Owadwa Wuod Nyalego (My brother, son of the daughter of Alego), when we spoke on the morning of your departure to India, you were upbeat and confident we would meet at a later date to continue with our usual engagements.
I have known you for over 70 years living together in Kaloleni, Kisumu, in one compound with our parents and siblings. In later years, I joined and lived with you in Germany where you studied Engineering at the Otto-Von-Guericke University, Magdeburg. You opted for engineering and not medicine (which our parents preferred) because you could not withstand the handling of anatomies in the morgue.
After you graduated in 1970 with Top Honours with a combined Bachelor and Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, I remember our ride in a Tram in Magdeburg and in view of that persistent profiling against blacks that you hilariously quipped, “Do these Germans know that I am a qualified Top Honours Engineer?”
We have held that achievement for many years with pride and it has remained our great pride that to this day, your Portrait hangs in Otto-Von-Guericke University Hall of Fame for your academic excellence and as a top alumni of the university.
When our fathers walked out of the government in 1966, I recall a heated political discussion with protagonists for and against KPU and KANU by students in a Leipzig campus cafeteria, which turned into a scuffle resulting in the scars you bear on your forehead and hands.
The Jaramogi and Oneko family have shared a bond of friendship for over 90 years, going through various political trials, tribulations and vicissitudes. When you were detained for many years, the same Oneko people who would visit the prisons to see my father joined with mum (your wife) my friend Raila, go well home.
To the World of Grace, join your father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Ramogi Ajuma Oneko to receive you into eternal rest.
