Listen Charles Wanyoike Rubia was the first African mayor of Nairobi. Over the span of his career as a public servant, he rose to become a Member of Parliament, assistant minister and Cabinet minister before he joined the opposition movement that agitated for multipartism in the 1990s. Rubia was born in 1923 in Mariaini in […]
Listen If Charles Mugane Njonjo was President Jomo Kenyatta’s powerful legal advisor and Attorney General, he wielded even more power as President Daniel arap Moi’s close and trusted Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister until an acrimonious political fallout tore them asunder. Under the Kenyatta administration, Njonjo held the Sword of Damocles and later played kingmaker […]
Listen Burudi Nabwera was perhaps one of the most highly educated politicians among those schooled in prestigious British institutions during colonial times. Because of this, he understood both Western capitalism and Eastern socialism, which came in useful after independence. He was appointed ambassador to the United States by President Jomo Kenyatta after independence. Under Moi, […]
Listen Frederick Dickson Amukowa Anangwe joined politics at the height of the campaign for multipartism in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although he did not succeed in his bid to win a seat in Parliament in 1992, his fortunes changed in 1997 when he successfully contested the Butere seat and was subsequently appointed Minister […]
Listen Paul Adhu Awiti had a chequered career, rising from political detainee to Cabinet Minister both under President Daniel arap Moi’s government. Awiti never in his wildest dreams imagined that he would share a table with, let alone become a member of Moi’s Cabinet, having been blacklisted as a dissident and detained for his radical […]
Listen Andrew John Omanga first became Member of Parliament (MP) for the larger Nyaribari Constituency after defeating Lawrence Sagini in 1979. He was among several new faces in President Moi’s first Cabinet, a position he landed with the support of Simeon Nyachae, the influential Chief Secretary, the earlier equivalent of a post now known as […]
Listen Andrew Chepkoiywo Kiptoon, who served as a Roads and Public Works minister for two-and-a-half years from 1998 to 2000, had an uneasy relationship with President Daniel arap Moi. The Baringo North Member of Parliament (1997 to 2002) was known for freely speaking his mind, a trait that did not sit well with Moi and […]
Listen Having been a minister for nearly 10 years, Mr Otieno knew the nooks and crannies of the civil service well enough to fix where it was broken. Even though he had been a Kanu loyalist nearly all his life, he understood that he was serving a reformist government and he went about initiating changes, […]
Listen It was during Peter Castro Oloo Aringo’s tenure as Minister for Education that the 8-4-4 system of education was introduced. Additionally, the Kenya Science Teachers’ College was expanded and the Kenya Technical Trainers’ College (KTTC) was launched to address the needs of the new technical education system. It was also Aringo who presented bills […]
Listen Throughout his political career that spanned the colonial years until 1990, Peter Habenga Okondo was known for being outrageously outspoken; so much so that the media commonly referred to him as a man with a loose tongue. During the 1992 multiparty election campaigns, he was quoted as chiding members of the Opposition in Busia […]