RAMESH VALLABHDAS PATEL

Kisumu hardware merchant and community elder who sold nails and gave away advice

It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of RAMESH VALLABHDAS PATEL, proprietor of Patel Hardware & Building Supplies and former Secretary of the Kisumu Hindu Union, on 19th February 2021 at Aga Khan Hospital, Kisumu. Husband to Hansa; father to Nilesh, Kiran and Meena; grandfather to six. In keeping with Covid-19 regulations the cremation and prayer meeting will be attended by close family only and streamed online. Please send condolences by message. Contributions to the Kisumu Hindu Union Welfare Fund via M-Pesa Paybill 441207, Account RAMESH. Om Shanti.

Rameshbhai Patel could tell you the length of a roofing nail in his sleep, and the name of the person who needed it. For almost sixty years he stood behind the counter of Patel Hardware & Building Supplies on Oginga Odinga Street, selling nails, paint and cement to a Kisumu that was rebuilding itself from colonial railway town to lakeside city, and he knew every carpenter and mason by their first name.

He was born in Kisumu in November 1940 to a family who had come from Gujarat to work on the railway and stayed to trade. He attended the Kisumu Boys' Academy, and at seventeen began to work in his father's shop on weekends, learning to weigh screws and haggle politely. When his father died in 1967 he took over the business, and he grew it into the most trusted supplier of building materials between Kisumu and Kakamega.

Rameshbhai was a man of ritual: tea at six, prayers at six-thirty, the shop open at seven-thirty and a walk to the lake at dusk to watch the sun sink behind the hippo point. He was secretary of the Kisumu Hindu Union for twenty-two years, and he organised the annual Diwali celebrations that drew thousands of residents of every faith. He extended credit to young builders and rarely collected when a season was poor.

He spoke fluent Kiswahili, passable Dholuo and perfect Gujarati. His shop was a place where Luo carpenters, Luhya masons and Asian contractors argued about football, politics and monsoon prices over sweet tea. He died at Aga Khan Hospital, Kisumu, on 19 February 2021 after a brief illness, and in keeping with Covid restrictions, his cremation was attended by only a few relatives and watched by hundreds online.

He is survived by his wife Hansa, two sons, a daughter and six grandchildren.

“A good merchant sells nails; a great one sells trust.”