Brother Calls “Emergency Harambee” at Continental Hotel
Mr. Nathan Hassan, the brother of the late Mr. Philip Owili Ongaro, has entered into crisis because he might be unable to travel home on time to attend the funeral of his late brother whose body leaves for Kenya on Thursday this week. Speaking to KSB on telephone, he wondered aloud what may have happened to the “Owili Funeral Committee” members because he could not understand how mature people who are well educated could renege on a clear agreement which was discussed and reached at a meeting by known people.
“I talked to Mr. Oyugi, Mr. Oyuga Odada and Mr. Gaya and they told me that I would get part of the funds raised to help finance my ticket”, he told KSB. “I have friends who came to the harambee. Others from different countries came to support the harambee because I told them that we had agreed to share cash raised”, a dejected brother told KSB on telephone soon after it was confirmed that he had been left “empty handed”.
The brother could not understand what he may have done to deserve the kind of treatment he had undergone at the hands of the Owili Committee whom, he said, he trusted beyond reasonable doubt.
“During the harambee, I talked to Mark Gaya who assured me that I would be given money on my hands after the harambee”, he continued. “I also talked to Mr. Odada who assured me that I was included in the main fund raising”, he added.
Although the harambee went on smoothly without major incidences, tension rose after the brother requested for an opportunity to give a speech. After the Master of Ceremony, Mr. Joshua Oyugi, allowed him to address the audience, he attacked the Owili family for having kept him in the cold for more than a week by locking him out of the flat he was living in together with his late brother.
After the speech, a shouting match between the brother and the widow ensued with the widow insisting that she had to respond to the speech. Although the request was turned down, she did manage to rise and address the gathering. She, in turn, attacked the brother for being a stumbling block in the process of the Owili fund raising but before she could proceed, Committee members rose to call for calm as temperatures began to rise.
At this point, Owili’s sister, who had travelled all the way from London, intervened and also demanded to talk. Some Kenyans did not recognize her and one Kenyan lady demanded to know who she was. Although she was never allowed to speak officially by the MC, she did say her bit and warned those who were attacking her sister to shut up.
Why the brother is being kept away
When the situation threatened to turn ugly, some members of the Committee stood up and, in turn, threatened to abandon the Committee if family members could not behave. It is at this point that things cooled down to allow the harambee to continue. It is against this background that the brother is reading foul-play in the decision by the Committee to exclude him from benefiting from cash that was raised by the public at the harambee.
According to the brother, the Owili family does not want him to attend the funeral on time to address mourners and that this is the fundamental reason why they are allegedly frustrating him. He views the lock-out from Owili’s flat as part of this frustration. What he has not understood is what he perceives as “collaboration” between the Committee and the family on a matter touching on public funds raised after an agreement to help both sides in the conflict.
He told KSB that the Committee had acted illegally in keeping him out of the funds because cash was raised by members of the public as per an agreement with the Committee that he would get his share regardless of the outcome of the harambee. He said that the Committee must be brought to account and to answer questions as to why he was kept out after funds were raised.
Asked why he thinks that the Owili family does not want him to attend the funeral, he said that during his stay with the late Owili, the brother told him “a lot of things” which he wanted relayed to his relatives back home in case he passed away abruptly.
“The Owili family does not want me to attend the funeral to talk about these issues”, he told KSB. He requested that the general public should question why the late Owili was living with him in a different flat for many years when now, he is supposed to have been married to Mrs Jane Owili.
He insisted that in the name of justice, it should be published that the late Owili’s wife “divorced him 24 years ago”. He also insisted that it be made clear that as far as he was concerned, “the Owili Funeral Committee has cheated me and conspired with the family to keep me away from the funds”. It is the brother who discovered the body of Owili in his flat and called police after he returned from a one week safari.
When pressed to give examples of what he knew which could have precipitated a situation where the family was allegedly trying to keep him away from the funeral, he gave several narrations which cannot be published at KSB especially at a time of deep shock and sorrow. He claimed that the family had obtained 80,000 kr from Owili’s Insurance company while he also claimed that the Funeral Agency transporting Owili’s body to Kenya called him to say that the body transportation cost was 24.000 kr and not 45.000 kr as claimed by the family.
“The agency called me and asked whether I could pay the money and this is how I knew about the issue”, he said. He challenged the family to produce receipts to prove him wrong.
“Naked Truth” at Continental Hotel
He said that Owili’s eldest son leaves for Kenya, today Monday, his mother leaves on Wednesday and that the body leaves on Thursday. “All these had been planned because they had money and tickets booked as I was being taken for a ride by the Committee. I feel very bitter”, he told KSB.
If true, the allegations are extremely serious, given that money was being raised from the public on grounds that the situation was desperate. These allegations puts the Committee in a major fix especially on questions of accountability and transparency. KSB has not been able to confirm any of the allegations and at this point, the info is being published upon the insistence of the brother who believes that this is the truth unless the family can prove otherwise.
The brother said that he had been helping Mr. Owili for a long time and that as a blood brother “who suckled the same teats”, he had no reasons for telling lies about his late brother and the entire Owili family. He believes that it will be “a tragedy” if he fails to travel to Kenya on time to attend the funeral of his late brother “to tell the truth”.
According to him, the Owili family is in a state of panic because of what he knows. He has therefore appealed for help from everybody who is in a position to understand his situation.
To address his economic difficulties especially on the ticket issue, the brother has called a funds drive tomorrow at Continental Hotel from 18.00 hrs to Midnight. He said that he is undergoing through a very trying moment but hoped that he will be able to travel to Kenya for the funeral so that his brother can rest in real peace.
He appealed to “all people who love fairness, justice and the naked truth” to come to Continental Hotel tomorrow so that they can hear from him directly about the main issues that led to the conspiracy between the family and the Committee to prevent him from travelling to Kenya. He said that he is ready to repeat verbatim everything published here “as the naked truth”.
Okoth Osewe
About the Author
Thanks to those who attended,but public dispalys of infantile panic attacks do not go along way in healing wounds.Its proper that we as a people should sit down an carve out mechanisms that will outsamrt such embarassments in the future.We know we are on the way there.
Ean Wuod Luo
Odera
Please Osewe,
Even if your blogg is supposed to promote diversity in terms of views, this guy(Otieno Odera) is an embarassment not only to the Luo community but to the entire Kenyan one.
Time seems to have gone by him as he is still in the 1960s. What he needs is somebody to help him get in congruence with the ever changing environment and tribalism will never be an ingriedient in the Kenya we dream and strive for! Simply block his comments as no one benefits from them!
Commentator #2 got it right because some of us are completely fed up with Antony Otieno Odera.He shares the name with another smart Otieno Odera of Kenya-Stockholm and it’s a pity that some have mistaken their identities. The subject in question has definitely gone mental because he never writes anything of value.Odera is a useless case as shown by my friends who interacted with him when he was in the US almost three years ago.Odera has personal problems and is tormented by the divorce he went through in Stockholm due to his mistakes.Sweden should have uplifted him but the older he gets,the more wasted he becomes.I agree that KSB should block his useless comments.