Ochola Achola aka Chuma Liet, the younger brother to the late Mama Grace Onyango played a significant security role in Jaramogi Oginga Odinga`s political camp.
The late Godfrey Ochola Achola, given his shrewd operation rose through the ranks and became Jaramogi`s most trusted but lethal security youth-wingers. Others in the unit included Otuge Mwoso,Were Olonde,Odungi Randa, Onyango Radier, Achieng Oneko,Wasonga Sijeyo,Cathorina Akumu,Ochola Ogur and Martin Shikuku.
Shikuku
Some of this sensitive information was only disclosed after the death of his elder sister Mama Grace Onyango , the first female member of parliament in post-independent Kenya.
She died aged 99 at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH) where she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The late Mama Grace is also the first Kenyan female mayor after she replaced Mathias Ondiek as the Kisumu Mayor in 1965.
Grace Onyango
Her brother, Achola , was the chairman of the youth wing from 1958 and therefore was the chief custodian of Jaramogi`s security intelligence reports by virtue of his delicate duty.
Raila Odinga`s father charged Achola with an assignment of driving the founding President Jomo Kenyatta from the prison to his home in Gatundu.
On the material date, 21 August 1961, political activist cum KANU leader Kenyatta was released from jail after serving 9 years.
Jaramogi Oginga
During the 1952 Mau Mau rebellion , Kenyatta , together with other nationalists leaders were imprisoned by the British authorities over their engagement in a rebellion that took the British by surprise .
It was this rebellion that paved the way for the independence of Kenya out of the bondages of Britain.
Kenyatta subsequently became president in 1964, a year after the country gained independence from Britain.
Jaramogi who was Achola`s political boss had joined hands with Kenyatta to fight against British rule but the duo developed fierce rivalry after Kenya became an independent nation.
In 1969 at the height of the ugly fallout between Kenyatta and Odinga, Achola was marked by the government as one of the main targets and was accused of hiding Jaramogi`s perceived war arsenal including guns with an intention to create chaos and make the Kenyatta regime ungovernable.
He was therefore arrested and detained from 1969-1974 alongside Ochola ma ka Nyengo, Ochola Ogur and Martin Shikuku.
The intelligence had gathered that he was the main player in an arrangement in which youths that supported Jaramogi caused trouble for the government.
After his return from Russia Ochola Achola coordinated an advanced security team that assessed and made recommendations before Jaramogi could visit a particular place for his high-octane series of political rallies that castigated his friend turned foe, Kenyatta and his sympathizers.
Coincidentally, the sister Grace Onyango was the organizing secretary of a powerful unit dubbed Luo thrift and was also the leader of the women league from 1959, would bravely mobilize resources to support the operations of his younger brother and his group in Jaramogi`s camp.
Following the kind of torture he received during his detention, Ochola was unable to speak until his death.
Sources say that political interest in the blood of Ochola and his sister Grace Onyango was instilled by their father Ishmael Noo Ooro who was also a spiritual leader.
He literally prayed to his children , together with Jaramogi Oginga and significantly handed the trio a Bible as a gift in the 50s.
According to pundits, this partly explains the bravery that the late Grace Onyango and Ochola Achola ” koth goyi e akwadha ni ” served in the political world.
Leaders including Azimio La Umoja chief Raila Odinga described the late Grace Onyango as a fearless articulator of national issues and an astute defender of her roots.
