In 1978, when the VoK of Kenya announced that Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was among those queuing to pay their last respect to Mzee Jomo Kenyatta at State House Nairobi, many were shocked.
They were asking: how could he mourn someone he had fought for while in prison, but paid him back with detention , sabotaging his businesses into collapse and sending him to political oblivion by blocking him from vying as a member of parliament?
But Jaramogi never allowed hard feelings to bar him from mourning his old friend. He turned up in his traditional mourning regalia and emotionally recited a dirge to bid farewell to his old comrade.
As he exited State House, a reporter asked him how he felt, and he replied, ” I am totally afflicted to have lost such a dear brother and fellow nationalist.”
Another journalist from the BBC asked him, ” Mr Odinga, now that you have mourned Kenyatta, are all your past differences now forgotten? ” Odinga quickly corrected him,” No, no, no , there were no any differences. It was just a conflict of the way of doing things. But the goal was always the same. “
Uhuru Kenyatta would later recall how, in 1990, during the burial of Desai, Jaramogi was so happy to see him and called him the “son of my friend.” Jaramogi went on to request the youthful Uhuru to pay him a visit.
Uhuru honoured the invite by visiting Agip House, where Jaramogi spent time asking him how everyone was doing back at home.
Jaramogi, as a personality, never held grudges. Being an elder, he also had to act and live to his title of “Jaramogi.”
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