Gem chief who forced parents to take children to school

Odera Akang'o campus, Yala, Gem Constituency, Siaya County. [Titus Munala, Standard]

As the country is agonising about the lost opportunities for an estimated 300,000 learners who fell through the cracks last year after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, there are lessons the government can learn from one colonial chief.

A long time ago, 106 years to be precise, the chief from Gem, Odera Akang'o, was invited to Uganda during the consecration of Namirembe Cathedral by Bishop JJ Willis. And when he returned, as historian...