Nairobi News

NewsWhat's Hot

Raila pays tribute to his late father Jaramogi


Nasa leader Raila Odinga has led Kenyans in paying tribute to his late father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga to commemorate the day he passed on 24 years ago.

On Saturday, the 73-year-old opposition leader took to Twitter to share a message in remembrance of his late father. The post was accompanied by a short video of Jaramogi.

To this, Kenyans on Twitter responded with glowing tributes to Mzee Jaramogi, who was Kenya first Vice President.

Jaramogi Oginga Odinga is fondly remembered as a Kenyan nationalist and prominent figure in the country’s struggle for independence.

Upon Kenya’s independence in 1963, he was appointed the country’s first Vice President by President Jomo Kenyatta.

But the two would fallout three years later with Jaramogi quitting government and the ruling party Kanu to form his own political outfit, Kenya People’s Union (KPU).

The man widely considered as the doyen of opposition politics in Kenya would later be placed under house arrest and his KPU outlawed by the government.

POLITICAL LIFE

After many years in the political wilderness and following the death of Mzee Kenyatta, Jaramogi led a host of other political dissident in pushing for Kenya’s return to multiparty democracy in the early 1990s.

In 1992, he contested and lost the presidency to President Daniel Arap Moi in what was Kenya’s first multiparty elections in almost three decades.

Jaramogi died on January 20, 1994 at the age of 82 while serving as Member of Parliament for Bondo constituency and the leader of Ford-Kenya party, which he founded.