Raila Odinga Junior is the new head of the Odinga family following his official installation in a solemn and cultural ceremony held at the family’s residence in Opoda farm, Bondo on Thursday.
Odinga Jnr’s uncle and Siaya Senator Dr Oburu Oginga led the procession as the cultural head of the larger Odinga family. The event, also attended by Luo elders and Odinga family members marked a significant traditional milestone for the family – the formal passing of authority and responsibility within the household, following the burial of the patriarch, former Premier Raila Odinga.
“The seat of power in this home is now with Junior, together with his mother. The mum will be there to give him all the advice he needs, but he must stand firm. He must stand firm and lead the home in our culture,” Oburu said.
The Senator clarified that the event was not a political event but a customary handover of domestic leadership and blessings deeply rooted in Luo traditions.
“This is not political leadership, but leadership of the home. The larger Odinga family, which I chair and lead, is still under me just as his father was when it came to cultural leadership,” he said.
Following Luo customs, families mark the fourth day after burial (chieng’ mar ang’wen) as the formal conclusion of mourning.
The Odinga family came together to honor this day, which traditionally closes the funeral proceedings and opens a new chapter for the grieving household.
“My brother was buried on Sunday last week,” Dr Oburu explained. “Counting from Sunday to last night makes four nights. In our culture, the fourth day is when the funeral officially ends.”
On this day, married daughters return to their homes, while the sons, who have been staying at the family home through the mourning period, are now free to return to their households.
Oburu described the day as a pivotal moment of transition, carrying both spiritual and cultural weight – practices the family also observed when their father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, died.
“We do not disregard culture. Even in the Bible, you find stories of blessings of Jacob and Esau, of fathers passing their blessings to sons. In our way too, blessings are given through ceremony, often marked by symbolic acts such as slaughtering animals or shaving to signify cleansing and continuity.”
The ceremony’s centerpiece was the traditional head-shaving of the new family head, a ritual known as ‘liedo’, which one of Jnr’s grandmothers performed. This act symbolizes cleansing, renewal, and the shift from mourning to continuity.
“Junior will take the leadership of the family and all the instruments of power as the head of the family as a sign of his new role,” Dr Oginga said.
“This is not witchcraft, it is simply a blessing, the way our people have always done it. Religion does not stand against culture; the two must go hand in hand,” he added.
Elders explained that the liedo ritual was once an elaborate process that unfolded in stages. Mourners first drew razors across the scalps of widows and children, then attended to other mourners later.
“In the old days, you could hear the scrape of blades at dawn,” said John Akumu, an elder from Alego. “It was the sound that told the village mourning had begun. Today, people do it once, if at all, and sometimes just a symbolic patch at the back.”
The ceremony also marked the symbolic dispersal of mourners.
Traditionally, relatives would leave the homestead in stages, the eldest first and the youngest last to signify grief loosening its grip on the family.
