By Agwanda Saye,
The late Ndhiwa MP and Security Ministry Assistant Minister was finally buried last weekend at his Unga home in Ratang’a within Ndhiwa District in a funeral ceremony attended by a mammoth led by President Mwai Kibaki and other key Government Ministry officials.
I feel indebted to the late Ojode’s family, relatives and friends if I will not eulogize him as a friend whom I really knew and made many knew me as a result of our friendship.
The first time I met the late Ojode was in early 1990’s when as a young tall man he made a surprise visit to my late uncle the former Kisumu Mayor Lawrence Akinyi Oile at his house in Kisian very early one morning while driving a red Mercedes Benz ,actually I had never seen him but the Mercedes made me to be curious of the occupier.
When he alighted from the passenger seat I sawa tall man who sleeves of the shirts could not reach his wrist and the long trouser could not cover his shoes.
I ushered him to the sitting room and they spoke for over two hours before he left.
As we were heading to town with the late Oile, he asked generally in the vehicle if we knew that man, I said know, he told us that the man was called Orwa Ojode and he wanted him with the Baghdad boys which he was controlling to assist him capture Ndhiwa seat which had been left vacant after the defection of the then MP Tom Obondo who had defected to KANU party.
After the by –elections which was marred by thugery and bloodshed Ojode was declared the winner, after that we become friends as any time he passed Kisumu he would always pass by to thank the late Oile for having made his entry to parliament possible.
Our friendship stuck for so long that whenever he alighted at the Kisumu airport as he headed to his Ndhiwa home he would always call me so that I “update” him on any issues.
But the Ojode I knew was a pale shadow of himself immediately after the announcement of the cabinet by the coalition partners when he lamented how he was shortchanged,
By then we were idling at the Lakeview restaurant together with Eng.Okoko and others,Ojode could not understand how he was never made a cabinet Minister despite all that he had done to the ODM party.
I again show his bitterness at the Kisumu Airport one day when school going kids were not being allowed to go to school ostensibly “Unity” Raila Odinga okays.
Ojodeh in anger confronted the then new Assistant Minister for Education Ayiecho Olweny and told him to tell Raila to “allows” kids to go to school since he has the “keys” to “lock and unlock” members of the luo community’s destiny.
Ayiecho omn the other hand retorted that he (Ojode) was equally capable of telling Raila so since he was too an Assistant Minister”koso nyocha usechwanyoru” (or you had parted ways).
The situation was however clamed by the then EALA legislature Clarkson Otieno Karan who castigated me for having brought up the issue which was generating out of hand.
We were together with Housing Minister Soita Shitanda,Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale among others.
Ojode would always call me and whenever I was broke I would tell him and he would bail me out.
He once in April called me to go and visit him but tat day coincided with a very important commitment I had which could not have made it possible that I see him, he called that night wondering why I never made it, later we met in Kisumu and he told him the reason why he wanted to see me.
May God rest his soul in eternal peace