Success does not come without a number of setbacks and at times, embarrassing situations that are best hidden from the the world's eye, or told at the right time.
Departed politician and first Vice President of Kenya Jaramogi Oginga Odinga had such a secret which he , however, not only revealed, but had recorded in one of his publications for future generations' use.
It is about his ordeal in the hands of Maseno School Principal Carey Francis back in his schooling days, when he landed on the wrong side of the law for allegedly stealing paraffin.
It was on a closing day and while making his rounds as the School Assistant Captain, he came across some paraffin which he emptied into his own tin, happy to have gotten some light to aid him in pursuit of academic excellence during the holiday.
The happiness was, however, short-lived as he soon came across the Principal who was attracted to the tin and upon realizing what was in it, took him in for theft and he was given some strokes for the offence.
''The principal thrashed me four kibokos and detained me in school for five days for being a thief,'' Jaramogi says in his autobiography, 'Not Yet Uhuru'.
The event took place in 1934, when the leader-in-waiting was in his fourth and last year in the school.
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