Jaramogi Oginga Odinga will forever be remembered for his political role in the nation, but most specifically as the unequaled leader of opposition politics.
Though a lot has been said about the man he really was, especially away from politics, it is his home in Kang'o Ka Jaramogi in Bondo, Siaya county which can fully explain this.
Odinga's first and rather modern house was posh establishment built in 1950, and was a one storey building complete with an open garage, closed balconies, and huge windows.
The home and his entire compound has since been turned into a historical site, run and maintained by the Kenya National Museum, which has strived to clean and keep everything in place as if the hero died only yesterday.
Inside what was his bedroom, there stands a simple wooden bed and some of his clothes and bedroom slippers and sandals, while in the kitchen there is an ordinary stove used by his first wife Mary Ajuma in the 50's to prepare meals for the family.
In the bathroom, his toothbrushes (supple twigs from local trees) are intact and so are the chicken feathers he used to clean his ears of wax. Jaramogi carried the twigs with him everywhere he went.
In the sitting room there is a traditional grinding stone called 'pong' in Luo and its grinder (nyapong) which mary used to grind millet and soghum before preparing Oginga the porridge and Ugali he really loved.
Traditional brooms made of dry grass and a dirt tray (odheru) are next to the quern, with an ajua table standing nearby surrounded by traditional stools.
Another table is also packed with the items Mama Mary used to serve her hubby, including calabashes, cooking sticks, cooking pots, the water fetching pot and other kitchen items.
On the sitting room wall is his ceremonial hat and an overcoat bearing the words 'Uhuru na Jomo', a slogan he used to push for Jomo Kenyatta's released from detention before the fall of colonialism.
The house is indeed a museum.
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