By William Oloo-Janak

We will go down the memory lane for Omollo Agar, the grandfather of Kalausi movement which is fuelled by Nairobi governor Evans Kidero and Rongo MP Dalmas Otieno.

A little history here folks: Omollo Agar was one of those who teamed up with Tom Mboya and Jomo Kenyatta in the conspiracy to clip Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s wings in government and Kanu from 1964-1966.

Culmination of Agar’s folly was at the infamous Kanu Conference in Limuru on March 1965.

During the conference Odinga and his team; Bildad Kaggia, Munyua Waiyaki, Dennis Akumu etc considered the party’s left wing/radicals at the time called for a break in the in the conference due to the ambush by Mboya with a different election agenda to discuss changes to the Kanu constitution.

Mboya and Agar proposed the creation of 8 vice presidents, one per province. According to their plan Omollo Agar was to support Lawrence Sagini from Kisii to become the Kanu Vice President for Nyanza, edging Jaramogi out.

As soon as Odinga and his team left to consult, Mboya rallied his troops and with a pre-planned list, slotted vice presidents in each province.

“Sagini malo! Sagini igoro! (Sagini Up! Sagini Up!”, Agar is reported to have shouted as he carried Sagini shoulder high, and deposited him right in front of an infuriated Odinga who had come back to the hall to check what the noise was about.

Mboya and Agar had just pulled off a coup against Jaramogi .

When Jaramogi and his team came back and complained, boya claimed he and his team had boycotted and walked out of the meeting and so they had chosen to proceed.

Betrayals started early. Listen to what Odinga told Agar him: “Eeh, Omollo Agar, in ema inyalo ting’o (jamwa) rayuom iluorogo ot to ibiro indhenyo enyima? Piny noneni!” (Eeh, Omollo Agar, you are the one who can carry an outsider high up and walk around the room and bring him before me? The world will judge you).

And true to Jaramogi’s word, few days later on his way back to Karachuonyo from the Kanu conference , Agar was involved in a road accident which left him paralyzed. He remained on a wheelchair to his death.

And Luos said: “Piny oneno Omollo Agar! Nyocha ondhogo Jaramogi!’ (The world charged Omollo Agar for his betrayal for Jaramogi).

And to Tom Mboya, Jaramogi said: “Oke g’Odhiambo (Mboya’s praise name), to itimona malit kamano nang’o, indhoga to ajadalu? Onge wach! (Your action were painful and a major betrayal from a brother).

The last time Omollo Agar was seen in public was when he was wheeled to Ofafa Memorial Hall in Kisumu to mourn Argwing Kodhek who had died in a suspicious car accident in Nairobi in 1968.

Omollo Agar never wept like others as the accident had paralysed his spinal cord, limbs and memory coordination.
He looked blankly into space – beside Kodhek’s coffin, not uttering a word. Not shedding a tear. And mourners said: “Omollo Agar ne ywak orwenyo neno anenaaa… (Omollo Agar forget to weep, and looked on blankly)” coining a Luo saying referring to people who are absent – minded or forlon-looking: “Ineno nade ka Omollo Agar! (You look forlorn like Omollo Agar.”

This, folks is the benefit of history! one can use history to contextualize events.

So history will continue to repeat itself in many ways during our time and in future. And history is so unforgiving.

(The Writer is the Chairperson of Kenya Correspondents Association)