News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City

The trouble ridden Luo Council of Elders is dissolved and a fresh election for its executive committee members called for next week.

The dissolution took place at an Annual General meeting held on May 10th,2010 at the Ofafa Memorial Hall, Kisumu.

It was, however, disclosed that a section of members not happy with the move have been trying hard in vain to suppress the news of the dissolution from reaching the public domain.

According to documents availed to this writer by a member of the inner circle, the AGM was called by the organization’s Secretary-General Prof.Gilbert E.M. Ogutu, in a letter to invitation to the meting sent out to all members of the executive committee on April 22nd, 2010.

It listed eight agendas for discussion, amongst them the confirmation of all the minutes of the previous meetings, report on the trip made by its 20 members to Southern Sudan last year, financial report of the Council, the Council’s role in connection to the community participation in the country’s national politics, resolution on the way forward and the electi0ns to fill the vacant seats in the executive committee and any other businesses.

The meeting came at the time when the Council chairman Meshack Riaga Ogalo is facing a multiple of accusation and allegations against his leadership of this most powerful organ, which is the custodian of traditions and cultural virtue of the Luo Community, and the only well organized among the various tribal Council of Elders in the country

The chairman is also facing other allegations that he is working covertly with a powerful politician in the Rift Valley who is allegedly plotting for the downfall of the Luo political kingpin Raila Odinga, the allegation which the chairman has fiercely denied.

Prof Ogutu briefed the meeting about the trip the Council members made last year to Southern Sudan, where they also attended and paid their homage at the graveside of the late Southern Sudanese liberation hero Gen Dr John Garaang De Miabor who died a couple years ago in an helicopter crash in the north eastern Uganda.

The group, according to Prof Ogutu also attended the three days international conference of presidents, traditional and cultural leaders from African and Arab countries, which was held in the Southern Sudan state of Western Bahrl Ghazal after the group had been received in Juba by the Southern Sudan President Silva Kiir on arrival by air at the Southern Sudan capital, Juba.

The Luo elders were treated to a VIP status and given a state welcome by the Sudanese authorities who booked them to the most posh hotels

The elders also visited Wau City and the state where the Luo community is 0erdeived to have migrated from centuries ago before the community settled in Kenya, Uganda and part of Tanzania. In Wau, there is the highest population of Luos which forms 80 per cent of the total population while Dinkas fills the remaining gap of 20 per cent. The state of Wau, the group was told by the local governor that the population is so sparse and they local people would most welcome more Luo from East Africa to go back and settle there. The also visited Mapel, a place which is highly believed to have been the rural home of the Luos before the community moved out of the Sudan centuries ago.

The contentious issue discussed at the meeting was about the recent secret visit to Libya by the Council chairman Ker Meshack Riaga Ogalo, which was shrouded in secrecy and without consulting other members of the executive committee. It was established that Ker Meshack Riaga Ogalo was among delegates from other African and Arab states, comprising mainly traditional rulers and cultural leaders who converged in Tripoli at the invitation of Libyan strongman Col, Muamor El-Gadhafi.

During the Tripoli meeting Gadhafi is said to have told the delegates to elect their own leaders, and Ker Meshack Riaga Ogalo wasd poised to be made the leader of the Kenyan delegation. He was, however, allegedly compromised and manipulated by Kamlesh Paul Patni of the Goldenberg fame, who bought him off with a gift of a ten seat Nissan Matatu van and relegated him to the position of the vice chairmanship.

There were also unconfirmed rumors that a substantial amount of money also allegedly changed hands, but which the chairman has yet to disclose to the other Council members.

Other allegations were that a member of the Council who had her own NGO was using he Council letterhead and logo while extorting money from unsuspecting donors, the money accrued goes into individuals pockets and not to the Council coffers.

THE Council took the possession of the Ofafa Memorial Hall located on the main Kisumu Kakamega Highway, and is earning close to Kshs 100,000 per month from the tenants operating their businesses at the Hall, but the Council bank account is in the red, and nobody was in position to account for the money or explain satisfactorily where it goes

Ofafa Memorial Hall, which is named after the later ex-Nairobi City Councilor the late Anbrose Ofafa from Alego Ka-Kalkada who was shot and assassinated by the Mau Mau freedom fighters in the early 1950 during the African uprising against the British colonial and white settlers administration in Kenya was built with the donation from all Luos from all over East Africa under the auspices of the defunct Luo Union East Africa, which also had established other assets such as Luo Thrift and Trading Company, which owns a number of building in Kisumu and Maseno towns as well as a large scale sugarcane farm measuring 400m acres in Miwani area and other investments.

It was completed in 1961 with millions of shillings donated by Luos from all over East Africa, and for many years was under the management of the defunct Luo Union {EA}. But in early 1980, the retired President Daniel Arap Moi banned all the tribal welfare organizations. The Luo Union fall under the same category of tribal welfare organization despite of its massive investments.

And thereafter Ofafa Memorial Hall had changed and fallen under the different management including that of the Ramogi Institute of Advanced Technology {RIAT}, which had used it as its Kisumu City Campus for sometime. But RIAT was ejected out of it by a group of patrons of the defunct Luo Union who moved to the High Court and disputed its ownership arguing that it was erroneously handed to RIAT.

It has been the subject of numerous legal tussles in court between its registered patrons and members of the Luo Council of Elders, some of the cases are still pending before the courts. And if properly scrutinized and examined well could ends up in frauds.

Te current Luo Council of Elders is perceived to consist mostly of ODM loyalists and people whose nomination and elections to the Council are questionable. Ker Meshack Riaga Ogalo had succeeded or inherited the position from the late Joash Koyo Opien who had succeeded the late Adala Otuko . Thereafter there has never been any credible election of people from grassroots locations and regions..Most of its members are handpicked ODM political operatives, thus denying the Council the credibility it deserves to be a neutral organization catering for the entire Luo irrespective of their stations within the society and their political parties of affiliations.

There has been a lot of conflict of interests and clashes between the younger generations of MPs from Luo-Nyanza ands some members of the Council who are being accused of gross political interferences at the constituency levels. Some of the MPs have been complaining of gross interference and excessive belly-begging by some of the Council members as well as political manipulation.

When the Prime Minister Raila Odinga met the Council members three months ago, he advised them call for fresh election process in order to give the Council a representative and democratic looking face.

And when the Council meet and was expected to elect the new treasury to replace the former treasurer in whose place Mrs Dorothy Awino is currently occupying in acting capacity, the executive committee members insisted in electing the entire office including that of the chairman’s position.

Moderate members of the Council have been heard demanding that the Council should delink itself from day to day political activities of the ODM and serve members of the community,and that its executive committee should include Luos from other political parties and not exclusively the preserve of the ODM and that the Council should stop excessive indulgence in politics and only cater for the cultural issues affecting the entire Luo community.

Ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com