WAS “NYANG’IDI THE HUGE SNAKE OF GOOD HOPE OR OF BAD OMEN, DISASTROUS AND NATURAL CATASTROPHE AND CALAMITY?.

Short Story By Leo Odera Omolo who traces a historical disastrous which occurred in Nyanza Province in 1940

It was in the early part of the year 940 when a mysterious creature visited some low-laying locations in Nyanza Province in what is today called Rarieda district.

A huge and excessively big snake visited Uyoma Peninsula. It slithered from the direction of Kunya in Kabudha a

The huge snake is believed to have slithered out of Lake Victoria in search of food, but it was of a snake species which has never been seen in the area and nothing in comparison with the known species as it was excessively huge and long

THe reptile is appeared to have traveled by night. Its presence in the village attracted thousands of people.

The big tree has previously been used as the venue of weekly administrative Baraza by the first colonial administrative chief of Uyoma, the late Chief Otumba Mbede. The place is called “Gunda Kotumba” it is situated next to the homestead of the former Chief’s son Nathan Ojungo Otumba, who had inherited his chieftainship, but was retired around 1927.

According to the account of some still surviving eye witnesses, the snake was which was baptized by the villagers as “Nyang’idi “was three time longer than the normal python and resembled the common python in color. Its body was so huge that the eye witnesses compared its size to that of the rear tyre of a tractor.

The reptile resembled the “African Rock python which is usually larger and longer than the common python, and even stronger. The serpent was not aggressive and posed no threat to anyone. Thousands of people came to Chianda villagfe,some of them travelling on bicycle or on foot as far as away as from Yimbo, Alego Usonga, Gem, Seme, Sakwa, Asembo and even across the narrow water way of the Nyanza Gulf { previously known as the Kavirondo Gulf} from Suba and other locations in Southern Nyanza just to come and have a glimpse of the mysterious snake.

It was being fed with two animals every day or half a dozen of chickens. The huge snake was never scared of disturbed by huge crowd that milled around the creature. The crowd brought the live animals which were given as sacrifice for feeding the creature.

The animals on which it feed on for a couple of weeks were sacrifices made by the elders and sub-clans in Uyoma. And because it was during the Second World War II, which had started in earnest in the previous year 1939, the colonial administration in Nyanza got the winds of the news and became alarmed, after the white missionaries had warned that the population in the region was just about to start worshiping the mysterious creature.

The white missionaries were also alarmed by the volume of people flocking to Uyoma the mysterious creature.

As the usual culture of the Luos, the musicians also composed songs of praise for “Nyangidi” sending the white missionaries into great panicking.

Acting under the pressure of the white missionaries, the then Nyanza Provincial Commissioner a Mr Hunter asked the Kisumu based colonial District Commissioner a Mr Winright to immediately dispatch the team of sharp-shooter Administration policemen to Uyoma to go and shoot, kill land destroy the huge snake.

When the three armed APs arrived at Chianda School, they were shown the tree under which Nyang’idi was resting after a mean of a sheep, the police men developed cold feet and refused to open fire on it saying it was a mysterious creature not worth killing and the policemen went back to Kisumu without firing even one single shot at the creature.

Some people who saw the creature included Hon Wilson Ndolo Ayah, the former MP for Kisumu Rural constituency. He had just joined lower primary classes at Chianda Primary School and was staying with his uncle the late Ex-Chief Nathan Ojungo Otumba.Mr Ayah on a telephone interview with this writer said he was among the smaller boys who collected grass and covered the body of the snake as it rested under a tree during warm hours of the afternoon. Ayah served in the Moi’s KANU government as Foreign Affairs Minister and at one time Minister for Water Development admitted that he had seen this mysterious creature before he physically saw any python. Mr Ayah is on his 85 years.

Another eye witness is Mrs Grace Deya Omoso, the daughter of the late Ex-Chief Nathan Ojungo Otumba who is now ageing abut 86.Contacted at her home near Wang’arot in SemeMrs Omoso said Nyang’idi was a harmless creature.Children could even move close to where it had recoiled under the tree and play around.

Mr Ayah said the creature left mysteriously and slithered at night and the next morning many people trailed its footprint which looked like a place where a D8 or D10 heavy earthmoving tractor had passed. It travelled toward the neighboring Asembo location and was later seen in Akado area of Seme west before it permanently disappearing in the horizon.

The following year 1941 the entire Luo-Nyanza was hit by acute shortage of food grain. The worse famine came about which was baptized Ke Ladhri or Ke-Aladhra which his the area like thunderstorm up to 1943. Many people died of hunger.

Two prominent colonial chiefs died. They were Chief Ahenda of Alego and Chief Onunga Amimo of Kano plains.

Two prominent medizinemen {Witchdoctors} also died. They were Katete Owuor {Rambo} of Rusinga Island and Abang’a |Oungu of Uyoma. A wealthy businessman on Rusinga Olunga Onyango also died.A unit of Luo soldiers mutinied in Madagascar laying down their armed and demanding to be told the reason and the cause on which they were fighting for.

The mutiny became so serious that the colonial administration ordered for A RAF war plane stationed in eastern Uganda to fly one influential Luo Chief to the Indian Ocean Island of Madagascar to go and persuade the soldier to continue with fighting. The late Mzee Paul Mboya from Karachuonyo was chosen for task. Mboya, however, failed and almost got assaulted by the rebellious Luo soldiers and was flown back. He was quickly replaced by the late Chef Muganda Opwapo of Ugenya. Chief Muganda succeeded.

It was one year after Nyangidi disappearance when the formidable anti-colonialist campaigner Coun.Daniel Ojijo Oteko, died mysteriously at a government hospital in Kisumu. Thedeath of Ojijo Oteko raised political temperature in the region as the population pointed accusing fingers to the chiefs and colonial administrators.

The sealed off casket containing the body of the late Ojijo Oteko was taken immediately to his home in Kanjira in West Karachuonyo and buried with only his wife allowed near the coffin which was buried under the supervision of security police and thousands mourners harshly dispersed.

The year after the appearance of Nyang’idi SNAKE IN Uyoma was the same when Chief Paul Mboya sent packing the late Hussein Onyango Obama, the grand father of the US Present Barack Obama and forced him out of his home at Kanyadhiang’ in Central Karachuyonyo to go to Nyang’oma Alego in Siaya.

The two had disagreed over Hussein Onyango Obama closeness to the politician the late Ojijo Oteko.The action came after Mboya who was the then the Chief of Karachuonyo had issued repeated warnings to Obama to steer clear of political activities in the erea. The two had disagreed on a trophy ,which Hussein Onyangoi bought while working in Nairobi and brought home and wished it be used on a football tournament involved inter-sub-clans, but the Chief retained the trophy to his own clan despite his team having been beaten.

People who were born at the time of the visit by the mysterious snake are now ageing about 62 and above. Most of them are found n Sakwa Bondo, Yimbo, Asembo and Uyoma and even in Karachuonyo.

Ends