By Victor Ochieng’
vochieng.90@gmail.com.
It is often joked that in Gem in Siaya county when you throw a stone, you do not hit a graduate but a professor armed with a sterling PhD.
Gem, a place at the shores of Nam Lolwe, has produced plenty of polymaths and is filled with professors per square kilometre.
Just to mention a few, CMG Argwings Kodhek, Oki Ooko Ombaka, B.A Ogot, Prof George Magoha and many more, hailed from there.
The questions we all should ask ourselves include:What made Gem to churn out many academics? Is the place still producing scholars of great repute? Are there practical lessons we can pick from what happened there in those years of yore? What can local administrators do in order to leave lasting legacies within their spheres of influence? How can modern-day educationists leave their indelible footprints on the sands of time?
In our classic case, it was one Paramount Chief called Odera Akang’o who placed Gem on the global map.He was a benevolent dictator who reigned in the sunrise of 1900 but to date, he is still etched in people’s minds and hearts because he initiated a plethora of projects in that fertile land.
Today in Yala town, you’ll see an academe named after the late chief whose fame wafted far and wide like lake-spirits called Nyawawa. There is Odera Akang’o Campus, a constituent college of Maseno University, which was initially under the parentage and patronage of Moi University.
It’s important to note that when Kenya became a British colony, colonial masters governed denizens through local chiefs. The white men hunted for powerful chiefs and made them Paramount Chiefs by expanding their spheres of influence. For instance, we had Chief Mbiu wa Koinange and Chief Karuri wa Gakure among the Gikuyu. It’s through the same means that the people of Gem had Odera Akang’o, the great chief who collaborated with the British in those days of humble beginnings.
The legacy of Chief Odera Akang’o will spill to eternity because of the pivotal role he played in asserting his legendary leadership on the descendants of Ramogi Ajwang’. He was a deft administrator, spiritual leader and the tip of the spear that led his people when they wended out to wage war.
The Chief exposed Gem to the outside world. At the front-end of the First World War, Bishop J.J. Willis cordially invited him to attend a church consecration at Namirembe Cathedral in Uganda. On that hallowed spot, Odera Akong’o took note of the proliferation of schools, churches and health centres that had been established by the white man. When he went back to his chiefdom, he infused whatever he had seen and in doing so, changed the place.
The Paramount Chief encouraged his people to value Christianity, hard work and education. He knew how to handle idlers, footloose wonders, malingerers and disorganised sluggards. Parents who did not take their children to school were arrested, confined in a small prison in Yala, and then taken to the chief baraza. They were flogged in broad daylight for failing to take their children to school. Autochthonous men and women feared this public humiliation. The chief also met his subjects frequently to educate them on the essence and importance of education. Therefore, at sunrise, Gem became a hub of best brains.
Education is important since it is the light that liberates people and attracts a better future. Nelson Mandela is remembered to have said, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” Malcom X also put it aptly, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
It is therefore important for chiefs to play their parts and ensure all the children in the country have access to education. So many places across the country have children whose rights to education are denied due to retrogressive aspects of culture and tradition like early marriages and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Some of these things are happening, but the area chiefs are just silent. What if they borrowed a golden leaf from the late Chief Odera Akang’o?
The writer was born and brought up in Gem, Siaya County.
