The story of Odungi Randa cannot adequately be told simply by saying that he became Chairman—or Ker—of the Luo Council of Elders. His biography runs through some of the most turbulent chapters of Kenya’s political history: colonial rule, the struggle around independence, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s break with the post-independence establishment, the Kenya People’s Union, political repression under the one-party state, detention and torture at Nyayo House, and finally his emergence decades later as an elder seeking to arbitrate questions of Luo culture, leadership and unity. It is, in many respects, the story of a man who moved from the margins of rural Kano into the inner circles of opposition politics—and paid a considerable personal price along the way.
From Kakola to the Classroom
Odungi Randa was born on 29 December 1939 in Kakola village, Kano, in present-day Kisumu County. He belongs to the Kisumo Karateng’ K’Odongo clan of Bunde Kano. His early education began at Bunde Orongo Primary School before he proceeded to Maliera Intermediary School in Gem Kodiaga, Siaya. He later travelled to Uganda for further education at Kasubi, but his studies were interrupted because he could not raise the required school fees.
That interruption could easily have ended the ambitions of a young African growing up during the final decades of colonial rule. Instead, Randa returned to Bunde and became a teacher at the very primary school where he had once been a pupil. But the classroom would not define his life. Politics would.
The Encounter with Jaramogi
The decisive turn came in 1958, when the young Randa met Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, then a member of Kenya’s Legislative Council. According to published accounts of Randa’s life, Jaramogi subsequently recruited him as a personal assistant following recommendations from associates.
This placed Randa unusually close to one of the central personalities in Kenya’s transition from colonialism to independence.
Jaramogi would become Kenya’s first Vice-President after independence, but his relationship with President Jomo Kenyatta deteriorated dramatically over the ideological and political direction of the new republic. When Jaramogi eventually left government and became the central figure in the Kenya People’s Union (KPU), Randa remained within his political orbit. By 1969, published biographical accounts describe Randa as having risen to become a KPU secretary.
That fact is important. Association with Jaramogi’s opposition politics during this period was not merely an ordinary career choice. The KPU operated in an increasingly hostile political environment before it was ultimately banned in 1969.
Randa’s political education was therefore taking place not from textbooks but inside one of independent Kenya’s earliest major confrontations over state power, opposition politics and political freedom.
Exile of Circumstance
After Jaramogi was detained, Randa’s life changed again. In 1970 he joined Eden Company in Kampala, described in contemporary biographical accounts as a company specialising in water-supply systems for hospitals. His work reportedly took him through several African countries and cities. When circumstances permitted, however, he returned to Jaramogi and again served as his trusted aide.
This long association helps explain Randa’s later position within Luo public life. He was not merely someone who encountered Jaramogi ceremonially in old age. He had worked beside him during periods when opposition politics carried significant personal consequences. And eventually those consequences reached Randa himself.
Nyayo House: The Darkest Chapter
Perhaps the most consequential—and best legally documented—chapter of Randa’s biography began on 2 December 1986. According to the subsequent High Court case Odungi Randa Ong’ombe v Attorney General, Special Branch officers arrested him in Kisumu without a warrant. His home at Kakola was searched. Among the materials taken were books associated with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Ghanaian revolutionary leader Kwame Nkrumah.
He was eventually transported to Nairobi. There, Randa entered the notorious world of the Nyayo House detention cells. The High Court record states that he spent 17 days in a dark basement cell and described beatings, kicks, whipping, forced nakedness and prolonged spraying with pressurised water during interrogation. He was denied access to relatives, lawyers and medical attention. His interrogators sought admissions concerning the clandestine Mwakenya movement.
After being held for 22 days before being brought to court, Randa was charged on 24 December 1986. The court record states that he pleaded guilty after, according to his later evidence, Special Branch officers advised him to do so to avoid further torture. He received a four-year prison sentence.
Decades later, the Kenyan judiciary formally vindicated important parts of his account. In 2012, the High Court found that the state had violated Randa’s constitutional rights through unlawful detention and torture and awarded him KSh 2 million in damages, together with costs and interest. That judgment transforms Randa’s story from political folklore into documented judicial history.
From Political Survivor to Ker
Randa survived the repression of the one-party era and remained associated with opposition politics and political counsel. His trajectory eventually moved from active political struggle toward cultural elderhood.
Following the death of Willis Opiyo Otondi in February 2023, elders selected Randa during the Piny Luo gathering in Homa Bay in July 2023. He was subsequently formally crowned at Ofafa Memorial Hall in Kisumu on 22 December 2023, with his supporters recognising him as the ninth chairman of the Luo Council of Elders. His accession, however, must be described accurately rather than romantically.
The Luo Council of Elders has been divided by a longstanding leadership dispute. Nyandiko Ong’adi leads a rival faction and also claims the position of Ker, challenging Randa’s legitimacy. Recent developments in 2026 shows that both camps remain active and that the disagreement over the legitimate leadership of the council has not simply disappeared. Randa therefore occupies a powerful but contested stool.
An Elder Forged by Political History
Today, Randa’s public interventions increasingly concern reconciliation, Luo culture, community cohesion and relations among political leaders. In 2023 he urged political leaders in Siaya to resolve disagreements through dialogue, while his activities as Ker have included visits to culturally significant places such as Got Ramogi and the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Mausoleum.
In 2026, amid renewed divisions within Luo political leadership, Randa publicly called for unity and urged leaders to concentrate on education, healthcare, youth opportunities, development and environmental concerns rather than internal political warfare. There is an extraordinary historical circle here.
The boy born in Kakola in 1939 became a teacher. The teacher became Jaramogi’s aide. The aide became a KPU functionary. The opposition activist became a political prisoner. The prisoner survived Nyayo House and incarceration. The survivor lived long enough to take the Kenyan state to court and obtain judicial recognition that his constitutional rights had been violated. Decades later, the same man emerged as a claimant to one of the most prominent positions of Luo cultural elderhood. Odungi Randa’s biography is therefore bigger than the title Ker.
Odungi Randa: A Living Archive of Kenya’s Untold History
Odungi Randa is more than a witness to Kenya’s turbulent political history; he is a living archive of extraordinary experiences. His body passed through the torture chambers of Nyayo House. His political life unfolded within Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s opposition movement.
His twilight years have brought him into the contested arena of Luo cultural authority. Few living Luo elders embody these three historical experiences. His close association with Jaramogi alone makes him an invaluable custodian of untold chapters of Kenya’s political history.
It is therefore imperative that a comprehensive biography of Odungi Randa be undertaken sooner rather than later, capturing his experiences, political insights and historical recollections. His life is a treasure trove of knowledge extending far beyond Luo society into Kenya’s struggle against authoritarianism.
Allowing these memories to disappear undocumented would be an unforgivable act of historical negligence, depriving future generations of an irreplaceable chapter of Kenya’s political heritage.
Okoth Osewe
