Oloo Aringo – the witty politician.
If there was a leader and a politician who subscribed to the notion of end justifying the means, Peter Castro Oloo Aringo aka Ochok Wang’e dongo (large eyed Sodom apple) would fit the bill.
As the saying goes, if we have to wrestle the pig in mud just to have a sumptuous roasted pork ribs, then so be it.
In the wake of 1997 general elections, Mr Aringo having lost his seat to the little known scribe Otieno MakOnyango in 1992 multi-party elections, getting it back was a do or die affair and indeed as witty as he was, he carried the day.
According to his long time personal assistant, Mathews Obwolo, Aringo had not lost any election since his election as the Alego – Usonga member of parliament in 1974 when he succeeded Mr. Peter Okudo, save for 1992 when, he added, he was “rigged out” of the Forum For Restoration of Democracy – Kenya (FORD-K) nominations in favour of the scribe who went ahead to clinch the seat.
Mr. Obwolo says that the prevailing circumstances at the time were not favourable to the former KANU national chairman who had just ditched the ruling party and joined the opposition.
“Raila Odinga was the Ford Kenya deputy director of elections and had been detained by president Daniel arap Moi, together with MakOnyango” Obwolo says adding that during the detention, Raila’s wife, Ida Odinga was fired from her teaching job at Kenya High and even kicked out of the staff quarters, a fact that was blamed on Aringo who was then minister for education.
This, says Obwolo, made the former cabinet minister who served in different capacities, face a herculean task in his bid to secure the Ford – Kenya, then a favourable party in Nyanza, ticket and as fate would have it, he lost.
In 1997, then president, Daniel arap Moi dissolved parliament and ordered for the elections to be held on 29th December same year. Aringo made his mind to make a political come back, buoyed by what Obwolo says the feeling among the electorate that their then MP spent little time in the constituency and was more of a Nairobian.
Aringo managed to get the support of the National Development Party which was formed after Raila Odinga botched out Ford- Kenya following the party’s chaotic Thika elections in 1995.
Raila had, in the eleventh hour, changed his mind to contest for the Ford Kenya chairmanship against Wamalwa Kijana. The elections split the party leadership down the middle and following the chaos, the former prime minister resigned from the party and as the member of parliament for Lang’ata, occasioning a by election.
He contested for the seat on an NDP ticket and won. Aringo however had one challenge. “He was broke and did not have enough money to sustain a campaign to match that of KANU candidate, businessman Edwin Yinda who had a well-oiled campaign machine and support from then president Daniel arap Moi and the local administration, led by the district commissioner,” Obwolo says.
A witty politician and a good orator, Aringo hatched a plan which he kept to himself.
On the day that the candidates were to present their papers to the returning officer at the county council offices in Siaya town, Aringo had a meeting at Ahindi garden while the KANU candidate, Edwin Yinda had his a few metres away, near the present market.
As he addressed his supporter before taking his papers to the returning officer, Obwolo says, the former minister made a statement that left everyone tongue tied.
“He praised Edwin Yinda as a son of the soil who had done well to contest” says Obwolo adding “he however told the electorate that all the problems they were facing were caused by the then district commissioner, Kiritu Wamae.”
Obwolo says that Aringo used his eloquence and oratory skills to convince the people how the administrator was behind land grabbing and other ills bedeviling them and vowed to storm the district headquarters immediately after the rally to personally kick him out.
True to his word, said his former personal assistant, Aringo climbed down the dais and began a march to the district headquarters, about a kilometre away, with the crowd on tow.
At the headquarters, the crowd caught the administration police guarding the premises unawares and, with a twinkle of an eye, two people in the crowd, later identified as former Kenya Air force officers who had been sacked after the 1982 attempted coup, quickly disarmed them, says Obwolo.
“It was chaos. Gunshots rent the air as the offices were quickly shut, with people running helter skelter” he says adding that reinforcement was quickly dispatched from the Siaya police station and the administration police lines.
Amid tear gas and chaos, Aringo was arrested and taken to the police station but did not spend the night there as he was transferred to Bungoma that evening” says Obwolo.
As this was happening, his wife, who had kept his papers, sneaked to the returning officer’s office and presented them on his behalf, he said.
He was charged in a Bungoma court with the current Siaya governor, James Orengo representing him.
According to Obwolo, Aringo was ordered released on bond and immediately, left for Nairobi, never to return to Alego – Usonga until the time for voting. That single incident, he says, helped to turn tables against the KANU candidate’s fortune.
“Everybody in the constituency blamed KANU and its candidate for planning the arrest of Aringo and when the election results were announced, Aringo had trounced Yinda by garnering 29,346 votes (70%) against KANU candidate’s 12,329 (29%)
The charges against Aringo and his 10 National Development Party (NDP) supporters were to be dropped in March, 1998 by the then Kakamega senior principal magistrate, Charles Kanyangi after the state made an application for the same.
Obwolo says that much as the former minister was known to many for praise –worshiping Moi whom he branded a Prince of peace, Aringo was a principled man who would stick to his conviction.
A case in point, he says was during the infamous Ford- Kenya elections when he told Raila to his face that he was supporting the Wamalwa Kijana, James Orengo team.
“Later, he opposed the KANU – NDP merger and would use any forum to express himself on this despite being a member of parliament elected on the NDP ticket” said Obwolo.
Peter Oloo Aringo was born in May 19, 1941 in Alego, Siaya District.
He went to local schools in his area, before joining St. Mary’s Secondary School, Yala (Siaya) in 1957. After passing his Cambridge School certificate, he was admitted to Siriba College, Maseno where he trained as a teacher between 1961 and 1962.
He was posted to St. Mary’s Yala school where he taught between 1963 and 1964, then taught at Kapsabet Secondary School. (He was Acting Headmaster of the School for a stint).
Between 1967 and June 1969, he undertook a Bachelor of Arts in Education and obtained a first class Honours. He taught for four months at Ambira Secondary School, and then proceeded to the University of Toronto, Canada where he undertook studies in Economics, History, Political Science, Philosophy and Education obtaining a Masters of Arts in 1971. He lectured on African Politics for a year at the same University.
In 1972, he returned to Kenya and was posted to Aquinas High school before joining Upper Hill school.
In 1973 he was appointed Vice Principal of Kenya Polytechnic, from where he resigned in 1974 to contest the Alego Usonga seat in that year’s general elections.
Aringo won the 1979 General elections and was appointed as Assistant Minister for Higher Education. Later, he was elevated to be Minister for Information and Broadcasting.
In March 1982, he was transferred to the Ministry of Environment but was relieved of his job later the same year and was replaced by then Bondo MP Dr. William Odongo Omamo.
He won the 1984 General elections and in 1985 he was appointed an Assistant Minister under the expanded Ministry of education, Science and technology. In 1986 he was elevated as a Minister for Education.
After he won the 1988 General Elections, he was reappointed Minister for Education, in 1991; he was transferred to the Ministry of Manpower Development but was relieved of his job the same year for his too obvious pro-opposition sentiments.
After the repeal of section 2A, he defected from Kanu and joined the opposition; consequently he lost his Kanu National Chairmanship.
In the 1992 general elections, Aringo lost the Alego – Usonga parliamentary seat to journalist Otieno Mak’onyango but made a comeback in 1997 only to lose it again in 2002 to Sammy Arthur Weya.
Aringo passed on last week aged 83 years.
Siaya, Sunday, November 3, 2024 KNA By Philip Onyango/Francis Hwaga
