Honor oginga Odinga

Eric Sindabi,

Where is Oginga Odinga?

On october 20th the country marked the annual Mashujaa Day celebrations.This day is set aside to honor the men and women who tirelessly and who sacrificed their lives to make Kenya proud in many ways and especially in the struggles for the independence of our beloved country from colonial rule.

This year's celebrations were however made special by the unveiling of a statute of Tom Mboya one of the most courageous Independence crusader that Kenya ever had.

Prior to that the minister for culture and national heritage Mr.William Ole Ntimama had pledged that the government would construct more statutes to honor Kenya's heroes and heroines.The minister had went a head to name some of the proposed people to be honored in that manner.I observed with amazement that the name of one of the most prominent Kenya's independence crusader was missing from the proposed list.Likewise on Wednesday 26th October this year the Daily Nation carried a photo essay article where in it was a narration of men and women that Kenya is so proud of as being heroes and heroines, and who ought to be honored.Yet again the name nor picture of Oginga Odinga was missing from the photo essay article.

A close look to the history of Kenyan politics and the struggle for Independence some 50 or so years ago however reveals beyond doubt that Oginga Odinga played a very crucial role in the liberation of Kenya from colonial rule and yet again for the establishment of democracy in the country after independence what has been described as "The Second Liberation"

He joined politics in the mid 40's and was influential, as the leader of the Africans representatives in the Legco or parliament for: constitutional changes,locally and at Lancaster in the UK,the release of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and the formation of the Kenya African National Union party(KANU) that was a vehicle to independence having united kenyans in the struggle for independence.KANU had named Mzee Jomo Kenyatta the president of the party in absence.After independence was appointed the first Vice -President of Kenya but he broke ranks with the president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta on principal.He had resigned and formed an opposition party before he was put on a house arrest throughout the reign of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.

As such he has been described as the father of opposition politics in Kenya in his struggles to build democracy in the country.He equally played a key role in the second liberation when he teamed up with young politicians to demand for a constitutional change to return multi- party democracy in the country.The original Forum for the Restoration of Democracy(FORD) that was formed in the run up to the 1992 general elections was entirely the work of his hands.

I think those Kenyans who are well informed about the history of Kenyan politics will agree with me that we owe a lot to this brave and courageous man who even in death i believe has a vision for this country as depicted in a book he authored "Not yet Uhuru" and we should honor him foremost other heroes.