Book recounts the origin of Kendu Bay and link to Obama
A community’s beginnings and strife for social transformation has been documented in a book. Kanyadhiang’ and Mzee Jeremiah Atho is a product of the adaptation of Sigand Rachuonyo kod Simbi (Tales of Rachuonyo and Simbi), an early 20th Century Seventh-day Adventist Gendia Press publication, into a modern read. The accounts in the book have been fleshed up with details milked out of interviews with Mzee Atho’s children and other credible informants.
The same way a swollen river bursts its bank, Kanyadhiang’ and Mzee Jeremiah Atho overlaps the parameters of family history. The narrative is pinned on the social, historical and economic contexts in which the lives of Mzee Jeremiah Atho and his contemporaries unfolded. It serves authoritative and detailed commentaries on the link between the Obamas and Kendu Bay, the history of Kenya’s southern Nyanza Luos and the influence of Arabs, Muslim traders and the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the rise and growth of Kendu Bay town.
Slightly over nine decades ago, Mzee Atho stole a blackboard from a mission school. Certainly, without this blackboard, the story of his community, county and country, by extension, would have taken a different course.
In 1906, Seventh-day Adventist Church missionaries established a mission station at Gendia Ogango Hill in the present day Homa Bay County. Mzee Atho, then a boy on the cusp of teenagehood, became one their first converts. This was the scenario that facilitated Mzee Atho’s acquisition of literacy skills. He later served as a porter during the First World War. Upon his return from the war, he served as one of the pioneer teachers at Gendia Mission School. It was during his teaching stint there that the desire to take the ‘light’ to his people prompted him to steal a blackboard.
He used the blackboard to run open air literacy classes under trees. The other focus of Mzee Atho’s classes was the conversation of his people to the Seventh-day Adventist faith. It was these initiatives that kick-started the social transformation of Kanyadhiang’ into the modern village it is today. The influence spread fast and to date, Kanyadhiang’ remains a community whose success rests on two monumental pillars – education and the church.
Mzee Atho did not limit his transformation quest to Kanyadhiang’. He ventured out into faraway lands such as Nyakach, Kano and Molo. To all these places, he took two things –education and the word of God. As a teacher, preacher, government agricultural extension officer, pioneer cotton farmer and village head in Kanyadhiang’, Mzee Atho served as a true agent of socio-economic and political change. Many of his students not only became critical players in his transformation mission but also later gave birth to children who became notable figures in the socio-economic and political spaces in Kenya. Among others, he taught Mathayo Wandiga, the father of Professor Shem Wanndiga of The University of Nairobi.
That Kanyadhiang’ and Mzee Jeremiah Atho is an invaluable history resource is not in doubt. Like a number of publications before it, this book explores Barack Obama’s Kanyadhiang’ roots. It confirms that Obama Opiyo, Barack Obama’s great paternal grandfather lived in Kanyadhiang’. He had four wives who were all daughters of Kanyadhiang’. Obama Opiyo was the father of Hussein Onyango Obama, the father of Obama Senior. The book shares a reminiscence of a Kanyadhiang’ childhood that Mzee Atho shared with Hussein Onyango Obama. Besides, it follows the two men into the First World War and back to Kanyadhiang’. The book offers a glimpse into the tight bond between the Obamas and the people of Kanyadhiang’. It is a bond so tight that it forbids intermarriage between the Obamas and the people of Kanyadhiang’. To date!
Kanyadhiang and Mzee Jeremiah Atho traces the genealogical link between Atho and Ramogi, the legendary father of the Luo. The end result of this move is a compelling rendition of the history of the southern Nyanza Luos. The account corroborates the arguments of Professors William Ochieng’ and Bethwel Allan Ogot, two towering history scholars, on this subject.
On yet another history-related angle, the book shines a spotlight onto the beginnings, growth and development of Kendu Bay town. It is in the process of doing so that it looks into the influence of Arabs, Muslim traders and the Seventh-day Adventist church in the making of the modern Kendu Bay town. The book notes that the first Seventh-day Adventist church missionaries arrived in Kanyadhiang’ in 1906. Further, it reveals that Nasoor Bin Ali, the first Arab trader to come to Kanyadhiang’, arrived, later, in 1912. Nasoor Bin Ali’s arrival marked the emergence of dukas (shops) in Kendu Bay.
The tone that the book adopts in its analysis of the growth and development of Kendu Bay town is both authoritative and professional. It is that of an urban planner who is deeply in love with his profession. Among many things, the book explains the factors that contributed to the shift of interest from Kendu Bay ‘old town’ to Kendu Bay ‘new town’. Further, it demystifies the factors that informed the location of various installments within the town. For instance, it justifies why administrative establishments are located at Gendia Hill while the stadium cum showground is at the lakefront. It also gives a juxtaposition of the settlement patterns in the old and new Kendu Bay towns. The book, in addition to everything, appreciates the consequence of water transport to the growth and development of Kendu Bay town.
There is something every urban planner would certainly be interested in. The projected urban planning-related future of Kendu Bay town. According to the book, both Kendu Bay old and new towns have a combined road and drainage infrastructure network that serves the urban, peri-urban and rural population of about 178, 686 people, 20 educational and medical facilities, five markets with retail and wholesale shops, five petrol stations and various religion facilities. All these establishments employ approximately 50,000 people. To cushion the fast growing population of Kendu Bay town from infrastructural collapse, the book recommends the expansion of the existing drainage and road infrastructure.
The book takes cognisance of Kanyadhiang’s position as a tourist destination. The mention of Lake Simbi, the alternative home for flamingo birds, is not in vain.
Saturday Nation published this review on January 30, 2021.