In 2024, Kenya's President, William Ruto, reorganized his cabinet to accommodate elements of the opposition in a bid to nip in the bud a looming insurgency by a youthful generation, amid fears that their rebellion would morph into a revolution.

One of the opposition members elected to serve in the cabinet was Wycliffe Oparanya from Western Kenya. As it happens with politicians, such achievements are feted with a goat-eating party back at home. In this case, Oparanya hosted a party at his rural home, and the most celebrated musician from the region was invited to grace the event.

Wilson Onzere Ongaro, also known by the moniker Sukuma Bin Ongaro, was the man invited to grace the event as the region's most successful musician. Sukuma Bin Ongaro, from Kakamega County, has, for the last 64 years, been a musical superstar with hundreds of recorded works to his name.

“Bana bamalile mioko” (children are clearing a cassava field) is a phrase from one of his popular hits. This line captures the sad situation that children in rural areas face in accessing basic needs like food. He complains about how children invade his farm to harvest his cassava, pushed by the pangs of hunger. This is from the song “Kila Siku Suku.”

Ongaro has a tendency to use simple illustrations to capture the challenges facing society, as in this case. Such is the explanation for why his songs are on everyone's lips, despite him singing in Kisa, a dialect of the Luhya tribe.

Sukuma Bin Ongaro is a self-made musician. As opposed to many musicians who discover their talents in school, Ongaro, whose mother brewed and sold busaa, a traditional beer, never got an opportunity to attend school. He made his first instrument from locally available materials and taught himself how to play. However, it was not until 1962, when he made his maiden trip to Nairobi in search of greener pastures, that he got his first opportunity to record a song.

He had met David Amunga, a singing sensation of the era, and this is the man who acquainted him with the basics of music and introduced him to conventional instruments such as the guitar. Sukuma would later become a very good solo guitarist, composer, and vocalist. He also played bass and rhythm guitars.

Among his very first recordings was a song he composed for Jomo Kenyatta, whom he extolled as a freedom fighter and a great statesman whom the country greatly admired in the early days of independence. He also composed a song for his father titled “Wacha Tumlie Baba Ongaro.”

“Over the years, I have been composing and recording at least a dozen songs each year,” Ongaro was quoted as saying by a local media house, while stating that he cannot remember all the songs he has composed so far.

Benga, having begun in what was Central Nyanza in the late 1950s, spread so fast across the country in the 1960s, and this is the genre in which Ongaro excelled. He became one of the biggest names as far as Luhya benga is concerned. Benga gained footing by displacing twist in the country. In the era of twist, Western Kenya was the citadel of the genre, with several superstars tracing their roots to the region. Among them were Daudi Kabaka, John Nzenze, David Amunga, Isaya Mwinamo, Reuben Shimbiro, George Mukabi, and others. However, with benga sweeping the country, new names emerged, including Jacob Luseno, Nhongesa Muganda, and others specializing in benga. Ongaro became one of them.

His other hit, “Ndatsia Mombasa,” whose composition was inspired by a trip to the coastal town, remains one of his popular songs. Singing mostly in his vernacular, Ongaro has, over the years, earned a position as one of the country's most prominent musicians, with his songs gaining regular airplay on the radio and from DJs in entertainment joints.

Ongaro laments that piracy was a major setback in the music industry during his peak, while at the same time blaming fake friends for taking advantage of his generosity and drinking most of his earnings, thus preventing him from gainfully using the proceeds from music to build his own empire.

Sukuma is a Swahili word meaning “push.” Ongaro says that he chose the word as his stage name because, in his nascent days as a musician, he had lots of pushing to do, as every odd seemed to work against him. It is from the word that his band, “Suku Jazz,” got its name.

Ongaro switched allegiance from secular to gospel music, but with a caveat that he would still perform strictly on invitation. His shift from secular to gospel also means that he discarded his old ways, including his drinking habits. As a gospel musician, he has done a few songs, among them “Ongaro Amepata Yesu,” “Sikujua Nitaokoka,” and “Mapasta.”

He also relinquished the leadership of his Suku Band to his son, who also grew up to become a musician, in line with the aphorism that suggests that “snakes give birth to something long,” or that a fruit does not fall far from the tree.

Sukuma lives in his rural home in Ebukambili, Khwisero Sub-County, Kakamega County. At 79, he is undoubtedly one of the towering giants of Kenyan music, having lived through several generations. Ongaro lives in his rural home with his two wives and has thirteen children.

BY JEROME OGOLA