SCHOLAR AND MUSICIAN

August 05, 2026 - 10:46 PM

Driving into Kisumu, a port city on the shores of Lake Victoria, from the northern side offers one of the most picturesque views of the lakeside city, known for its vibrant nightlife and rich cultural heritage.

It is in these hills that, on August 2, 1950, Enoch Okwach was born in his father Opondo's homestead. Like Harvard-educated Hillary Ng'weno, who trained as a physicist but excelled in journalism through The Weekly Review magazine, Okwach trained as a political scientist yet also made a name for himself as a musician.

"Music is therapeutic. It has the magic that cures the soul," offers Enock in explaining why he pursued both music and academia with equal passion.

Enock Okwach began his journey in pursuit of education at Obwolo Primary School in Kisumu during the dying days of colonialism in the 1950s. Inspired by his father, who played the orutu, young Okwach was bitten by the music bug.

It was while in primary school that he crafted his very first guitar, from which he taught himself how to play. He did this after watching Owiti Origi of Kajulu Boys perform on stage. From then on, he carried his music to every institution he attended, from Sawagongo High School in Siaya, where he sat his A-level examinations, to the University of Nairobi, where he studied Political Science for both his bachelor's and master's degrees.

Being a bright student with a passion for music, Okwach seemed destined to debunk the myth that links music to delinquency by pushing both pursuits to their highest possible levels and reaching the pinnacle in each.

Indeed, every time he climbed another rung on the academic ladder, his music rose alongside him. For example, his student boom at the University of Nairobi enabled him to buy his first guitar. By then, he had become a proficient guitarist, having secured his first professional engagement with Orchestra Super Pamba.

From the University of Nairobi, he worked as both a teacher and an administrator in Nairobi and Kisumu, and every stage of his career progression presented another opportunity to elevate his music.

"Music is social commentary," says Okwach Opondo. "It is my way of expressing myself."

He says this to explain why he could never abandon his musical calling.

However, when this writer put the cart before the horse and asked why he did not pursue music as a full-time career and forgo higher education, he offered an interesting perspective.

He explains that the meagre earnings from music are themselves a hindrance to its development. On every occasion, he says, he has been able to pay his band members their salaries and meet studio expenses with ease because of the income he earned from his other careers.

He also says he had a point to prove to his father, who had discouraged him from pursuing music, believing it would derail his professional career.

As an undergraduate at the University of Nairobi, he played in a band known as Basenke, which comprised fellow students. Later, while pursuing his master's degree, he joined Orchestra Basomi, headed by Bosco Namwamba, then an engineering student and today a professor of engineering in the United States.

When he later worked in Kisumu as a teacher, he also formed a band that was managed by Bosco Namwamba.

By then, it had become customary for him never to leave his music behind wherever his academic pursuits took him. When he travelled to Oxford University in the United Kingdom, he carried his music there as well.

While studying at Oxford, he formed a band called Janua. It brought together musicians from all four corners of the globe, including Europe, the Caribbean, Ethiopia and Sudan. He lived in Europe between 1992 and 1998.

When he returned to Kenya, he joined Afri Stars, a band led by the renowned soloist Ahuja, who had previously honed his craft with Okatch Biggy's Super Heka Heka Band. Afri Stars was based at Junction Inn in Kisumu, where it performed throughout the weekends.

Dr Okwach later formed another outfit for the same venue called Junction Stars. This mirrored the example of Dr Okumu, a Maseno University lecturer who also played with several bands in Kisumu. The group featured Victor, Omondi, Dish, Ouma, Awilo and others.

When he later joined Moi University in Eldoret as a lecturer, Dr Okwach became a member of a local band led by Musera. The band also featured Peter Dalidi, who now heads Jamnazi Band.

Okwach, who has also worked in local government, taught at Rongo University and undertaken consultancy work, founded Orchestra Loba Loba in 2002. In this venture, he teamed up with Congolese musician Frank Libe. Their names were creatively combined and abbreviated to form the band's name, Loba Loba.

This is the band with which he performs to date. Featuring musicians such as Victor, Jane, David, Dish, Salapataa and many others, the band has recorded close to one hundred songs. Among his best-known songs are Raila, Cool Mc Cool, Chausiku, Safari Ya Lobe and Salapata Safari.

On the emergence of Ohangla, a genre that has grown so popular that it has challenged benga as Nyanza's dominant musical style, Okwach argues that the original form of Ohangla possessed authenticity and a distinct cultural identity. However, he says the traditional shakers, drums and horns that once defined the music have largely been replaced by keyboards.

According to him, this has eroded the genre's cultural essence and given rise to what is effectively a new style, one that lacks the traditional lustre of classic Ohangla. He argues that the contemporary version resembles Luo taarab more than the folk Ohangla that was originally known, and maintains that it lacks the capacity to surpass benga in popularity.

He further explains that Ohangla is not the only genre competing for the attention of Luo music lovers. Congolese rumba, he says, has long dominated the region and profoundly influenced local genres. The desire by many musicians to sound Congolese has, in his view, diminished the originality of much of today's benga music.

He also argues that the dominance of Congolese rumba suppresses the growth of local music. During live performances, he says, audiences often request popular Congolese songs instead of local compositions, a trend that hinders the growth of indigenous music.

Okwach Opondo, who lists Awino Lawi and Dr Collela Mazee among his favourite local musicians, and Zaiko Langa Langa and Les Kamale as his favourites from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is now retired from university teaching. Nevertheless, he remains actively involved in music and has recently released several new recordings.

Just as education helped propel Koffi Olomidé's music career, education likewise provided Opondo with the foundation upon which his own musical journey flourished. When the history of people who excelled in more than one demanding field is eventually written, Dr Enoch Okwach Opondo will undoubtedly occupy a prominent place in that record.

By Jerome Ogola