Today I celebrate a mentor, a teacher in blood, a man of greatness in all bits of his life… I met Mr. Odilla back in 2000 when I was a kid. I just joined a primary school called NYAOLA in Karachuonyo for upper primary classes when life happened. Odilla was a deputy head teacher at Nyaola Primary by then he was the only man you see and wish you vanish or turn to a chicken ( Nigerians or Ghanaians will find this easy). Those days education was being transmitted from your buttocks straight to your brain…

Let me walk you through this my village Hero and why I choose to celebrate him while he is still alive and energetic.

Mr Odilla during his tenure as a deputy head teacher in Nyaola Primary school, single handedly planted over 5,000 trees in a very rocky ground. Mr.Odilla did not plant trees by his own hands, the kids did, he made the pupils proudly adopt trees and water them every day as they come to school, ones your tree can take care of itself you adopt another one, for at least two or so years that I stayed in Nyaola Primary School I planted over 20 trees and natured them and it was very easy. His mind was heavenly.

Mr. Odilla did not stop at trees, Mr. Odilla again single handedly fenced the entire school so thick that even a chicken (maybe a love chicken) could not pass. Folks, this also Mr. Odilla did not do by his own hands, he mobilized pupils to come with thorns every Friday and gave each pupil a portion and supervised the fencing. The fence was so thick that no one would even dare to pass through. We were competing on whose portion is the best, we were given deadlines and before we closed schools for holyday the whole compound was secured and bold, this was done with the resources around. Since Mr. Odilla left Nyaola Primary, no single tree has been planted instead the trees have been cut and sadly now just a handful trees are remaining, the school fence is no more and the kids can get inside the school from anywhere and this even increases chances of grabbing the school land (Maybe they are waiting for money to come from somewhere to do electric fence which is a good thing)

Our continuous encounter with Mr. Odilla continued to Nyaola SDA Church where I was a pathfinder/ adventurer trainer (story for another day) Mr. Odilla was the choir trainer. I remember one day Nyaola SDA Church choir was singing for church competitions in Gendia, Mr. Odillah was conducting one of the song when suddenly his very sharp ears heard someone sing off key, he came close to her as the song continues and also continuing to conduct and immediately added a lyric “ CHIETH .. CHIETH…CHIETH” loosely translated as “shit shit shit” flowing with the song lyrics. I know for a fact that in so many instances he came to train the choir early in the night through to 2am every single training day. He never got tired even when sometimes he showed up and nobody came for training because of the rains, he sat alone in front of the church in the cold and then leave later in disappointment but he always showed up the next day for free.

I have never met a musician so talented like Mr. Odilla, I can only compare him with SIMON COWELL of Britain’s got talent or Howard Stern of America got talent. Mr. Odilla deserves a world stage music judge bench. Mr Odilla can train Kenyan Sauti sol vocals and they will sing better, I envy you my brother and mentor.

I know too well that there are so many other talents like this in my constituency that are proven and can be packaged for export. Music is the only language that is universal, Japuonj Amos jasiburi just to mention but a few. Why can’t we have Karachuonyo got talent? Why can’t we have our people making a living in music and the way it is a bumming economy. CDF must be channeled to talent development as well.