Statecraft & Independence
Landmark
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga
1911 – 1994
Kenya's first vice-president, then its most durable opposition leader
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Why they are here
He was there at independence as first vice-president, and then spent most of the rest of his life in opposition to the governments that followed — including years in detention.
Jaramogi Ajuma Oginga Odinga was a teacher who left teaching to go into business, founding the Luo Thrift and Trading Corporation in the 1940s to prove that Africans could run commercial enterprises the colonial economy said they could not.
His decisive political act came in the late 1950s. As an elected member of the Legislative Council he refused to negotiate any constitutional settlement while Jomo Kenyatta remained imprisoned, and insisted publicly that Kenyatta was the leader of the nation — at a point when the colonial government was trying to build a Kenya without him and other African politicians were tempted. Release Jomo Kenyatta became the movement's demand largely because Odinga made it non-negotiable.
He became Kenya's first vice-president in 1964. Within two years he had broken with Kenyatta over land, over corruption and over the country's direction, resigned, and founded the Kenya People's Union. It was banned in 1969 and he was detained. He was detained again under Daniel arap Moi, barred from standing for office, and kept under restriction for much of the 1970s and 1980s.
He was central to the campaign that forced the repeal of the one-party clause in 1991, and stood for president in the first multiparty election in 1992, coming fourth in a divided opposition. He died in 1994. His son Raila Odinga has led the Kenyan opposition for most of the years since.
His decisive political act came in the late 1950s. As an elected member of the Legislative Council he refused to negotiate any constitutional settlement while Jomo Kenyatta remained imprisoned, and insisted publicly that Kenyatta was the leader of the nation — at a point when the colonial government was trying to build a Kenya without him and other African politicians were tempted. Release Jomo Kenyatta became the movement's demand largely because Odinga made it non-negotiable.
He became Kenya's first vice-president in 1964. Within two years he had broken with Kenyatta over land, over corruption and over the country's direction, resigned, and founded the Kenya People's Union. It was banned in 1969 and he was detained. He was detained again under Daniel arap Moi, barred from standing for office, and kept under restriction for much of the 1970s and 1980s.
He was central to the campaign that forced the repeal of the one-party clause in 1991, and stood for president in the first multiparty election in 1992, coming fourth in a divided opposition. He died in 1994. His son Raila Odinga has led the Kenyan opposition for most of the years since.
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