Jowi! Jowi! Jowi! How Raila Odinga mourned
By Ascah Mwango, October 16, 2025In Luo culture, Jowi means buffalo, a strong and fearless animal. It is a chant reserved for the great, the brave, and the powerful. When someone shouts “Jowi!” at a funeral, they are declaring that the person who has died was no ordinary soul. They are saying, “This was a giant among us.”
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Raila Odinga used that cry many times when mourning. It was part of how he expressed respect and pain. When he stepped forward at a funeral, holding his fly whisk, his voice carried both authority and sorrow. You could feel the silence before he began. Then, in a slow, heavy tone, he would sing a dirge in Luo and suddenly break into the deep, echoing chant “Jowi! Jowi! Jowi!” The crowd would join him, and the air would thicken with emotion.
He did this at many funerals of friends, comrades, and leaders he admired.
One of the most remembered moments was at the burial of former President Daniel arap Moi on February 12, 2020. Raila stood near the casket, waved his whisk in the air, and let out the familiar cry.
He did the same at the funeral of Senator Otieno Kajwang in Homa Bay in November 2014. The ground was packed with people. When Raila arrived, songs of grief filled the field. As he began his tribute, his voice trembled, and then he cried out, “Jowi! Jowi!”
The crowd picked it up instantly. Men and women beat their chests. Some cried. It was a farewell for a fighter, a man the community would never forget.
He also used the chant when mourning the late and former Education CS George Magoha. In Kisumu, during the service, Raila joined the elders in the Luo dirge, calling out “Jowi” for a man of wisdom and discipline. It was the same chant he had led so many times before, each time for someone who had made a mark.
In the Luo tradition, it is only uttered for the great who stood tall in life. When Raila used it, it meant something. It came from his heart, from his roots. And now, as Kenyans mourn him, the same cry follows his coffin. Crowds line the roads and chant “Jowi! Jowi!” for Baba.