KARACHUONYO CONSTITUENCY POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY AND ITS POTENTIALITY AS A TOURIST DESTINATION IN THE FUTURE.

Second Profile By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

A political history of Karachuonyo constituency cannot be complete and comprehensive without mentioning one of Luo political giants of yester-years and a fallen hero.

This is the legendary Daniel Ojijo Oteko, who waged a war against the British Colonial rule in Kenya.

Ojijo Oteko died in suspicious and mysterious circumstances in 1944 at the peak of his active agitation against the country’s colonizers. His death arose suspicion that he was murdered by the British colonial masters.

At the time of his death, he had traveled to Kisumu. His mission, according to those privy to his story, was to have his nagging and painful teeth removed at the old Nyanza General Hospital. He was expected back home the same day. But this was never to be so. The great Ojijo Oteko was never to be seen alive again.

The information received by the family at home indicated that this great nationalist had died while in an operation theatre for the removal of one of his rotted teeth. The death raised eyebrows with the local people.

But what fueled most trouble and suspicion was the manner in which his dead body was handled by the Colonial Administration. It was brought back home under heavy police and soldiers guard. The coffin was completely sealed. Nobody was allowed to come close to the coffin. His wailing wife and relatives were kept at bay, at a safe distance by the soldiers, who had cocked their guns at the ready, to deal with anyone moving close to the graveside.

Up to this day, no one could tell whether the casket containing the remains of the late Daniel Ojijo Oteko was entered into his grace, which was later well cemented, with a concrete cross and inscription of his names, next to Wagwe-Pala road. And it was no surprise that some mischievous thugs recently dug out the body and stole it.

The rumors making the round at the time, was that Daniel Ojijo Oteko was injected with drugs that induced death by sleep, and that his head was separated from the rest of his body and sent to the UK, in similar fashion as the colonialists had done with the great Nandi Orkoyiot {Laibon} koitalel Arap Samoei in 1905, after he was lured into a fake reconciliation meeting and shot dead by a white officer.

Daniel Ojijo Oteko served the colonialists as a telegraphic officer at Maseno. There he linked up with early Luo nationalists like John Paul Olola, Barrack Owuor, Nathan Ojungo Otumba, Nyamunga Gor and others, and formed what was first known as Kavirondo Taxpayers Association around 1922, and became its Secretary General in 1926. The Association became popular by the name “Piny Owacho”, which loosely translates as “The Country has said”.
The Association is reputed to have established the link with the much more radical and aggressive Kikuyu Central Association{KCA}, led by the late Hurry Thuku.

Ojijo left Maseno and settled in his native rural home at Kanjira in West Karachuonyo. His leadership quality  was quickly realized by the local population who elected him to the African Local Native Council {ALNC}.

The visit to Karachuonyo by the KCA leaders from Central Province made Daniel Ojijo Oteko a marked man under security surveillance for twenty four hours. On one occasion, as the story goes, and this happened at the peak of the Second World War, Ojijo Oteko was walking towards his home. On the way, somewhere near Wagwe Health Centre, he met with  soldiers driving a large herd of cattle, which were seized from their owners at gun-point.

The soldiers were under the command of a white officer in the rank of a District Officer, a Mr Morgan Walker from the Kisii D.C’s Office. Ojijo Oteko inquired about where the animals were being taken to, and was told that the animals were destined for Kisii, and would eventuality be slaughtered, and the beef taken  for feeding the African soldiers fighting alongside the British and allied forces, fighting against Adolf Hitler’s German forces.

Ojijo Oteko engaged the DO in classic queens English, telling the white officer how Karachuonyo community had contributed hundreds of young soldiers to the KAR, and as such cannot part with their animals. He ordered the animals be returned to their rightful owners.

The heated argument alarmed the soldiers, who were armed with guns. They got scared, and sensing the danger of possible rioting by the natives, the white officer concurred with Ojjo Oteko, and released the animals back to their rightful owners. This was the turning point in the life of the late Ojijo Oteko, as the colonialists, working in cohort with their local chiefs and collaborators, increased their surveillance on him wherever  he went.

This particular incident also earned him a nick name “Ojijo polo Mor Yimbo”, which loosely translates {Ojijo the thunderstorm is roaring in the west}.

A year later, he was pronounced dead and buried secretly under heavy armed guards.

Karachuonyo Tourism potential
Karachuonyo is an area which is potentially important as a tourist destination in Western Kenya. It is a place, which is filled with pre-historic scenarios, like the volcanic lake “Simbi Nyaima”, the crocodile shaped rock which is located on the hill top near Kadel in Kibiri area, the hot spring which produces Bala mineral salt for animal feed on the eastern slopes of Huma-Hill. The hill has many folklore and folk tales. The Kipsigis community calls it “Tiluet ab Kumiyat” loosely translates {The Hill of Honey}.

Simbi Nyaima lake is the seasonal home of the ever migrating flamingos from other places like Lake Nakuru, Lake Baringo, Lake Natron and other lakes in the Rift Valley. The bird sojourns the lake once every year and then flies out. Deep and strikingly smelling, lake Simbi Nyaima is not suitable for swimming, as it is said to be the deepest, and has some internal connection with Lake Victoria, although its waters are salty.

The geological story of Simbi Nyaima differs sharply with  the tales of the local communities. The volcanic lake is as old as  six centuries. It came about as a result of tremor or earthquake accompanied by volcanic eruption, perhaps in 1680, according to geologists and technical experts.

But according to the local community, Simbi Nyaima was a curse and bad omen brought upon a community which was greedy and full of arrogance.

It is said that an ugly and starving woman had visited the village at Kolonde, near Lake Simbi Nyaima, and asked to be given shelter and food. She came when the villagers were  busy feasting on native alcohol {beer} in a homestead, and animals were also slaughtered.

On seeing the dirty and ugly woman, the villagers sent her away. Her attempt to get food was thwarted by the work of several able bodied men, who gave her escort out of the beer hall and homestead.

The dirty, ugly woman took shelter in the next homestead, where she found a young woman with her four children. This particular woman gave her food, and after she had warmed herself around the fire place, the ugly woman asked the woman if she was married. She replied in the affirmative, and the ugly woman instructed her to go to the beer hall and call her husband.

The young woman did that, but when she told her husband that it was the ugly woman the group had expelled from the beer hall who was calling him, the husband slapped his wife and sent her parking.

She went back to her children and narrated the incident to the ugly old woman. The ugly woman, in turn asked the woman to collect all her children and that they should leave the home as quickly as they could.

They did this, and no sooner had they stepped out of the village than followed a heavy downpour, accompanied by lightening. It rained continuously for twenty four hours, and the whole village was flooded, and the people at the beer party all got drowned in the water. The people and their domesticated animals perished.

And that is the  genetics of the lake “Simbi”. The events happened  during the time when the inhabitants of the area were the Luo sub-clan called Jo-Waswa, who were the earliest inhabitants of what is today called Karachuonyo. They were followed immediately by Jo-Wagwe, Jo-Kagan and others, with jo-Karachuonyo, the largest group, arriving much later, followed by the Jo-Kano groups.

The Jo-Waswa are today scattered all over Luo-Nyanza, and the bulk of them live in the North Mara or Tarime district in Tanzania. Few of them are also scattered amongst the Jo-Kano sub-clans.

The Kendu-Bay Pier, which was built by the defunct East African Railways and harbors in the early 1930s could be used as a jetty for both motorized boats and steamers as well as big ships. And even for water sporting purposes. It used to be the place for calling steamers and lighters, which were ferrying grains from Southern Nyanza for storage by the NCPB in Kisumu. But for close to two decades, what used to be one of the busiest piers in Lake Victoria is now idle.

There is plenty of scenery for birds watching. What is required is the implementation of the forty year old sleeping Western Kenya Tourist Circuit, which was formulated as a tourist attraction policy in 1966, but which has never been put into effective use.

Another industry, which has yet to be fully exploited is the doormats making processes around Otok, Kiltal  and other places in Central and East Karachuonyo.

As for communications, these important roads need to be upgraded to be all weather:
(1)The road leading from Kendu-Bay Kanyadhiang’ Bridge to Pala in West.
(2)The road crossing the West from Pala via Gogo back to the main Homa-Bay Kendu Bay road at Kandiege.
(3)The Oyugis Kendu-Bay road via Kosele.
(4)Gendia Mawego-Kadongo road.
(5)Mawego-Rakwaro and Mawego Sino-Kagolla-Sikri road.
(6)Mawego-Kadongo as well as Mawego-Rakwaro.
(7)Mawego-Kokwanyo-Sikri and back to the main Kidumu –Oyugis Kisii road.
(8)Another important link is the Kadiedo-Omboga-Karabok road and so many other small feeder rand access roads.

Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com