Reports Leo Odera Omolo.

 One of the top former aides of the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga has died in a Kisumu Hospital aged about 80 years.

Crispin Were Olonde who was a key aide of the late Jaramnogi Oginga Odinga in the early 1950s and late 1970 has died in a Kisumu Hospital.

Olonde  passed away at the Jelaram Hospital, Kisumu on Thursday night after being admitted there for some undisclosed ailment.

Before joining Jaramogi, C.W. Olode was the long serving editor of the defunct RAMOGI weekly newspaper. He also worked hand in hand with the late Dixon Oruko Makasembo during the days of the Central Nyanza African District Association {CADA before the birth of KANU in 1960s.

Olonde had brushed shoulder with the Colonial police and later on with the police in an independent Kenya due to his radical stance. At one time he narrowly escaped the police dragnet in Kisumu after beating the former Nyanza P.C. Charles Murgor and went into self-impose exile in Uganda for a couple of years.

In the early 1970s Olonde abandoned politics and joined the staff of the Chemelil Sugar Company Limited the company’s welfare manager where he retired about 15 years ago after attaining the mandatory retirement age.

One of his comrades Edwin Onyango Radier, the former Deputy Mayor of Kisumu yesterday sent his condolences to the family of the decease. Radier said plans are underway to accord Olonde a heroic send off. It will include the laying in state at the Ofafa Memorial Hall for an overnight stay before the body is ferried to his Nyakach Jimo home for burial and that the tentative plan will be announced after consultation with the family.

Olonde left behind several wives and many children most of them grown ups. He was the key planner in the late Jaramogi’s team for many years

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