Oloo Aringo's harrowing airport experience after Ouko's death

The late former Education Minister Peter Oloo Aringo releases the 1987 KCPE results at Lenana School, Nairobi. [File, Standard]

Beads of sweat formed on his furrowed brow. His lips were cracked and his shaky voice barely audible. His hands trembled as he slowly sat down on the reclining chair. He paused to wipe tears from his eyes, then continued sharing the most humbling experience of his life as a politician.

Peter Castro Oloo Aringo, recalled his harrowing airport experience. He froze in his tracks. His ears twitched and his legs trembled as he slowly turned round. At first, he thought he heard wrong. Then he listened keenly to the two cleaners moping the floor in the VIP section of the Jomo Kenyatta International airport. He couldn’t believe they were loudly and boldly talking about him in his presence. He feigned a loud cough to try and interrupt their conversation. “God is very unfair” said one of the cleaners in Dholuo: “Why didn’t he take this one. It was unfair for such a good man like Robert Ouko to die when an idiot like this one is roaming around”. The insensitivity, cruelty and recklessness of the words hit Aringo like a sledge hammer. The two cleaners let out a devilish laughter and contemptuously sauntered away.

Kenya was burning. Violent riots and demonstrations swept through the country. The minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Robert John Ouko had been assassinated and his smoldering remains dumped a few kilometers from his Koru home. Angry Kenyans were protesting his killing. When Ouko died, Aringo was on official duty in the United Kingdom. The February 1990 murder, shook the core the government of President Daniel arap Moi.    

Aringo looked at me, his teary eyes heavy with sadness: “That encounter haunted me for months. I was traumatised by the fact that ordinary people could think of me in such a demeaning way and even dare say it to my face. I have never felt so small and useless”

His servants brought the much-needed drinking water and beverages. We were at his home in Alego Usonga in 1992, moments before he defected from the ruling party Kenya African National Union (Kanu). Multiparty politics had just set in liberating many from the claws of the single party rule. I was then working for the Nation Media Group as the Bureau Chief based in Kisumu. My photographer Baraka Karama Senior and I were covering the multiparty general election campaigns.

Aringo was a great source of news, having served as Member of Parliament for Alego Usonga since 1974, as minister for education and national chairman of Kanu. He had indicated that he was going to ditch Kanu.

“I will soon leave the ruling party Kanu. It is a great party that has been our mother and father but sadly the hour has come for us to part ways. However, I must first consult my ancestors” he told a crowd at Nyandorera, in Siaya County.

Someone shouted from the crowd: “But you were the initiator of the 8-4-4 system of education which is oppressing our children so you and Moi are the same”

Aringo quickly responded: “You speak correctly about the 8-4-4 system but if you listened carefully to all my speeches, I used to tell President Moi: “Your Excellency Mr. President Sir, the 8-4-4 system of education which is your brainchild…I would always take it back to the owner”, the crowd burst out into loud laughter.

I smiled as I took my notes. I was covering one of Kenya’s greatest orators who had unfortunately turned into a sycophant and Kanu’s cheerleader. Aringo shared the high and low moments as a cabinet minister and powerful chairman of Kanu.

By the time Ouko died, Aringo was drunk with power. The rotund minister was driven by sycophancy and imagined himself immortal until he had his airport moment. Moi had a unique style of leadership. He created several power bases to put his many detractors in check. He would appoint men and women from across Kenya to powerful ministerial positions but place his trusted men as their PSs. His rivals would only see the political nincompoops without realizing there were brilliant others in charge. The Moi administration produced men who would have walked naked to prove they were more loyal to the president and the ruling party than their rivals.

In their excessive loyalty contests, they hurt many, destroyed careers and took lives; Kariuki Chotara, Shariff Nassir, Joseph Kamotho, Justus Ole Tipis, Ezekiel Bargetuny, Mulu Mutisyia and Peter Castro Oloo Aringo were such men. What made Aringo different though, is that he was genuinely a good and generous man. His platitudes were merely meant to keep the president happy.

President Moi, a master politician, surrounded himself with a group of men that had little or no education but possessed political cleverness. His opponents were luminaries; led by prominent lawyers, scholars, and human rights activists. Moi’s comical advisors were however, deeply networked at the grassroots, where it mattered most in politics.  

These illiterates knew their way around ordinary citizens. They also knew the president deeply. Former Kitui Senator David Musila learned the hard way when he refused to play ball with Mulu Mutisya.

He says in his memoir, Seasons of Hope, that: “A word in the president’s ear or just a hint from them was enough to either build or destroy a political career. “President Moi was once a very good friend of mine; but now here I was looking over my shoulder, pondering at the turn of events…After the relationship between President Moi and I took a dramatic nosedive, I was left wounded and confused. I did not understand what had gone wrong,”

Aringo had grown in reputation to the mystic Russian, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, who befriended the imperial family of Nicholas II, the last emperor of Russia.

Like Rasputin, Aringo slowly gained massive influence in the government and ruling party Kanu. Rasputin’s extensive powerful influence on the ruling family infuriated the nobles, the church and even peasants. Rasputin’s rise and fall has inspired countless writers, musicians and filmmakers. 

Like Rasputin, Aringo angered the clergy and civil society leaders. At one time, Anglican Bishop John Okullu described him as; “A court poet, and a master of platitudes…such men are a danger to society.”             

But perhaps, Aringo’s most enduring sycophantic moment came during a graduation ceremony at the University of Nairobi. Aringo as the Minister for Education, while inviting Moi to preside over the event, heaped so much praise on him to the point of referring to him as: “The Prince of Peace”. Moi was quick to admonish him. He told him to never ever equate him to, “Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour”

As Aringo joins his ancestors, Kenya has lost one of the last leaders of the Moi era who had the power and the gift of the garb.