BY MAKOKHA WANJALA:REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE OF OULU GPO

REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE OF OULU GPO
Generations after us will always ask who Oulu GPO was. Our answers will be varied depending on which side of which side of the game we played. For me I had the opportune of seeing Oulu at close range. He served in the same student government as I did. He was at that time the Campus Rep Kikuyu campus. I recall during my own campaigns when I had been threatened by the Summit in Kikuyu that I was not going to be able to address the last Kamukunji…. It was GPO who came to my rescue. In fact I recall vividly that my clarion call of the right to be heard does not include to the right to be taken seriously was coined then.

GPO was to be a regular in our student parliament chaired by Mr. Speaker the Hon. Daktari Murage. He had problems with this thing of collective responsibility and many times though speaking from the executive benches he spoke more or less like an independent minded Member of Parliament. My memory could fail but I faintly recall that he must have joined forces with Fwamba when the latter wanted to Head PAC and PIC committees yet he was the Deputy SONU President. We went through a whole a year with our struggles sometimes serving students and at other times regrettably we served ourselves. Oulu was no angel; he too made his fair share of mistakes then. His mistakes however never took him away from a ground of fighting for human rights.
We must have been with Oulu in Mbarara University when SONU went calling for a two weeks seminar. There like anyone who has been out of the country we all became patriotic defending the nation. Many of us retired from student service when GPO upped up his scale to the position of vice-chairperson. Personally when I took up employment with the University, Oulu sought me out and I had to explain to him. The upshot is that I had taken up a job for which I was qualified and had gone through the interview process. I do not pretend that those who interviewed me were not known to me before hand but their decision remains theirs only.
When he earned a suspension from the University, Oulu joined a group of a few but very dedicated individuals who believe injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. That he had fallen out with university management was remarkable, but that he had fallen out with a regime that is headed by his tribesman was truly inspirational. I was at the inauguration of SONU officials where the University management ordered security to make Oulu leave. Oulu had come dressed in a white suit, and he joined in coming straight to main dais. As he was escorted out I wondered whether or not his white suit was not symbolic. It was. It reminded us of two things that the silence of the current students had combined with the leadership of the institution in choosing a very dark colour by repelling the white suit Oulu had carefully chosen for the day.

As with all suspensions, the management granted amnesty and Oulu was readmitted back but of course with a condition that he never vies for a SONU position. I thought Oulu would not accept such injustice and in fact when he reported to campus I sought him out. His response lingers on. He intimated that he had discovered the University was such a small theater in which to fight for human rights. He had expanded his horizon to the nation. He had joined the human rights forum at the national front. His horizon was bigger and UON had receded and he saw no reason to cry over a microcosm. But he maintained an active role and interest in student affairs. Tragedy would have it that at time of his death Oulu was still a student at UON. In a way the journey to a degree parallels his fight for human rights. Both the struggles stalled mid term.
As fate would have it, I could not be at his graveside to witness the journey of Oulu back to the earth. I had shared many struggles with him that it was painful not to be there and participate in the ceremonies of burying yet again picking the baton from this gallant son of Kenya. Twin fateful coincidence was that on the same day I was laying to rest the remains of another great Kenyan. My Dad. The phonecall that Oulu had passed on way relayed to me by Lillian. She had seen a news flash that a former student leader had been gunned down. She had assumed it was me. Not long later Mbogori called and asked me to clarify at least to my friends that I had not been gunned down. I placed a call to Fwamba and the sad news weighed in that our GPO was no more. Much of the following hours were spent on phone relaying and at times confirming that indeed Oulu had gone before us.
This morning as I looked at my Album I was astounded to see a photograph of myself, Oulu and Hussein Ali. It occurred to me that at the Machakos retreat for new SONU leaders Oulu had come so close to man whose boys would later be accused of slaying him in cold blood. It has never been concluded and I know stories of vanguards never escape ambiguity. We will never know for sure who killed Osar Kang’ara and Oulu but we can use a method of interpolation to at least arrive at a culpable group.
As his birthday anniversary comes up this week, it behoves all of to remember that God allowed us to eulogize this great soul so that we can pick up the battle. A careful reading of the bible has led me to conclude that God never works through committees. There is no task greater than one person. What Oulu was fighting for falls on your shoulders as an individual, pick up the task for you are equal to it. Among my friends who would make a cabal around me but who have proceeded before us is another strong and determined medical doctor Onkoba Marube. He too was in the same SONU cabinet. God may be calling on us but those who remain must as always carry on. I will mourn the twin coincidence of the deaths of Oulu and my Dad in fruitful knowledge that in their company I learnt much. I reserve these words for my Comrade Oulu.
“GPO, you will be remembered as a man who had a presence of mind to overcome his immediate challenges of seeking education, looking for rent, looking for money for ailing parents,
As a man whose debilitating poverty was no reason to take a shortcut to wealth.
As a man who though not eloquent was succinctly clear on what was important not for his being but for the unborn generation of Kenyans.
We will remember you not because we choose to, not because it is an honour but because in facing and securing a better future for Kenya’s children we see you everywhere. Personally I see you in any quest for justice.

Go ye… in remembrance of those before us who did so much and paid the ultimate in a quest for a better life for our children to play our various roles in shaping the nation