Remembering Joshua Orwa Ojode - Four Years On

Four years ago on June 10, 2012, one of the most flamboyant politicians from Nyanza in the last two decades, Joshua Orwa Ojode, then MP for Ndhiwa Constituency and an Assistant Minister for Internal Security, died in a suspicious plane crash, along with the then Internal Security Minister the late George Saitoti. 

The late Ojode addressing a meeting

Various theories have been advanced for the fatal plane crash which also killed two pilots and two security guards accompanying the two politicians. 

The plane crash, which happened within less than ten minutes of take -off of the helicopter from Wilson Airport, over Kibuku Forest in Ngong area near Nairobi, happened under suspicious circumstances.

Many have opined that the crash was a carefully planned trap for Saitoti who at the time, not only contemplated running for the presidency of Kenya but was in a most privileged position, knowledge and influence on the security issues of the country. 

Saitoti was considered to have intimate knowledge on the cases facing the current President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, and on the pervasive drug trafficking syndicates believed to involve prominent and powerful people, both in and out of government. 

Ojode was Saitoti’s deputy at the Internal Affairs Ministry and had on his own, also curved out a powerful and influential position for himself, after initially appearing to reject the position offered to him by the then Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the Grand Coalition government.

Ojode and all the others on board were generally believed to have been collateral damage and that Saitoti was the target of the assassination. Ojode was to host Saitoti for a church funds drive at Kwabwai in his Ndhiwa Constituency when they perished in the crash.

It was intriguing that the then Internal Affairs Permanent Secretary, Mutea Iringo, who was supposed to join them in the trip, did not board the plane although he was seen at the Wilson Airport shortly before the two boarded the fateful flight.

It is also believed that the flight delayed with Saitoti impatiently waiting for Ojode to arrive from his house. There were reports that the Ndhiwa MP and his wife Mary had a tiff over the trip, with Mary insisting on also going as the host, and he, as if in a premonition, insisting that his wife remains behind, heralding a fairly bad mood at their house that morning, causing the delay.

Traditionally among the Luo, and other African traditions, you do not arrive with the guest at the same time and reports emerged that Ojode was advised by many of his political colleagues to go ahead of Saitoti, but fate was beckoning.

The previous week, they had a hectic time at the Coast during a national conference at which Saitoti gave a poignant speech that, in retrospect, pointed to him knowing that he was in latent danger. It is understood him and Ojode kept changing their hotel rooms at the Coast at the time, perhaps aware they were under watch.

 Now four years on, it would be important to delve deep into Ojode’s rise as a politician and as the longest serving Ndhiwa MP, from 1994- 2012.

Ojode rose from some nondescript back ground in 1994 to successfully contest the Ndhiwa seat after the holder, Tom Obondo, defected back to Kanu, where he had been one of the operatives under Moi.

Ojode was working with some company in the industrial area in Nairobi and had really never been visible politically but apparently the political bug bit him and he chose to make a try.

The 1993-95 was a season of defection for many politicians who could not resist the allure of Kanu money, or who had been indebted but crossed over to the opposition thinking it would be safe, as Ford Kenya, then led by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was believed to be poised to win the 1992 General Elections. 

Owino likowa: He led in the defection in 1993

The first to defect was the then Migori MP Charles Oyugi Owino (Likowa) in February 1993 as soon as parliament opened. Likowa, a former manager at the National Bank Branch in Kisumu was deep in debt and was under blackmail by the Kanu government.

Kanu launched an onslaught on Ford Kenya strongholds and, Dalmas Otieno, the current MP for Rongo, the most prominent Kanu stalwart in Nyanza at the time, cobbled a team of Kanu orphans and political rejects to launch a huge campaign blitz to win over the Luos to Kanu. 

That is how Tom Obondo fell into the trap. Obondo, a known frequenter of the gambling casinos at the time, was reeling in debt, and at one time was allocated a cemetery in Kiambu by the Kanu government. 

In early 1994, Obondo, then Rangwe MP on Ford Kenya ticket, Prof Ouma Muga and his then Nyatike counterpart Ochola Ogur, announced that they were tired of the opposition and started to hob nob with Kanu through Dalmas Otieno and his team.

They reportedly planned to announce their defection together but this was never to be. They made the announcement about their plan in Homabay and were due to hold a rally at Wath Ong’er in Nyatike to defect officially but immediately faced hostility. 

Ogur, the-would be host, was literally forced to sit down on the grass and beg for mercy from his angry constituents who threatened to beat him up for betraying them and the Luo community by attempting to defect. 

 “Eri anindonu piny jothurwa! Chwadauru kakosonu! Lwoka Uru gi omo, abed maler!” Ogur begged his angry constituents to cane him and rehabilitate him into the fold. He survived because of his wit and charm. He was let off the hook, but was later to defect to Kanu in 1995.

Prof Ouma Muga and Obondo were barred from entering Wath Ong’er Market at Ndiwa, a nearby market, by a hostile crowd and they went back to Homabay. Shortly after, Obondo announced his defection to Kanu, occasioning the by-election in Ndhiwa that brought Ojode to prominence.

Prof Muga, retreated to his Rangwe constituency and was to stay on as MP for the remainder of the term until he was dethroned by Philip Okundi at the 1997 General Elections. Ouma grew cold feet at the last minute and later relapsed into a political limbo he has never recovered from. 

The campaign to replace Owino Likowa in Migori in March 1993 had been relatively easy and Jaramogi Odinga, then Leader of Ford Kenya, was still alive and personally took charge of the campaigns that saw Owino Achola replace Likowa as Migori MP. 

The Ndhiwa by- election a year later in 1994 came months after Jaramogi’s demise on January 20, 1994. However, Ford Kenya, under Wamalwa Kijana, who had succeeded Odinga as party leader, was still united and the team led a formidable campaign, against a well-oiled Kanu campaign, leading to Ojode’s victory.

Dalmas Otieno led the Kanu brigade that also include a former Health Minister and one time Mbita MP Peter Nyakiamo, former Karachuonyo MP Lazarus Amayo, then Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Kassim Owango, Owino Likowa, and a former powerful South Nyanza County County Council Chairman Akech Chieng’,among others. 

Dalmas Otieno (r) and Uhuru Kenyatta: He led Kanu team

This was one of the most violent by-elections in Nyanza at the time, with Dalmas Otieno being accused of bringing in the “Kitunja” vigilante group, who operated along the Migori Trans Mara border. The group, who were armed with bows and arrows, injured, among others, the then South Kabuoch Councilor Jane Were. 

Dalmas vigorously denied any association with the team and sued Nation Newspapers for linking him to the rag tag group in a case that dragged on for a long time but was eventually settled out of court. 

Meanwhile, Ford Kenya brought in the dreaded “Bagdad Boys” from Kisumu which countered the Kanu group. Among those who felt the wrath of the Bagdad Boys was Akech Chieng’, who was abducted around Corner K’Obodo by the group and assaulted for allegedly bribing voters.

Ojode was then a green horn in politics and his campaign was coordinated on the ground by the then Rongo MP Linus Aluoch Polo and Owino Achola of Migori. They were joined by other Ford Kenya leaders, including Raila Odinga, then the Deputy Director of Elections and James Orengo “Nyatieng”, then MP for Ugenya, among others. 

Polo was the chairman of the Luo Parliamentary Group (Jakom Duol) at the time of Odinga’s demise and therefore held an important position within the Ford Kenya establishment in Nyanza.

Ojode had minimal resources at the time and his old Suzuki car would break down frequently. He was to later use Owino Achola’s Peugeot Station wagon in most of his campaigns across the constituency or would be in other vehicles deployed by the Ford Kenya team.

So politically naïve was Ojode at the time that he did not even realize the Kanu team, using the provincial administration were about to manipulate the vote counting at Mirogi Primary school. It took the intervention of Polo, Achola and the combined team of youths from Migori, and the Bagdad team to secure Ojode’s votes that night during the vote counting. 

The Election officials had reportedly conspired with the Kanu team and government officials to rig the by-election and even switched off the pressure lamps at the tallying center. But Achola and the Migori team had brought a stand-by generator which they promptly switched of in the nick of time, foiling the vote rigging plan, amid fist- fights with Ford Kenya youths.

At the crack of dawn after the vote count, which gave Ford Kenya an assailable victory, a visibly exhausted but jubilant Ojode joined his supporters, which included his clan’s men and women, in song and dance, garlanded with twigs and other paraphernalia, as the team snaked its way to his home in Kwabwai through Ndhiwa township. 

It was only later that Ojode was to know the ropes about safeguarding the vote, which he used to his advantage, even against his own party opponents in the nominations over the period when he was MP.

Monica Amolo: Ojode had unkind words for her

Many people did not know Ojode’s deep links with Kanu and the system. His wife Mary was the daughter to a Kanu die hard and Elections Commissioner, the late Andrew Okeyo of Kadika in Migori, a longtime supporter and confidant of then President Moi. 

As soon as Ojode was elected, he started speaking out of turn, criticizing his Luo colleagues over a varieity of issues. Later in 1994, at a funeral in Rongo, Dalmas Otieno’s home turf, Ojode spoke in favour of Kanu, calling for cooperation with the ruling party and urging his colleagues to tone down their criticism of the then ruling party and its leader, President Moi. 

He ran into immediate problems and was to coil his tail for a while even as he remained under watch from his party colleagues who monitored his political and business association with the Moi family and then powerful minister at the time, Nicholas Biwot.

Ojode was to remain a shrewd operator, maintaining a hawkish stand within Ford Kenya, and later, National Development Party (NDP) while working with those in the government system to cut lucrative business deals. 

“Raila en peremende mar raia! Ng’ama pinge to walalgo miru! (Raila is the people’s sweet/darling and anybody opposed to him will be dealt with without mercy), he would say at rallies.  

But as he grew in power and influence within the party and government, Ojode also developed a fairly brash and intolerant attitude towards his opponents and sections of Ndhiwa which did not appear to support him.

Ojode almost came round to believing that he was indispensable in Ndhiwa and would confidently say, each time elections neared that he was already re-elected (Nyaka nadog koro bor!). 

He had scant respect and time for his opponents who included, among others, Tom Obondo, his own uncle Otieno Ogingo, the late Monica Amolo and Neto Oyugi, who succeeded him. He would refer to them in the most derisive terms.

Current Ndhiwa MP, Agostnino Neto (in green)

In 2002, Ojode not only manipulated his own nominations but those of the councilors, among them, Jane Were of South Kabuoch, Orucho Rayola of Central Kabuoch and another councilor in Kanyikela ward, who chose to contest on a different party.

It is undeniable that Ojode used his position to bring some development to Ndhiwa,both through the CDF and other initiatives including improvement of roads, rural electrification, education and opportunity for youths from Ndhiwa to access Kenya Medical Training Colleges and security organs including the police and Administration Police.  

There were also crumbs that fell on the laps of different people in Ndhiwa, mostly among Ojode’s friends. But if the MP identified you as opposed to him or a potential opponent, then you and the people from your area were in for a rough time.

That Ojode could often break ranks with his colleagues in the party became evident in 2005 after Kibaki sacked a number of ministers who opposed the Kilifi constitution draft. The minsters included among others, Raila and Anyang’ Nyong’o, marking the big Narc split that went through to the referendum and the 2007 election period.

Kibaki named Ojode as Minister for Environment at a time when the entire Luo nation felt Kibaki had begun to mistreat its leaders. Ojode was on the verge of accepting the position but grew cold feet after strong reprimands from his party colleagues.  

“Kik ilokri jaduong aich ma gima jowadu okuno ikaw! This was a warning to Ojode by Oburu Odinga at the burial of the then MP for Kasipul Kabondo, Peter Owidi. Oburu was urging Ojode against being selfish by accepting the position, when his colleagues had been sacked from the same government.

After the hotly contested General Elections of 2007, the Post-Election violence and the signing of the National Accord, Ojode expected that Raila would reward his loyalty through appointment to a key cabinet position. 

When this did not happen and he was made an Assistant Minister for Internal Security, Ojode became visibly agitated and withdrawn. He only appreciated the importance of this position later when he started reaping the benefits that came with it but he never went back to being the loyal and hawkish Ojode of the earlier days.

At the requiem mass for the late Ojode at the Maxwel SDA Church in Nairobi, Raila alluded to this and explained that the MP had been unhappy but eventually agreed that the position was important and that the Grand Coalition government had presented unique difficulties and need for delicate balancing on the appointments.

Ojode was particularly unhappy that he could be left out of full cabinet appointment and Rongo MP Dalmas Otieno, a reluctant convert to ODM, was made a Minister for Public Service. He was not also overly enthusiastic about the appointment of Otieno Kajwang’ (Bado Mapambano) as Minister for Immigration. 

The Ndhiwa MP remained distant and instead began to forge a closer working relationship with the PNU wing of the Coalition, which some approved of while others considered it a betrayal. It was in this arrangement that Ojode virtually represented Saitoti in key functions and in parliament where he answered most of the questions directed at the ministry.

But he was a shrewd political operator and a rising star in Nyanza and national politics and had he lived to date, it is possible he would have gained a bigger profile within the national political arena. There is no doubt that he carried himself with a degree of flamboyance and knew how to connect with the public. 

But the often repeated claim that Ojode was the most “development conscious” among the Luo MPs of the time, has been a gross overstatement and a narrative which was sustained by those who wanted to please Ojode and some of those who wanted to carry favours with him or get crumbs from the government at the time, and believed he could help them.  

There has never been a uniform bench mark for what people describe as “development” and it was therefore not possible to rate Ojode above all the other MPs. Given the long period he served, Ojode should possibly have done more than is attributed to him.

The late Oluoch Kanindo

Certainly, Nyanza has lost in the death of Ojode but also because over that period, a number of other prominent leaders also passed on. They had, wit, experience, and connections that saw them Luo community through the period they served as elected leaders.

The leaders  who passed on within the last four years included, former MPs, Adhu Awiti (Karachuonyo), Phares Oluoch Kanindo (Homabay), Grace Ogot (Gem), Otieno Kajwang’ (Mbita and later Homabay Senator), Gordon Odero Jowi (Ndhiwa),  Wilson Ndolo Ayah (Kisumu Rural) and Ray Ndong’ (Rangwe).

The young crop of current MPs have rich lessons to learn about the history of Kenya and the struggles of the Luo nation over the last 50 years, amid sustained efforts at marginalization and manipulation. 

Otieno Kajwang: Nostalgia over his demise

There is also a sense in which those perceptive enough may look back with a tinge of nostalgia at certain moments in the lives of the departed and their varied contributions.