“You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.” Maya Angelou – author.

I recently did a road trip to the beautiful counties of Kisumu, Siaya and Homa Bay.  Kisumu City is clean. Like, insanely clean. And, my dear Nairobians, their streetlights work. I’m sure you can remember that long forgotten metal tower that would illuminate your pedestrian path or motorized road without having to put grope your way through the darkness of suburban hell. I forgot to mention that Kisumu is also the city you should take your children to experience what smooth tarmac looks like, where you don’t blindly drive into a tyre bursting pothole gleefully manufactured by the same sadist-who-switched-off-the-streetlights.

Once we were through taking pictures standing next to working streetlights and paved roads for our gallery titled “Basic things that still work in Kenya”, we forged ahead to explore the home of Kenyan dynasties. Sixty-eight kilometres and ninety driving minutes due west of the city of working streetlights and paved roads, takes you to Kango Ka Jaramogi in Bondo, Siaya County, where two great doyens of Kenya’s fiery political history have been buried. The late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s mausoleum stands proudly in the middle of his beautiful homestead, surrounded by the homes of his wives, one of which had been turned into a museum.

The museum has curated Jaramogi’s illustrious leadership path through Kenya’s independence with hundreds of photographs and Jaramogi’s personal memorabilia that enliven the critical birth of our proud republic. From the shoes he wore to his first trip to the United States, his weather-beaten suitcases, gramophones for his musical indulgences and dozens of his trademark wooden walking sticks, visitors are immersed in a masterful journey of understanding who the man was, and the political dynasty he created. More importantly, was the recent grave built a few metres away for his son, one of Kenya’s most influential political figures: “Baba”.

Completely covered in flowers eight months after his death, Raila Odinga’s grave continues to draw visitors coming to pay homage to a national icon. With background music belted out by a troupe of traditional Luo singers and dancers with the ubiquitous nyatiti, a pull up banner – emblazoned with a congratulatory message to Arsenal for its recent English Premier League title win – proudly stood beside the grave and reminded the myriad visitors that Raila’s memory (and his favourite football team) would continue be cherished in the current times.

Powered by the recent memory of city streetlights that still worked and paved roads that lacked demonic potholes, we headed due south on an hour’s drive to Luanda Kotieno to take a ferry across Lake Victoria to Mbita, Homa Bay county. It is interesting to note that vehicular and pedestrian transportation across the lake is privately owned, with ferries and water buses that run on a timed schedule easily accessible on the internet. The ferry crossing is an adventure in and of itself. Being small in nature, the ferry can only carry as many cars as its supervisors can squeeze. That can range from 10 to 15 depending on the size of cars, which are skilfully parked so tight that even the tiniest Omena fish cannot squeeze in between. Once you drive in, don’t expect to get out and be ready to pass the salt and whatever you might eating to the driver in the adjacent car, because you’re pretty much sharing a meal and any conversations you’re having as friends around a dining table.

Across from (the working streetlights and pothole free roads of) Mbita, and linked by road via a recently constructed causeway, is Rusinga Island where one can drive to see the other national icon, Tom Mboya’s mausoleum. Surrounded and shaded by indigenous and exotic tree varieties, we found a bus load of teachers and another bus load of bank employees who had made the Sunday excursion to acknowledge Tom Mboya’s role in the chequered mosaic of Kenyan political history. Fifty-seven years after his death, his carefully curated mausoleum with an architecturally designed silver bullet shaped spire stood as a proud monument to, and museum of Mboya’s own journey as a significant shaper of Kenya’s independence and tragic assassination by a lone gunman.

For all of my Nyanza jaunts, my key takeaway was how heritage is created. I witnessed families that have refused to let the memories of Kenya’s national heroes be buried six feet under. Families that have curated their past and unselfishly opened their doors to the public to exhibit their bloodline’s rightful place in Kenya’s history as a republic. As Winston Churchill famously said, “History is written by the victors.”

X: @carolmusyoka

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