Beryl Achieng’ Odinga who passed on today was one of those who came from a prominent political family but chose to keep a low profile, and would have remained so were it not for the man or men in her life.
In her sojourn through life, she would be married to one of the most consequential politicians in Nyanza and Kenya, Aggrey Otieno Ambala, before, it is said, she landed in the hands of ZANU Secretary General Edgar Zivanai “2 BOY” Tekere and later Morgan Tsvangirai.
Had Tekere not differed with Robert Mugabe, we cannot tell what she would have become in Zimbabwe.
It was Raila Odinga, a master at pairing his sisters with his political connections, who organized for Beryl to move to Zimbabwe, for he felt, Beryl’s heart was not in the right place with Ambala. Raila would also later arrange a rib for his sister Ruth in the burly Ghanaian known as Busia, you saw at his funeral.
But Ambala was out of this world. While Jaramogi gave blessings, grudgingly, for his daughter to get married to a fiercely ambitious politician who practiced brutal politics, Raila and Oburu had deep reservations. Ambala would later abuse Beryl leading to a divorce and the departure to Zimbabwe, where she became the first black town clerk of Mutare, the country’s third largest city.
A beneficiary of the Mboya Airlift Program, Ambala attended the prestigious historically black, Howard University, to read Economics. When he returned, he carried in his suitcase, a machine for cutting WARU into small pieces called CHIPS, a meal that had fascinated his taste buds in America.
Used to boiling and roasting WARU, the Agikuyu and other residents of Kenya refused to welcome Ambala’s new idea of mutilating potatoes to make chips. But when Ambala fried what he had cut to pieces, added salt and chillie, hell broke loose in Nairobi. He became the first man to bring chips to Kenya. He would later add chicken, fish fillets, soda and sausages and spoil Nairobi appetites forever. Long lines formed at the Ambassedeur hotel where his restaurant was located. In the process he became a millionaire.
This would later draw the attention of Kikuyu oligarchs like Njenga Karume who became his business partner in the distribution of beer.
But it was his political opponents who got his raw side. Once while fighting for Gem MP with Isaac Omolo Okero, Okero came up with a popular slogan to push his campaign and printed it in posters. It read, “Ja Ulumbi, Okero Loch nie Lwete.” One day Okero woke up to find his opponent Ambala had changed the slogan to, “Ja Ulumbi, Okero chieth nie Olunde.” He won.
In a later duel with Horace Ongili Owiti, Owiti resoundingly beat him in the polls. In 1985 Ongili was brutally murdered and Ambala was a suspect in his death. On the day Ongili was being buried, Ambala died in remand at the Kodiaga prison.
The end of two Luo and Gem illustrious sons. Within days. Because of politics.
Ambala was nicknamed WUON PESA. At his death, he left behind wealth worth billions of shillings including acres and acres of land in Karen, Nairobi. To date, 40 years after his death, his family are still fighting over his billions. But Beryl moved on, choosing life and limb over wealth and money.
So as we remember Beryl, her death triggers the memory of a man who played hard, bareknuckled politics and left untold riches.
