning social, economic and political gap. In politics and sense of humour and power of speech, he was one of a kind in his generation, ranking alongside former Alego Usonga MP Peter Catro Oloo Aringo, former Nyatike MP Ochola Ogur and former Muhoroni MP Onyango Midika and the late former Bondo MP William Odongo Omamo “Kaliech”.

Kanindo's wives at the burial

The older generation of Luos who valued the power of speech, humor and parables, and less of the more irritating casual approach and name calling that is so rampant now, will miss Kanindo dearly. He was also a committed supporter of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in which he was nurtured by his parents and was by all standards, a committed Christian.

Kanindo also loved to dress smartly and often picked choice Italian suits at the Sir Henry's in nairobi or other such expensive shops in the city or abroad whenever he traveled. He had a nack for winning over ladies. No wonder he married many wives. 

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga's wife, Ida made a joke of this at his burial on June 13, narrating how the sweet- talking Kanindo eloped with her school mate who was to be his first wife, from Ogande Girls Secondary School near Homabay. Kanindo hid the lady in Tanzania for  a while before it became known that he had actually married her. 

"Kanindo ni ne mkora malich. Nobiro momayowa nyar skundwa Oganda Girls,  e jaode maduong ma koro uneno kanyono. Nokwale modhi opande mana Tanzania!"  joked Ida at the burial, in reference to the eloping episode.

 Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, Raila and Ida at  the burial

Although many people were critical of his tenure aas Sony Sugar Company Chairman, nobody could doubt his commitment to supportin and advocating for sugarcane farmers within the Awendo Sugarbelt. 

Kanindo was born on November 29, 1942, in the present Awendo Constituency in Migori County to the late Andrea Anindo and Masella Ojowi Anindo. He attended Manyatta, Lwala, and Komolo-Rume primary schools. He then joined Koderobara and Pe-Hill Intermediate School.

Kanindo later got a scholarship to Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) where he did a diploma in Radio and Wireless Electronics between 1961 and 1963.

After Kenya’s independence in 1963, Kanindo returned to the country where he later joined the Kenya News Agency (KNA) as a technician in radio and wireless devices, where he worked with among others, former Nyatike MP Ochola Ogur.

Kanindo later joined the music production industry through Electric & Musical Industries Ltd (EMI) where he served as the CEO in Kenya, under a proprietor, Graham Shepherd of EMI London, the son of the then speaker of the House of Lords in London. 

 It was during his stint at EMI that he helped many budding musicians including his brother in- law the late Collela Mazee to produce some of the most outstanding songs that rule the benga world to date. Most of the records in the 1970 through to the 1980 bore the famous tag  "Produced by Phares Oluoch Kanindo (POK)".

Nind gi kwe "Galamoro'!