The village TERRORISTS in Obama’s backyard

Alego’s many highly educated sons fear going home, writes GEORGE OLWALO

Across the globe, the people of Alego are a highly esteemed lot. This is because the son of their son occupies the most powerful office in the world.

What’s more, their grandson, Barrack Obama, has proved that he is a no nonsense man by neutralising America’s chief enemy, Al Qaeda mastermind, Osama bin Laden.

But while the son of Alego Kogello continues to enjoy the limelight in his vanguard role in fighting global terrorism, it may shock him that a silent terror has been tormenting his father’s clan for years. More intriguing is that it is executed by the sorts of terrorists that neither his Secret Service nor the highly rated Navy Seals can vanquish.

So widespread is the belief in black magic in Alego that it has often called Alego tat yien — Alego, the hotbed of black magic.

In Nyanza, it is uncontested that the people of Alego are highly educated. Many of them hold prestigious positions in both public and corporate worlds, but paradoxically, due to the threat of these ‘terrorists’, many villages in Alego are deserted and pathetically under-developed. It is only the riffraff who opt to stay. The successful leave for the cities and only return to be buried.

A Nairobi based public servant who only gave his name as Patrick says he has a colleague who hails from Alego, but ever since the man got a job in Nairobi, he has never bothered to return.

"It has been two decades, but he never gets homesick. He takes annual leave to visit his people back home, but the truth is he never leaves the borders of the city. He dreads visiting his people back in Alego for fear of village witches who are averse to successful individuals," Patrick says.

Patrick’s friend is not an isolated case. Joseph, an accountant based in Mombasa, says he once worked under a boss who hailed from Alego but had cut all ties with his rural folk.

Makeshift house

"He came to Mombasa as a young man. Later, he married a work mate. But much as she insisted that he takes her home to his parents, he firmly refused," recalls Joseph.

Unfortunately the man passed on before she could visit or get to know her in-laws. Her husband was also not a member of any of those numerous clan groups that cater for the funeral expenses when one of their own dies.

Under the circumstances, the company took it upon itself to hire a hearse and a truck to transport the man’s high-end household goods. Since none of the deceased’s colleagues knew a thing about his rural home, they relied heavily on the dead man’s identification card.

The overnight journey to Alego was smooth. Their first stop was at a trading centre where they met a small boy who guided them to the chief’s home. When the chief saw the two vehicles, one of them a hearse carrying a corpse, approaching his home, he was dumbfounded.

"Only after we explained to him what our mission was did he relax and take us to the deceased’s home," explains Joseph.

During the funeral, the mourners from Mombasa quickly discovered their boss had no place to call his own and that a makeshift house made of twigs had to be erected.

"It was a humiliating spectacle. He had accumulated wonderful and expensive household items, but there was no house to place them," says Joseph.

But one thing they noticed when they toured the village was its deserted and disturbingly underdeveloped look. The educated sons of the village had fled and remained in towns, too frightened to return and build beautiful homes, it seemed. A few sons of Alego have attempted to develop their rural homes, but they ended badly.

Road smash

Michael Oloo, a retired civil servant, says that one time, he had a friend who hailed from Alego. The man was a dedicated worker and he earned promotions fast. With power also came prestige and he bought a sexy looking Mercedes Benz. Sadly, the day he bid his friends bye to visit his rural home in his new Benz is the last time they saw him alive.

The man drove home safely and did the rounds visiting neighbours and relatives. He had a good time. But he never made it back to the city — losing his life in a fatal road smash. His death remains a mystery to date. Michael says he was a teetotaler and an expert driver and can’t understand how his new and well-maintained vehicle could just overturn and kill him on the spot.

"This was purely the work of black magic and nothing else. I strongly believe some people were jealous of my friend’s success and they vowed to finish him," states Michael.

Pius Makori, an insurance broker based in Nakuru, equally has a chilling account of how villagers in Alego treat their moneyed sons.

Headache

Pius says that at one time, a colleague of his who hailed from Alego took a big loan to build a decent house at his rural home. With the money, the man went home and laid a foundation, bought building materials and hired a lorry to take them to the building site. He then asked for a week’s off to supervise the construction.

But the day he was to return to his workstation, he started complaining of a splitting headache. He was rushed to the hospital but passed on a few minutes after admission. Pius says many could not understand how a man whhale and hearty could just drop dead. Accusing fingers pointed at witchcraft.

Witches in Alego are also sa to target academically promising students.

Caleb Oluoch, a resident of Rongo District in Migori County, says he saw it all as a high school boy in Alego.

"In the mid 90s, there was a student who was unbeaten academically in my school. He sailed through Form One without an incident, but in Form Two, he stated complaining of eye problems. At first, many thought the problem was minor but it got worse as months went by. In Form Three, he could hardly look at a book. He floundered academically and eventually dropped out of school," recalls Caleb.

Placating villagers with gifts is no good and can be the source of pain, not blessings, as Victor Olang’, a resident of Alego Usonga came to learn.

Victor is a bitter man who believes the witches in his village sealed his fate. He says that years back, he had a prestigious job at one of the exclusive hotels in Nairobi. After working for a year, he thought it wise to visit his people back home.

He arrived in style, bedecked with packets of sugar, kangas and money. At home, he visited relatives and neighbours and offered them packets of sugar. Some women got kangas and old men who loved local liquor received cash to quench their thirsts.

"I did this purely out of love and to get the blessings of my people, but sadly, this was not to be. I was sacked soon after returning to work," he discloses.

Victor, who is currently a common villager scraping a living the hard way, blames witches in his village for his sudden downfall. Given a second chance, Victor vows that he would opt to remain in the city and forget about the rural home.

Before I parted ways with Victor during my interview for this story, he tickled me, saying, "If Obama only knew what is taking place in his father’s birthplace, he would forget about fighting global terrorism and come here to fight these village ‘terrorists’ who have made Alego a backwater as other parts of Luo land progress."