Active Citizen

GIMA RAILA NENO KOBET PINY. When I was a little girl,My Dad would say: ‘Gima Raila neno kobet piny,Okinyal neno kata ichung e wi got.” Which means ‘What Raila sees while seated,You will never see if you stood on top of a Mountain’ And this words have never rang True until after his death. When the family lawyer instructed two things: 1.That Raila insisted to be buried in 72 Hours. 2.That Raila insisted to be buried not at his home in Opoda,But at Kang’o Ka Jaramogi. My kids with whom I have been having a lot of discussions on Raila asked: ‘If Raila was very Pro Luo Culture,Why is he being buried in 72 hours unlike a very important man in the community,Also Why is he being buried outside his home?” And My answer was: "I have no Idea but I am sure it will make sense soon" I think a lot about Ida. After spending 40 years with this man, From the word go She had to lend him to the people,Had to lend him to 6 years of detention. In her own words she says "I thought I was marrying and Engineer which is a very quiet profession..little did I know,I was marrying a political engineer" For that illustrious 40 years,You are thinking Probably in death,She gets to now have Raila to herself. But from the moment his death is announced,Mourners start pouring into her home in Karen. Ida received the news at 7 and at 8 People were already headed to her home in Karen and they stayed there throughout until the day Raila left for Kisumu,She did not really have a moment,a day,to take stock of what had happened to her. The body arrives from India and at JKIA Raila is taken over by the People,All the way to Kasarani it’s the People,To Nyayo It’s the people,To Kisumu it’s the People,To Bondo It’s the People. Two weeks later,She has shaken more hands than any person in the country. From dawn to dusk guests Pour in to commiserate with her. She has shaken hands of Political friends and Political enemies, The young and the Old, Billionaires and Peasants, Pilots and Boda Boda riders, The Pious and the Sinners, The sane and the Insane. The sober and the drunk. And it so happens that even in death,Raila belongs to the people. I read Chimamanda’s book ‘Notes on Grief’ and there is a chapter where she says ‘In Africa when a man dies,People say do not leave the wife alone,But what if the Wife wants to be alone?” I recall in moments of great grief,I want to be left alone. But This is a Luxury Ida does not afford, Atleast not now. She has to welcome,has to host,has to give speeches,has to smile,has to postpone her grief,her tears, and the crater the love of her life has left. She has to forsake her own loss to console the broken. And that is to be the Mother of the Nation. Raila sat down,Looked at his wife and realized that if he was to go before her,He will spare her weeks of people streaming into their home in Karen before the burial and settled at 72 Hours,Make it as quick as possible. He then realized his wife will need Privacy at some point after his death at their Opoda home And that his grave may be turned into a Shrine for Raila Pilgrims travelling from far and wide for years to come,So he decided to be buried not at the home he built for her,but at Kang’o Ka Jaramogi which is more or less a Public Museum which is always open to visitors. So Ida May find Peace. Raila’s gift to Ida finally was Peace. And I Pray she finds it sometime soon. ~ Deborah Auko