Lwanda Magere – The Historical Legend – A visit to the lakeshore city of Kisumu won’t be complete without a visit to the plains of Kano.  This excursion will take us to the site where one of the great Luo sons, was laid to rest. Magere was staying in Kano in a clan called Sidho, however, it’s believed that he wasn’t a true Kano native, he was coming from the Kombe clan which was not Luo but “Mwa” in the simplest term a Bantu speaking group.

The mythical story about Magere is that: Long time ago there was a problem with grazing land between the Nandi people and Luo in the plains of Kano. These plains had the most fertile land and the Nandi living on the neighboring hills areas could not find enough grass for their livestock. This led to the two tribes engaging in wars every time over the grazing fields.

During these wars, mostly Luos were killed and their herds were taken away leading them to experience prolonged periods of hardship. One day, Lwanda Magere decided to join the fight and made sure that their cattle grazed on their piece of land. For a much longer time, he killed several prominent Nandi warriors. Both sides were amazed at the power and strength possessed by this gigantic Luo warrior.

According to the facts from the rival tribe, no spears nor metal could enter his body because he was as strong as stone hence the name “Lwanda” in the Luo dialect means Rock. The wars became numerous and every time the proud Lwanda Magere and the Luo tribe emerged victoriously.

On seeing the level of loss that they were subjected to, Nandi decided to look for the secret of his strength. This mission was given to “Rono” who became a friend to Lwanda Magere. They were seen together after each fight to review the episode. Rono would beg Magere to forgive the Nandi and to let them graze, but Magere would not listen to this and he instead continued with the killings. Upon seeing this, the Nandi hatched a plan; they decided to give Magere a Nandi woman to marry. The lady was married as a second wife. The woman was to get to know his power base, which she did and told her people. One day during their common wars, an informed Nandi warrior speared the shadow of this Luo Great warrior. This resulted to the death of Lwanda Magere and a big loss to the Luo community.