After serving for close to two decades as a personal aide to ODM supremo Raila Odinga, he switched allegiance to President William Ruto earlier in the year, but as day succeeds night, the suave lawyer and scholar has remained true to the noble cause.
Supporting poor kids here, chairing board of this school and leading funds drive to help that school build infrastructure, Jakakimba believes helping poor families get their children into school is the surest way of alleviating poverty, rather than giving them handouts.
"It took a community to see me go to school and be the person I am today," Jakakimba, affectionately called Okebe by his friends, often says.
"Otherwise I'd be a fisherman, wasting away at some remote place in Mfangano."
The PhD candidate was orphaned early in life and grew up at his maternal grandmother's house.
He only went to school thanks to the support of his relatives and a well-wisher couple from Seattle, Washington state, in the United States, who sponsored him through school.
Before the graces of the well-wishers located him, as a young boy, Jakakimba dropped out of school after writing his KCPE papers and launched into fishing, a familiar route that sees young boys ditch school in the lake-adjacent villages in Nyanza for quick cash.
On November 3, he organised a major funds drive at Kakiimba Secondary School, the school he attended and whose board he chairs, to help in infrastructure development.
He had Internal Security PS Raymond Omollo lead a host of government officials and a battery of politicians from across the political aisle to conduct the drive.
In light of this, this writer sat down with him for a conversation on his passion for supporting education, state of rural schooling in the country and why alumni of the village schools must take a sizeable lead in championing their development to serve children from poor households.
It took a community to see me go to school and be the person I am today. Otherwise I'd be a fisherman, wasting away at some remote place in Mfangano
Q: You sit in various school boards, leading some, and supporting many kids financially at different levels of education. What informs your passion for education? Does it resonate with your personal background?
As Horace Mann once put it, "Education is the greatest equaliser of the conditions of men." The passion I have for supporting access to education, especially for the place from whence I come, and students from all across, including outside of my backyard, is informed by the fact that from my own life experience and background, I know better. That education offers every child a fair chance in life.
Had I remained a school dropout after KCPE and continued as a young fisherman, I wouldn’t have been able to become what I am today, and the many people who look up to me for educational support may not have been able to stay in schools and colleges. You can imagine what life would have been for me and them.
Q: Having schooled in a rural school and made it, how would you characterise rural schooling in the country?
Rural schooling in Kenya still comes with a myriad of challenges at various levels. Most schools are not connected to the electric grid and even those that are, paying the bills remains problematic. Because a number of parents, due to hard economic times, are not able to handle their part of the bargain.
Infrastructure-wise, most of these schools are still struggling. For example, I went to school at a time when my alma mater, Kakiimba Secondary School, had an old, cracked dormitory and an awfully dilapidated classrooms block. Eyesores, for lack of a better word.
There was no laboratory, just an empty building with a few chemicals in its corner. I was actually the lab prefect at the time. You can imagine learning sciences in such an environment. There was no library. No dining hall.
Whereas the school has made considerable strides in infrastructure development, there’s room to do even more to make it be at par with other serious schools elsewhere in the country. With this example alone, you can see that it’s not easy for a student at a rural school like where I was to compete fairly with their counterparts learning in better-equipped institutions in other parts of the country.
I have not mentioned the issue of student-to-teacher ratio, which is always imbalanced. But thankfully, the current administration has empowered the TSC, which has hired the highest number of teachers at a go since Independence, this year alone.
Q: You recently mobilised a high-profile funds drive for your former school in the island. What role do you think alumni of schools have in their development and progress?
I believe that alumni of schools have an integral role to play in shaping both the infrastructure and academic trajectory of their former schools. I am doing my best in that regard because if we don’t help these schools deal with the hardware, then we cannot firmly demand of them to post good results and excel in the software side — that is, in academics.
These two go hand-in-hand, and I would urge alumni of rural schools to rise to the occasion. I’ve been very inspired by what some of my friends who went to Homa Bay High school, Maranda School, St Mary’s Yala and even Maseno School, do to make these schools grow bigger and better. I have decided to mobilise all the alumni of Kakiimba Secondary to align to this kind of thinking and give back. We have to start from somewhere.
Q: With the current rains and the progressive adoption of CBC system, how do you assess the state investment in school infrastructure, and what more needs to be done?
The fact is that in spite of the deliberate state investment in basic infrastructure in support of competence-based curriculum and the Junior Secondary Schools, a lot still needs to be done.
I think a year to the late Education CS George Magoha’s exit from the ministry, the state had seriously mobilised resources to cover as many schools as possible in developing infrastructure to align the schools to chase the promise of the CBC concept.
However, there is a danger that the number of learners could be higher and schools may be overstretched in terms of intake capacity. More classrooms must be put up by both the national government and CDF allocations to plug this obvious gap.
Q: Still on the recent funds drive, is it politically motivated? What ambitions are you having, parliamentary or any other, in the island or in Homa Bay county?
The recent funds drive for Kakiimba Secondary School had no political ambitions whatsoever, in it.
I have done several of these initiatives. In 2019, I brought in a strong team led by now Siaya Governor, then Senator James Orengo and Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo to Wakula Mixed Secondary, also on the Promised Island, Mfangano, to support the school through a similar drive.
I also extend a silent hand of support to many learning institutions and needy students across the island and mainland. I don’t do these to win support for any elective office. I do them because that is what must be done to change lives.
In fact, if you asked me, moving forward, I don’t think I’d present myself for an elective position. I would want to serve the fisherfolk community I come from and expand it out to the Great Republic of Kenya, more as a moral and timely duty, inspired by Rotary International’s motto of 'Service Above Self'. We can do it without expectations of personal benefit.
I recently said on KTN that I believe Baba could step back a bit and instead offer his experience to serve the continent in another capacity, it is on record that I also said Baba already has a strong legacy
Q: You seem to have had a breakthrough with the Ruto administration. How do you find almost a year of working closely with the President compared to your decades-long working for Raila Odinga?
I have never set out to get a ‘breakthrough’ with the Ruto administration. I have actually had an interview with this paper sometime in June and I made it clear why I believe that at this point in time, it is imperative not just for the Luo Nation, but the country at large, to support President William Ruto in delivering to the people of Kenya.
And I said that I’m deeply convinced that the President means business about turning around this economy and serving all Kenyans equally. We have witnessed this even in my Nyanza backyard with his many development tours, and we continue to see him do it across the country, no matter their political leanings and history of the past.
Whereas I recently said on KTN that I believe Baba could step back a bit and instead offer his experience to serve the continent in another capacity, it is on record that I also said Baba already has a strong legacy of deepening good governance in this country and beyond, and added that Kenyans need to find a way to appreciate or honour him.
So it would be inappropriate to demand a linear comparison of my years with Jakom to the several months I’ve been aligned to President Ruto’s administration. Both are doing the best they can to serve the nation in their various capacities.
Q: Talking of Raila Odinga, he led his troops to your backyard just days ago, in what appeared to be a political firefighting mission after your successful event on the Island. Is the larger Suba nation coming with you to your new political home, abandoning ODM?
The Suba nation and even the Luo Nation have a right to belong to any political formation, granted.
I am, however, a very deliberate folk who takes time to interrogate and analyse situations and circumstances before taking a stand or making a move. This is why I took several years with and around Baba in spite of the challenges that came with it.
I have elaborately spoken of the need for the Luo and Suba nations to support and embrace President Ruto’s progressive agenda for the region. And we can all see it.
Even so, I wouldn’t classify Baba’s tour of my backyard as political firefighting. As a national leader, the former Prime Minister has the right and a rich latitude to tour any corner of the country, including President Ruto’s Sugoi village in Turbo.
That does not take away my belief that as the Kavirondo Belt, we need to reassess these paths and work with President Ruto, especially where he has agreed to personally play a frontal role in initiating development projects in our region.
