Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga speaks to the media in Nairobi, January 21, 2011.
“Makiwa” (Total desolation), we say in Kiswahili, when the terror of death strikes. I was writing on a different lad from the Lake when the Meteor of Bondo, Raila Amolo Odinga, made his final flight across the skies of Africa. I was not dumbfounded but I was stunned. Raila Odinga was, first and foremost, a politician, and I have often and sincerely confessed to you my total ignorance of and inaptitude (or is it ineptitude) for the subject.
Yet I knew I could not honestly remain silent in the face of the departure of such a giant to Ancestorland. But what can I share with you about Raila that has not been said by those who knew him and his trade better than I? Let me just steal the man and take him to my “mwalimu” field and use him as my ideal example or illustration of my lesson on how to live an impactful life.
Former Prime Minister and ODM leader Raila Odinga during an interview at his home in Karen, Nairobi on July 19, 2025.
I recognise, respect and recommend in Raila Odinga two traits that he showed with exceptional strength and consistency. The first was his unshakable faith and belief in himself, and the second was his passion, his total commitment to his cause. Raila, under his many names, pet names and nicknames, was a man you could not ignore. Many, indeed, loved him fanatically. Others feared him and maybe a few others disliked him.
But the one thing I have not met among responses to Raila Odinga is indifference. You could not fail to notice him, because he exuded such confidence, such positive energy, that you had to be touched and moved in his presence. This, I think, was because the man fully believed in himself and in his relevance to his people and his times and places.
To that we add his conviction that he could make a positive difference to his people and their conditions. This was the burning desire that kept him struggling and going through the various challenges of his life. If each of us had a tenth of the self-trust and the passion for change that Raila had, I am sure we could change Africa, for the better, in our own lifetime.
Need I add that you do not have to be a politician or a pastor to contribute to this African change? A street cleaner, a market vendor, or a scribbler like me, with a Railan passion and self-confidence, can, and will, change Africa. Indeed, that was already the trend of my thoughts as I wrote about the other son of the Lake, Wallah bin Wallah.
“Kiswahili kitukuzwe“ (let Kiswahili be exalted). This iconic phrase is almost as well-known as any national emblem. Yet it is only the opening gambit of a shairi (poem) by a high school student. The shairi, published in a collection titled Malenga wa Ziwa Kuu (Bard of the Great Lake), was authored by Wallah bin Wallah when he was a schoolboy at a high school in Kenya in the late 1960s. So legend has it.
Indeed, calling Wallah bin Wallah a living legend is almost an understatement. To most Kenyans who were educated through the 8-4-4 system, Wallah bin Wallah is literally a household name. His primary school course, Kiswahili Mufti, became a runaway success just as Kiswahili was made a compulsory subject throughout the educational system, which I think was one of the best gifts of the 8-4-4 syllabus to our culture.
Today we have at least two generations of educated Kenyans who have been formally taught their national and official language throughout their primary and secondary studies. Many of these, who are today the grownups managing most of the essential services for our people, owe their Kiswahili proficiency and fluency to the textbooks and other study materials developed by people like Wallah bin Wallah.
Maybe I should come clean here and tell you that I am not only an admirer of Wallah bin Wallah but also a friend and colleague. I was privileged to work with him, Dr Henry Indindi and Mwalimu Joseph Mwamburi on a Kiswahili course, Kurunzi ya Kiswahili, for Ugandan schools. This gave me the opportunity to not only enjoy his irrepressible sense of humour but also to get some insight into his vast knowledge and understanding of Kiswahili and its culture.
A product of the old, original East African Community, like me, Wallah has “leveraged" his immersion into Kiswahili culture, in both Kenya and Tanzania, to produce the sparkling iconic works that have stamped his name on Kiswahili studies in Kenya and, increasingly, in Tanzania, and maybe elsewhere in the world. Do you know that Wallah studied not only in Kenya but also in Mwanza and Morogoro, Tanzania Bara, and in Zanzibar?
But above all, I think that Wallah owes his Guru status to his passion, his “Railan” immersion into his beloved language. Using his modest earnings from his books, before some publishers went rogue, Wallah set up a home and working base in Ngong Matasia, called Wasta Villa. “Wasta” means “simple” or “modest” in Kiswahili. It is at this unpretentious base that Wallah has, for over a decade now, been hosting an awards ceremony every 10th and 11th of October, to honour some of those who have made significant contributions to the development of Kiswahili.
This year’s “10-10 Wasta Awards” struck me particularly with the number of participants from Uganda and Tanzania. The acceptance of Wasta awards by official Tanzanian bodies, like the national councils, BAKITA and BAKIZA, as well as TBC (Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation), signalled for me a recognition that Kenya can make, and has made, worthwhile contributions to the growth of our language.
Kongole (humble homage), Guru Ustadh Wallah bin Wallah! You should be the first to be inducted into the Swahili Hall of Fame, when it is founded.
Inshallah!
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Prof Bukenya is a leading East African scholar of English and literature. [email protected]
