Sakwa Kamnara: An encounter with my kin as I traced my roots.

 

In the month of October or thereabouts, I was honoured by a visit from Joseph Kwaka who had asked if I was in the village and came by. It was during lunch that we had in our village family home that I was able to get a few snippets of my lineage. I have traditionally been able to go back only three generations from my late dad’s. I have always known that I am son of Arodi K’Ochola who was the son of Ochola K’Owade and I would run out of air at that point as I would not be able to connect my great grandfather to the Kamnara roots that I claim lineage of. And no, Kamnara has nothing to do with ‘come nearer’ as has been rumoured over the years.  We are descendants of Minara.

Jaduong’ Kwaka as I call him invited me for a meeting on 27^th December 2024 that would host as many as possible of the lineage of Minara our forefather. I was hesitant to commit to attending the meeting as I was hosting my former colleagues the day after the proposed meeting date. He indicated rather calmly but with some subtle threat that I needed to figure out how to manage hosting my former colleagues but still attend that meeting as it would be a very critical one for me as a descendant of Minara.

You know – sorry, you don’t know – I come from a large family. My grandfather had 12 wives who sired 10 sons among them and I am in a family of 10 brothers as well as 7 sisters. Some time back, I tried to collect the history of our gradfather especially with the names of the grandmothers and their origin and I was not able to as people with the memory were no longer with us. My dad’s last brother to pass on was in 2023 at the age of 93. At the point I had engaged him in getting the information, he was already struggling with recall as is common the older we get. For example, I have no idea what my show size is unless I check. Many times I have bought two sizes smaller or an inch longer than my foot.

Anyway I committed to attend the meeting on 27^th December in Ajigo and man, I was glad I did!

The meeting was hosted by James Kwaka, Enos Oyaya and Nying’iro Onyango who are solid Kamnara luminaries and have served the nation of Kenya gallantly over the years and now into their old age. It was here that I was surprised to learn about how far and wide the Kamnara clan spreads in the nation of Kenya.

This gathering brought attendees – Jokawino – from all parts of our forefathers’ settlements over the years. Yes, we of Kamnara are also referred to as ‘Jakawino’ for a man or ‘Nyakawino’ for a woman. In fact, let me steal for you a secret that if you want true favour from someone from Kamnara, call them Jakawino or Nyakawino and you will see a genuine flash of a smile that will open the doors of our souls to whatever goodness you desire from us. We shall grant you.

For me, it was the introduction part that was outstanding to begin with. We were all required to stand and introduce ourselves as we traced our lineage until we linked to Minara so as to understand how and why we identify as Sakwa Kamnara. It was indeed a hilarious experience as we mumbled and fumbled our ways through the introductions. For those of us who had their older siblings in attendance, we simply copied what they said as I did from my brother George Arodi who was with us.

I introduced myself as Owino K’Arodi (Owino son of Arodi)

Wuod Arodi K’Ochola (Arodi son of Ochola)

Wuod Ochola K’Owade (Ochola son of Owade)

And got stuck there just as most of us did anyway. A few could run down more than 4 generations with even fewer of us connecting all the way to Minara. What stood out in those who were able to run the whole lineage was the fact that it was largely attributed to their parents teaching that to them. It was an amazing lineage run.

How far back can you trace your lineage and draw your family tree? I guess you did not consider it a big deal. It might not be a big deal but it is a fun experience to try and if you have your parents alive, best to ask them to top up your existing knowledge. It will be worthy of your time and engagement.

It is in this meeting that I got to see kin from different parts of Kenya.

I came to learn that we have Sakwa Kamnara kin in Seme as was demonstrated by a team that was led by Engineer Daniel Okia. I also had no idea that we have Kamnara in Sanda, Yimbo until I heard from the introductions by George Odinga. The shock did not end there, I even heard about Kamnara based in Kakamega when William Onyango Olawo took the mic. We went on to hear from those in Kano as Jared Obewa introduced himself among others. You do not even want to know that there was presence of Lung’aya Igunza representing the Mulogo team who trace their lineage as well to Minara.

We had presence of many other kin from Kamnara including but not limited to Dr. Charles Oyaya, Dr. Fredrick Osena Odindo, Dr. Jacob Konyango, George Arodi, Oringa Babu, Oginga Omiti, Paul Ogada, Noel Ondiek, Samuel Rumo, Charles Ogwang, Joshua Siwa among tens of others from the North Sakwa side of the settlement. We had more degrees in the room than a thermometer has!

I had been largely aware of the presence of my kin in Ajigo, Aila, Kamnara, Kayogo as well as Gobei Areas of North Sakwa. While I had not met so many people from the ‘Kamnara ma Mwalo’ as we call them – Got Kachieng’, Minya, Got Abiero etc – It was great to see them pack the room.

 

Now I intend to memorize my lineage well and have a better grasp of how to trace my roots and pass the same information to our children. I had no idea that there is actually a book on Kamnara authored by none other than Enos Oyaya who is a renown educationist in Kenya. I grabbed my copy and it will go a long way in reinforcing and reminding me of the Kamnara connection.

 

Of course we did not only meet to introduce ourselves. We had many items on the agenda that will inform the future.