Former Homa Bay Senator the late Otieno Kajwang. Photo/Elkana Jacob
Senator Otieno Kajwang' aka 'Nyakwar Nyakwamba' was many things to many people. But he was, arguably, far from being a 'mole' of any hue. That is, if political 'moling' includes undermining one's party and backstabbing its leader.
Kajwang', a loyalist without equal, was as dependable as they come. He was a party hawk with superior antennae for nosing threats to the party and to its leader.
His party leader, Raila Odinga, who was also his friend, had no doubt about Kajwang's sense of duty and purpose.
The late Senator for Homa Bay county was the first to notice early in the National Rainbow Coalition that President Kibaki's side of the alliance, the National Alliance Party of Kenya, was shortchanging the Liberal Democratic Party, Raila's side of the ascendant partnership.
The coalition kicked out the Kanu regime from power in December 2002, but within days in State House, the President's side was claiming a larger share of the pie. Ministerial and other Executive appointments favoured the President's side of the coalition. A kitchen Cabinet was already taking a form that told the rest of the power gang they could bolt. Power was back in the house - thanks to you – but the winning coalition had served its purpose. The Narc Summit was moribund, as soon as it drove Kibaki to State House.
What was known as the 'Mt Kenya Mafia' during Kibaki's first term in office was said to be exploiting his poor health to claim a larger stake of the Rainbow government. Kibaki was then recovering from the injuries in a pre-election road accident.
Kajwang' understood the folly of trying to outshine his party leader early in his elective political career. His sharp political and survival instincts might have had something to do with his personalised reading and application of Law One of Robert Greene's treatise, The 48 Laws of Power.
This is a cautionary metaphor on the folly of outshining the master. Stars, as everyone knows, do not compete with the sun. They know there can only be one sun at a time, which is why stars disappear at the first signs of the approaching sun.
Kajwang' never tried to outshine his party leader. Which could be why he was the MP for Mbita constituency from 1997 to 2013. He then moved to be the first Senator of Homa Bay County after the March 4, 2013, general election.
The Senator was still riding strong as a potential candidate for re-election. The achievement is unmatched in a county where two terms of 10 years is unachievable for most MPs. Most incumbents fizzle within five years, as the current ones will.
For the party and its leader there was always one Kajwang' - the choirmaster who fired party rallies. In Nyanza, it only needed the master of ceremonies to prompt, "Kajwang' chuo thum (play the music)" and his signature tune, 'Bado Mapambano' would boom. The tune was the morale booster from a politician who could have been a benga maestro in another life.
There never shall be another Kajwang' with the finesse of a court poet, a griot, and the resilience of a confidante who knew the party totem pole around which everyone else should orbit.
Kajwang's loyalty to ODM and party leader Raila seemed like the former MP would have made a good mole-hunter in the cassava gardens in Waondo, Mbita, where he was born. This is where he will be buried on Friday - not so far away from Rusinga, the island that gave Kenya the legendary freedom fighter Tom Mboya.
Kajwang' knew something about the subterranean burrows of the rat-like rodent. And he looked and sounded like he could trail their human equivalents among some of his political colleagues.
These colleagues always felt Kajwang' was in the habit of edging them out from the sanctum of power. They did not like him for that, even as they envied his courage. He was always the one to bell the cat whenever his party and its leader were under attack from their rivals.
The senator's death coincides with the season of smoking out moles in a land where politics is a full-time business. A land where intrigues and betrayals are plotted and executed 24 hours a day, and every day. A land where trust is rare and breach of confidence is common.
This man stood for something. He understood party discipline and respect for party leadership. For this ODM has lost a crucial pillar - a dependable striker.
Coming four months after the death of another pillar of the party, Adhu Awiti, ODM will have to work extra hard to secure the 'mole-infested' Homa Bay county, particularly, and the former South Nyanza, generally.
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