Post by Onyango Oloo on Aug 16, 2014 16:13:43 GMT 3
From advocacy.net:
Odindo Opiata started Hakijamii in 2004 as a continuation of his work as a human rights lawyer at Kituo Cha Sheria in order to provide longer term support to communities than litigation alone allows. He holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and has attended numerous human rights trainings. He has long been involved in human rights activism, including Kenyan democracy struggles, serving three years in prison from 1986-1989 as a dissident under Kenya’s one-party state. He believes in empowering communities by informing them of their rights, assisting them with their day to day struggles, and complementing what they are already doing with new skills and evidence-based work. Opiata envisions that the work of Hakijamii and its partners will help ingrain a deep respect for human rights into the minds of all people so that someday every human being will see their right to equality and justice fulfilled.
Those that have met with Mr. Opiata have seen his drive and enthusiasm for advocacy work. His passion and dedication has allowed many people to join the cause, with Hakijamii, to make basic human rights a reality for all. His hard work over the years has improved the lives of countless people and we should all be grateful for the time and effort he has put into making Kenya a better place. If more people follow his example I’m sure that Kenya and the world will see a brighter future.
Watch the video below:
exiting
the jomo dictated
seventies
ushering in
the moi repressed
eighties
swimming past
our “a”level streams
waiting
on the mombasa sea shores
to plunge into
the stormy nairobi rapids
of underground militant activism
the interim chairman,
the double o
with a jay first name
james odindo opiata
was my inspiration
our revolutionary spark
even though i
had never met you
and we would never
meet on campus
you were one
of my earliest heroes
odindo,
you were
a slightly older
ideological brother
spitting truth
to the one party
kanu power maniacs
i recall
during one of
those frequent
post riot campus closures
nascent land economists
cooling their heels in the estates
while making the mandatory weekly
appearances at the urban chief's camp
and budding electrical engineers
from hall thirteen and the box
mboya hall and mary’s hall
regaling us
horrifying us
with
tales of tear gas
and kicks from the kivunja mbavu police boots
narratives of furious street battles
and confrontations
over the death of walter rodney
and pronunciamentos
by striking doctors in training
odindo, i recall
how those second years
and third year undergraduates
seniors to us
barely bearded
form six leavers
sang paeans to you and your comrades
makau wa mutua and mathenge ririani
munuve mati and david anyona
mwarigha shadrack and saulo busolo wanambisi
rubik misore george and all those fellow expelees
and fresh moi era exiles
with whom you
odindo opiata
were dumped in dar es salaam and harare
later stockholm and southern ontario
as sudden refugees
from the university of nairobi
and our beloved kenyan mother
for continuing the militant tradition
of radical university student politics
odindo you remember how
you and i met
for the first time in eighty six
when you, older than i
was a brand new kamiti maximum prisoner
pilloried into the penitentiary
by the chunga inquisition to banish mwakenya
and i
a veteran at twenty six
was enduring a seditious long sentence
odindo opiata
we were all there
the ong'wens and the mwandawiros
the tirops and the karimis
the kang'ethes and the adongos
the former university activists
dragged from your middle class jobs
to pay for our so called
undergraduate disgruntled
political indiscretions
odindo opiata
we were to meet again
in the crucibles and symposia of civil society
hankering for a new constitution and a new kenya
and you, odindo opiata
was there on the frontlines
agitating, advocating mobilizing for and with
the urban poor, the evictees, the squatters
the kenyan sans culottes, the east african les damnes de la terre
the nairobi elements des classe
the mombasa, the kisumu, the nakuru, the kitale and eldoret
co-conspirators for a would be
twenty first century national jacquerrie
you, odindo opiata
like so many of us
knew
how many more mpeketonis,
how many more witus
how many more hindis
and how many more hongwes
are smouldering in kasighau, in yala swamp,
in yatta plains and kibagare wet land
waiting to erupt, impatient to explode
if the land-based
historical injustices
are not sorted out
sooner rather than later
this week rather than next week
but odindo opiata
today
on a saturday afternoon
in mid august twenty fourteen
today
on the sixteenth of august twenty fourteen
i feel wet droplets
dripping from my shocked eye-lids
because i have just read
the latest facebook wall update
from our mutual comrade
josiah omotto of umande and the same tradition
of militant struggle
josiah omotto
announcing
your untimely demise
after a brutal
unequal bout
with saratani of the liver
sheitani of the maini
kwa sasa nasema
kwaheri ndugu na mwandani
katika mapambano
odindo opiata
mkono wa tanzia
kwa jamii, jamaa na marafiki
onyango oloo
nairobi, kenya
3:45 pm, east african time
saturday, august 16, 2014
