As Kenyans identified and saluted their mashujaa (heroes) last month, the descendants of the late World War I veteran Joseph Ogutu Abiero had another special reason to honour him.
This is because the former Native Police Sergeant, after his military tour of duty, honoured them with an official photograph in his full uniform taken at a leading Nairobi photo studio on October 1, 1926, exactly a century ago.
October is a special month as a day, Mashujaa Day, has been set aside under the 2010 Constitution to celebrate all our heroes on October 20.
A soft copy of the gem was handed over by the writer to National Museums of Kenya Director of Antiquities, Sites and Monuments, Prof Frederick Kyalo Manthi, in his office witnessed by Dennis Milewa, Cartographer, on its 100th birthday.
Also on the list of strategic partners to be visited and gifted are Director of National Archives Dr Francis Mwangi, National Police Service Spokesperson Sr Supt Michael Nyaga Muchiri, and Heritage manager at Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Nairobi Patrick Abungu.
The heroes' month coincides with the first anniversary of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who also served as a Cabinet minister and MP for Kibera in Nairobi and leader of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party.
Since the historic photo was taken 100 years ago, six of his descendants have joined the military, disciplined forces, political arena and diplomatic services in his honour. The Joka Sajni held a get-together at his home in Abir, Gem, Siaya county, on Mashujaa Day in 2019, where most of his 383 descendants attended.
Dressed in his new uniform after receiving his promotion letter from his mzungu (white man) and accompanied by his colleague, they were instructed to go to one of the few photo studios in the capital of the Kenya colony and take a photo for documentation purposes.
By then, the post of sergeant was the highest rank for the ‘natives’ serving in the colonial police force, as it was called then.
So Sgt Abiero walked out of the office of his boss that sunny morning with his letter of promotion and medal of honour placed in his right-hand pocket as his other colleagues watched him with respect and admiration and saluted him after the brief ceremony in front of the police station.
Police standing order (PSO) then, as is the position now, was that all junior officers had to salute their seniors whenever they met.
The dress code for the native Africans was a maroon fez cap, with a colonial crown in the front; the men (no women were in the police force then) wore a long-sleeved dark blue sweater-like shirt with cream shorts and kapus (dark blue cloth tied from the legs to the knee).
From a distance, when the police were on patrol, it was not easy to notice that the wazungu had short trousers like their native colleagues, but the difference was that they were allowed to wear black leather shoes that had to be shining like the sun.
The native police wore black belts with the colonial crown at the end just like their mzungu bosses. They also carried a rungu (club) and had a whistle hung on a rope around their necks in case of an emergency.
Colour-bar or discrimination on racial lines was the order of the day in the young nation and even in the police service, where wazungu were the only ones allowed to wear leather shoes and had hats with the colonial crown at the front.
The segregation went further to include reserving and equipping guns to the wazungus and setting aside special houses for them at the police lines (staff quarters).
It was while serving at Narop (original name was Narok) in the current Narok county in Rift Valley as a teenager that Sgt Abiero Ogutu married and was blessed with his firstborn, Dinah Oriso Wage.
The veteran was a polygamist, as was the tradition among the Luos then, and had four wives; namely Salome Adero, Gudah, Oyamo and Peninah.
The Sergeant and his first wife were blessed with three children, namely Dinah, Leah Ogombe and Harun Owuor. One of the veteran’s sisters was Gaudencia Awuor Oriso Ahenda, whose son, Paddy Ahenda, was a former Kasipul Kabondo MP and Kenya’s first Ambassador to Qatar in the Middle East (2020-2022).
The day of his promotion was very special to him because his mzungu bosses reminded him after the safe delivery by a midwife that it was the day the First World War broke out between the British and the German governments.
By then the British government had taken over parts of present-day Kenya and Uganda, and was administering it as one of its many colonies in Africa, Asia and South America.
By some strange fate of life, he was spotted in the Abir, Gem village, as he was herding cattle by a team of white military officers from the King's African Rifles to join hundreds of fellow strong men to join and serve in WW1 fighting on the side of the Allied powers led by Britain against their nemesis, Germany, in their colony, neighbouring Tangayika, and other nations like Somalia against the Italians, and in Southeast Asia in Burma, among others.
The Allied forces also included France, Russia, the United States, Italy and Japan who fought against the Central powers whose other members were Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey).
Later, the Sergeant’s eldest son, Harun Owuor, was conscripted by the British military and served at the forefront in Mauritius during the Second World War (1939-1945), and returned to Kenya, where he retired and was recruited in the colonial administration and served as a clerk in many stations in Nyanza region.
The Allies won and the Axis team led by Germany was forced by the League of Nations (precursor to the United Nations) to surrender all their territories in Africa and other parts of the world to the victors.
There was good news in 1934 when the Sergeant and his wife, Salome, were blessed with their first grandson, Enos Seth Orlale, who later rose to be the first chairman of Homa Bay county government (1992-1994).
In Africa, former German colonies like Tanganyika were handed over to the British; others such as South West Africa (present-day Namibia) were handed over to South Africa.
Sgt Ogutu Abiero later served in many different parts of the country and missed being recruited into the military on the eve of World War 2 due to age and failing health. He retired from the police in 1945 and passed on after a short illness.
Wall of Fame
The war veteran has since inspired several family members to join the military and disciplined forces locally and abroad. They include four of his sons: Harun Owuor, who rose to the rank of Warrant Officer in the King's African Rifles and fought in WWII (1936-45) and Dishon Odera Robert Odundo, who served in the Kenya Police.
Others are his grandsons: Supt. Joseph Osanya Ochanji (Kenya Prisons Service), and Dr Mike Ahenda and Frederick Otieno Odundo (Kenya Defence Forces).
Sgt Ogutu Abiero also has great-grandsons who are flying his flag high. They are Dr John Ahenda and Captain Allan Opiyo Orlale and Captain Alex Odongo, who are/have served in the United States Army, Marines and Air Force.
