THE KISUMU MASSACRE OF 25TH OCTOBER 1969. (51 YEARS AGO TODAY)

October 25, 1969, was a day of gloom in Kisumu as a ceremony to open a public hospital turned into a massacre.

Founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta had been on a two-day tour of Western Kenya.

three years after his Vice-President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga instigated a mass exit from then ruling party, Kanu, and formed the Kenya Peoples’ Union (KPU) in 1966.Since Mr Odinga enjoyed massive support in the region, Mr Kenyatta’s tour was full of tension.

For the longest period Saturday 25th October 1969 remained the most darkest day for the people of Kisumu in the then Nyanza province. It marked one of the ugliest "incidents" of political violence in the country.

This was the culmination of bitter political undercurrents that pitted 2 senior political figures in the country against each other

That was the then president Jomo Kenyatta & his vice President Adonijah Ajuma Oginga Odinga also known as Jaramogi,a bosom buddy turned fierce foe.

In 1966 Jaramogi had dramatically resigned from the govt as the country's vice president following a series of disagreements between him and Jomo.

The first point of disagreement occurred when Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Oginga Odinga met at the statehouse to discuss on who would be made Kenya's first African police commissioner. Jaramogi and Jomo agreed as statesmen that Peter Okolla would be the police commissioner.

The following day, Jaramogi was shocked to hear the president announce that Bernard Hinga was going to be the police commissioner.

Jaramogi went straight to see his friend Jomo after hearing the news from VoK (voice of Kenya). When Jaramogi asked Jomo why he named Hinga instead of Okolla, Jomo replied by saying that the house of Mumbi sat and saw it was right for Hinga to be the police commissioner.

According to Odungi Randa who who was jaramogi's aide until his demise, says that from there onwards, things took a different path. President Jomo Kenyatta worked on a political scheme to cripple Jaramogi's wings before eventually handing him a soft landing.

Another point of departure was on land issues, while Kenyatta insisted that everybody was supposed to buy land Jaramogi wanted the land to be redistributed back to the landless for free.

In 1966 before Jaramogi's resignation, the KANU govt through Tom Mboya conveyed a conference at limuru. In this meeting, Jomo was highly interested in cutting the political influence of his vice president.

For this reason, KANU introduced 8 vice presidents in that there was a vice president for each province and jaramogi now was to become a vice president for Nyanza province in that new arrangement.

Upon sensing the gathering storm in the govt against him and what he stood for, jaramogi took a bold step and resigned from the govt in 1966 as vice president, a move that shocked the then three years old Kenyan govt.

With Jaramogi now out of govt, he formed his own party,Kenya people's Union (KPU), its party colour was green to symbolize a new beginning.

THE MASSACRE
But as fate would have it, the relationship between Jaramogi and Jomo took a nosedive in 1969. On a cold 5th July 1969, a youthful and influential politician from south Nyanza, Tom Mboya was assassinated in Nairobi.

It was a horrendous incident that heightened the already simmering political rivalry between the Luo and Kikuyu communities led by their tribal leaders in Jaramogi and Jomo respectively.

Tom Mboya's death sparked tension in the country. The tension would grip the whole nation for months. His Requiem mass was and perhaps remains the most memorable in the country's history. At the holy family basilica, the venue for the mass, battle lines had been drawn.

not even president Kenyatta's presence would calm the situation.The tense atmosphere would soon explode as govt agents clashed with the mourners,several people were injured as woman,according to Odungi Randa,threw a shoe to Kenyatta as he was heading out of the requiem mass venue

The death of Tom Mboya had left a bitter feeling among the Luo people and Kenyatta was seen as one of the masterminds of Tom Mboya's death. For this reason, his trip to Nyanza was one that was highly tensed.

In Oct of 1969, Kenyatta had decided to take a tour of western, rift valley and Nyanza provinces. His last stop was going to be Kisumu in the then Nyanza province.Kenyatta had decided to go & open the Russia hospital (today's Jaramogi Oginga Odinga teaching and referral hospital)

Initially, Kenyatta had twice declined the invitation to open the hospital because it's construction was funded by the communist Russian govt and Kenyatta was more leaning to capitalists govts and detested anything to do with communist countries.

Oct 25th was the day Kenyatta was expected in Kisumu to open the hospital & address the people.According to football legend Ambrose Nyapada,tensions was running high & youths stationed near the hospital gate started shouting "dume dume" while others shouted "tunataka Tom Mboya"

Some of the placards waved at the presidential motorcade as it snaked into Kisumu from Kakamega by road also questioned the whereabouts of Mboya, who had been killed a few months before this historic visit.

Instead of Kenyatta sensing the tense mood and playing cool due to the emotions that were running high, when he took the microphone to address the people he went straight attacking Jaramogi and his KPU officials.

President Kenyatta who was accompanied by top govt officials, stared in dismay as the ugly incident unfolded in this historic event. At the podium Kenyatta and jaramogi were having a bitter exchange.

any question that Kenyatta asked the people was answered directly by jaramogi.Both at the podium

At this point when Kenyatta told oginga that “Jaramogi,if you were not my friend,I would have crushed you like unga(flour mill).You are rich,while people of Nyanza are starving”

“People are crying because they are hungry. You have not given them what you promised at Independence,” retorted Oginga as is quoted.

By this time, the crowd was charging and the tension was running high.Jaramogi said that the Luo were unhappy with Kenyatta's leadership. As they exchanged harsh words, the crowd got more hostile and within a fraction of second, all hell broke loose.

What followed next was a horror that remains hedged in many Kenyans mind, particularly those from nyanza region. As fracas started, jaramogi was whisked away by his people and the presidential security guard had to form a tight cordon ring around Kenyatta.

According to Abdul Dahya, someone hurled a stone at the main dais where mzee Kenyatta and jaramogi were, prompting the shootings as Presidential guard rushed to ensure his safety.

What followed was close to 15 minutes of shootings and confusion.Gun shots rented the air. Women and children were uncontrollably wailing.

The first victim of the shooting was the only son of Abdul Hussein Dahya.His only son Alnoor was shot dead at their home,70 metres from the hospital.victims of shootings lay soaked in blood in the corridors of the hospital according 2 Dahya,then Nation Media Group’s distributor

On their way out of Kisumu,the presidential security guard team started shooting people from the venue of the rally all the way to Awasi which is 50 kilometers away from Kisumu.

The number of people who died on that day is a contested issue.official govt report says that only 11 people were killed while reports from the likes of B.A Ogot, Raila Odinga,Odungi Randa, Abdul Dahya etc claims that over 200 people were left dead between Kisumu and Awasi.

By the time the president motorcade dust was settling,the cloud of mourning was left at Nyanza.The people who were mourning the death of Argwigs Kodhek & Tom Mboya who had been killed few months earlier was now mourning the deaths of the people who were killed at the event.

AFTERMATH

On reaching Kericho from Kisumu, president Kenyatta went straight to kericho tea hotel and had an impromptu cabinet meeting and it was here curfew was announced in Kisumu.

What followed was the detention of Prominent KPU leaders including Ker Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. The Luo community also became marginalised. In an effort to quell the Luo, the government stalled all projects in Luo Nyanza.

such projects includes a medical school complex, a 10,000 irrigation scheme from Kano to Lower Nyakach and a polytechnic. Every project that was of economic and social importance to the people of Kisumu was stopped with immediate effect.

Later in years,it even became difficult for some Luo to seek healthcare in government hospitals because of their ethnic origin. Some were forced to change their names in order to access this healthcare.

The Kisumu massacre is one of the massacres that will remain unresolved in history due to the fact that the govt withheld the post-mortem reports on those killed.

Then there was an order for the destruction of the photographic and film evidence of the event,except the often-reproduced single monochromatic photograph of the chaotic scene, by Mohammed Amin, and Satwant Matharoo’s film footage,which WTN showed the British audience.