When he died I did not cry, Winnie Odinga speaks on dealing with death of Fidel
Raila
Odinga’s lastborn daughter Winnie Odinga has opened up on memories of losing
her elder brother Fidel Odinga, who died in 2015.
Sharing her
story on the 'Iko Nini' podcast, Winnie said Fidel’s sudden death was not - and has not been - easy to overcome.
In her office,
Winnie has a picture of Fidel on the wall and she says she misses her elder
brother.
“You do not
get over it, it is just something you learn to live with. There are tough times…when
some people are playing with me. And I am just like ‘if my brother was here you
would be done’. But it is a difficult thing losing a sibling,” Winnie said.
The 32-year-old
says some days she is OK, some days it makes her sad or she might just start
crying.
“Grief process
is different for everybody. The most important thing is grieve, don’t act like
it is not there, the only way out is going through it,” she said.
Winnie
recalls how she could not cry her pain out when Fidel died, until after he was
laid to rest.
“When he
died I did not cry. I just started crying like when we were burying him. When
doing a funeral process, many people are around, you just don’t feel it, it is
after that body goes in and you are just there with your family that is when
you feel it. That is when people get into depression,” she said.
Like any
other funeral in Luo Nyanza, Winnie says Fidel’s was marred with its part of
drama.
“That
coffin was being carried like a gunia…being moved around. But before we closed
it (coffin) I gave him something small to go with.”
She recalls getting into depression and
getting help from a therapist with the help of her sister. Now, Winnie has
three therapists.
“I have three but I don’t tell them all the whole story. With one guy I will talk relationships…the other one daddy issues…so not everybody knows the whole story.”
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