Homa Bay man: I didn't know "password" would make me famous

Homa Bay man who captured the attention of most Kenyans using social media with his now famous ‘password’ utterance has spoken for the first time.

A short video of Jack Oluoch, 23, repeatedly uttering the word ‘password’ accompanied by what most online audience described as funny facial expressions surfaced online on April 14.

He was standing next to another man who was being interviewed by Citizen TV during the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party primaries in Homa Bay County.

The Standard caught up with Oluoch in Homa Bay, his home county, on Tuesday, April 19 to learn more about the young man who was now the face of memes, GIFS and online animated stickers.

When asked what prompted him to have such a reaction, he said he uttered the words to express tribulations that voters in the area were undergoing during the ODM nomination exercise.

 “Personally, I went to the polling station at 6 am thinking I would vote and attend to my job. The election officials wasted a lot of our time. I was not pleased when I was being told that we could not vote because there was no password,” Oluoch told The Standard.

Then added, “I wanted ODM officials to know that voters were lacking opportunity to vote because of the password issue. The hitches ought not to have occurred because voters would hardly be given extra hours for voting,”

Being an ardent supporter of former Prime Minister’s ODM party, he opposes the issuance of direct tickets to aspirants saying it does not give the voters an opportunity to put the leaders of their choice into office.

“We don’t want free tickets given to aspirants. Let all of them be subjected to a nomination process in which they are voted by the people,” Oluoch reiterated.

He made the sentiments days after ODM party issued a direct ticket to Homa Bay Woman Representative Gladys Wanga to contest for governorship after what it termed as a ‘consensus’.

During the interview that put Oluoch on the country’s limelight he stood behind the interviewee and asked "Is the password being brought by car? (Kwani hii password inakuja na gari?)". Then shortly after, he mentioned the name password, in a speech with a heavy Luo accent (which was the humor of the interview).

He kept on saying “Password” until the interview ended and that is how he was nicknamed password.

In response, he said, "I did not know the word ‘password’ could make me famous in Kenya,”.

Oluoch has also revealed to The Standard that he uttered the words at Shauri Yako Primary school in Homa Bay town.

He added that the school was his polling station, and he was at the venue to cast his vote as well as to express his displeasure on how the exercise was being carried out.

On that fateful day, Oluoch woke up at at 5 am and arrived at the polling station at 6 am expecting the voting exercise to begin by 6 am or 6.30 am.

However, ODM officials scheduled to preside over the nomination exercise arrived at the polling centre at about 9 am.

“Instead of starting the voting exercise, the election officials said voting could not start due to lack of a password which could unlock the biometric voting kit,” Oluoch complained.

“Every voter who questioned why people were not voting was told that there was no password for the biometric machine. We waited until the media crew arrived at the polling station,” Oluoch added.

The ODM party has been on the spotlight in past electioneering periods over irregularities allegations in its primaries. To resolve this, the party deployed use of electronic voting to address the anomalies.

Edited By Winfrey Owino