Writes Leo Odera Omolo

The drama unfolded during the burial of the chairman of the Suba Council of Elders, the late Apollo Okeyo Omuga, last Saturday in Rusinga East Location, Mbita district, where the Minister for immigration and Registration Gerald Otieno Kajwang’ was prevented from addressing the mourners.

The funeral ceremony took place in Mzee Okeyo Omuga’s Kakirigu village home, Rusinga East, Mbita district within Homa-Bay County.

Unlike the moribund an amorphous Luo Council of Elders, which is full of semi-illiterate elderly people, members of the Suba Council of Elder comprises top brains in the region, most of them retire secondary school teachers, former District Officers, school teachers Ex-Senior Chief and chiefs and very enlightened groups.

Before succumbing to his death late last month in what appeared to have been caused by cardiac arrest relation ailment, the late Okeyo –Omuga a retired former Provincial Adult Education Officer was serving as the chairman of the Suba Council of Elders.

The Suba Council of Elders has been at loggerheads with the Minister who did not recognize the body, though he represented a constituency where the majority of the electorate are people of Suba origins.

In the recent past, Minister Kajwang’ has been giving a total black-out to the deceased whenever he is conducting any public function within the constituency, arguing that the Suba community did not exist and that all the residents of Mbita and Gwassi constituencies were Luos, something which has become the source of hostilities between the Minister and the community.

The fall out between Minister Kajwang’ and the Suba community was aggravated by a speech made by the prime Minister Raila Odinga, a month ago during the burial of the former Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, the late Ambassador Michael Okeyo at Kaswanga village in Rusinga West Location.

In his address, Raila Odinga said publicly that there is no community called Suba and that all the residents of the region were a collection of Luos whose origins could be traced from within the Luo community. These remarks seemed to have irked the Suba people who suspected that the Prime Minister might have been drawn into the local controversy through ill-adviced, which he had received from Minister Otieno Kajwang.

During the burial of Ambassador Okeyo, Kajwang’, who acted as the master of ceremony, did introduce the chairman of the Luo Council of Elders Mzee Elly Opiyo Otondi who had traveled all the way from his Kisumo East, Nyahera home to the Rusinga Island and his team, but the Minister in apparent display of non-recognition of Suba Council of Elders did not introduce the late Apollo Okeyo Omuga its chairman despite of the fact that the latter was in attendance.

Otieno Kajwang’ had at an earlier function during the burial of the mother of the nominated MP Millie Odhiambo, also in Rusinga Island, had deliberately ignored the presence of the late Okeyo Omuga and members of the Suba Council of Elders team, though some of its member had traveled from long distance places

And immediately after this particular incident, came the current agitation by the people of Suba region that the two districts whose residents are predominantly the people of Suba origin, be renamed Suba South and Suba North districts instead of Gwassi and Mbita in recognition of the existence of the community, the demand which the Minister is vehemently opposed to, arguing that the population of Luos in Mbita superseded that of the Suba people an argument which is not backed by statistics and figures.

Prior to the burial of late Okeyo-Omuga members of the Suba Council of Elders consisting of the retired chiefs, educationist and leading personalities within the region had met secretly and resolved not to allow the Minister to address the mourners before their late chairman was laid to rest.

Their argument was that there was no point for the Minister Otieno Kajwng’ to come to the funeral for the purpose of shedding crocodile tears while in life he{the Minister} did not recognize the late chairman of Suba Council of Elders.

Several speaker who spoke earlier had poisoned the air insisting that the Suba Community must be recognized, respected for their national identity. A group of students from Suba region who are studying at the various public universities made a highly inflammatory speech in a prepared text.

Speaking on behalf of the deceased sisters-in-law and other relatives, the former Nyanza Provincial director of Education Mrs Roselyn Onyuka called upon the residents of the entire Suba region representing the communities from Mfangano, Rusinga, Gwassi, Gembe and Lambwe areas to work in unity so that they could overcome myriad of problems facing them and the team.

She decried the falling standard of education in the region and mention schools in Rusinga Island which did not shine during the recently released result of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education {KCSE} in which the people of the area had nothing to celebrate about due to poor performance, which had locked out their schools from the list of the top performing schools.

Onyuka who is now an aspiring candidate or the position of Women Representative for Homa-Bay County advised all the stakeholders to brainstorm together and find a solution how to improve the education standard in the region. She, however, steered clear of the controversy surrounding Suba issue.

Meanwhile the Minister Otieno Kajwang’ who arrived rather late in a tension charged funeral in seemingly an already troubled waters. His arrival came after the ground had been poisoned and excessively polluted by early speakers. He was accompanied by a truck full of ODM party youths. The Minister is also the ODM Homa-Bay County branch chairman. He is reported to have switched from defending his Mbita seat and would be vying for the County Senate seat instead.

The Minister at patently in the VIP dais and listened the announcement made by master of ceremony telling the mourners that politicians and all aspiring candidates for the various elective positions within Homa-Bay County will only be allowed to deliver their speech after the deceased body had been interred into it final resting place and that the Minister would be the last speaker,

Sensing that he had no role to play in that burial ceremony, Minister Kajwang’ walked out followed by troops of youth and a few supporters and drove out of the Islands in a huff and towards his home which is located next to Waondo Secondary School in Mbita mainland looking a dejected man.

Earlier the vice chairman of the Luo Council of Elders Ex-Senior Chief Omolo Anditi who hail from Rusinga East was heckled by the mourner’s ken as he tried to deliver his speech which was drawn into noisy and cat calls.

In his message of condolence to the bereaved family which he sent through one of his aids the Prime Minister Raila Odinga seemed to have retracted his earlier stance and told the mourner in a prepared text that the position of Suba community cannot be tempered with. Instead of sending his condolences through the Minister Kajwang,’ Raila sent his message through Silas Jakakimba, one of his aids. He promised that he would one day pay the homage to the bereaved family.

Other prominent speakers included the retired Secondary School teacher Mzee Ochola Gaa, who is the father of the Chief of Staff at the prime Minister’s Office Karoli Omondi who is a member of the Suba Council of Elders who eloquently read a long memorandum which highlighted the history of the Suba Community and rubbished Minister Kajwang’ stance on the issue.

Another speaker was George Osingo Migure a former Mbita MP who reiterated that the Suba issue was resolved long time ago when the government of Kenya under President Daniel Arap Moi gazette the Suba as a community and therefore should not be revisited a fresh again.

Ends