Tc,
7
By Douglas Okwach
y uussein Mohammed
FORMER Cabinet Minister Peter
Habenga Okondo is dead.The former
Bunyala MP passed away on Thursday
evening after a short illness, according
to close relatives.
But the widow of the former Minister for
Labour and Manpower Development declined
to comment or brief the Press on the nature of
Mr Okondo's illness. Looking shaken, she
instead ordered out an E A Standard team
hich visited the family at their Karen home.
j
"First the family must meet..
then we will call you later
when and if necessary," said
Mrs Okondo, adding: "For the
time being, get the hell out of
here and I mean now! Now!"
Mrs Okondo had just driven
into the compound in a maroon
Hyundai car when the Standard
team approached her at the gate
on Windy Ridge road. Asked by
our photographer whether he
could take a picture of her, Mrs
Okondo reacted angrily and
snapped at photographer Jacob
Waweru: "No way. And get the
hell out of here now."
had
been given another ruOe reception at the Okondo house when a
daughter responded to their presence by also telling them to "get
the hell out" of their home.
She said she had nothing to tell
the Press. She then walked away
leaving the reporters outside the
gate. Minutes later Mrs Okondo
arrived.
The late Okondo's sister, referred to only as Christine, arrived minutes later and confirmed
the death but also declined to say
any more about the late Mr
Okondo.
From Page 1
clergymen. if allowed into Busia.
then Okondo's political backyard,
ss ould 'pot 5()fl
the iii nds itt
Christians in the area.
But while Bishop Okullu only
scoffed at the Okondo threat charging twill still be going to those
places and they can come and kill
nte if they want,' Bishop binge did
ittore than that. He went to Busia
three days later on August 14
Before he set off. Bishop bluge.
who had earlier said his lite ntas in
dangerfollowingthcündo thrca..
pronntnced -. ''itt ready I oWe it
the hands of the Ministers gang of
Kanu youthsvingers." He never inturned alive
For the following day (August
15). a stunnned nation learnt 01 the
fiery prelate's death in a horror
motor crash, Bishop Muge ittel his
death at 3.45pm near Kipkaren
river, some 40 kilometers from
Eldoret towtt shortly- after he had
led an open air mass service at St
Stephen CPK church in Basia.
Some strattge fate had just translated Mr Okondo's snarning into
diabolical reality.And only tnt o days
outside the sixth annis'ersary of
Bishop Muge's death, Mr Okon'lo
has passed away quietly in his Nairobi hotue after a long illness.
in a tarhiilent political career
thatgoeshau 0 I950s,MrOkondo,
like many Kenyan patriots, did not
escape the wrath ofthe colonialists.
As the auditor of Kenya African
Union. MrOkondo was a fiery antiestablishment activist targetted. ire.
rested and detained by the colontal
administration for unspecified rcasoits when a state 01 emergency
was declared in 1952.
But this only gate him additional impetus foron betng released
Mr Okondo, like his conipatriots,
used the bitterdetention experience
as a springboard mitt the turhulettt
politics of the time.
in 1961, he joined the Legislatise
Council as a North Nvattza delegate - a position tte, a profes'
stonal accountant. enjo'ed tinititer-
Dkondo
rupted until two years later whett he
was deposed by Mr Jantes Osogo.
"My losing the election was
largely due to the fact that I was
more of an elite," he reiealed to a
local daily recently. ears afterit
happened. "Whereas nit opponents
could, and did.join the electorate in
drinking. I could not enter the
sliebee,i where the drinking took
place, and becaueoftui.b a,anç
ihtiiiglrt tots it 'iii.' 1 ihemn
L'ndauri ted, he pui his act to'
geiher and sought repriese elsewhere. He landed respectable jobs
that included a United Nations post
in Addis Ahaha with the liconomic
Commission for Africa, in Geneva,
Sss'iteerlatmd and at the UN headquitriers in New York.
Regardless of the lucrative op.
porilittities. Mr Okitmtdo' s place was
in politics. thougtt Ito efforts ts itiake
a coittehac). in Buttyala foundered
when Ite again lost tiAtr Osogir in
the 1979 General Election.
Howeser, Mr Okondo success'
fully petitioned and the election
result svas nullified. He won in the
by-election and re-entered Parlia.
ment keeping his scat until 1992
when he again lost to Mr O.sogo in
the first multi-party elections,
And as the debate on the need for
constitutional review rages. Mr
Okondo will also be remembered
for his new book, A Co,n,neniiirv
on the Co,tstitution of Kenya that
hit the bookshelves early this ye:
in it, Mr Okcindo, who studied
for a degree in law and econontics
in South Africa, coities out strongly
usa ntujitnho proponent and dithily
articulates the ntents of this largely
criticised systent of governance.
Kicked out of South Alrica
tiredly before he had cliii ilileted his
degree studies at the Unit ersity Of
Natal owing to his radical brand at
politics as a studetti leader, Mr
Okondo, in the hook, speaks
strongly against the present authori'
tartan presi deittial s t'.tc'itt rooted in
the colonial past and assisted by the
provittcial adnti nistr:tmvrit,
Mr Oktindo who stnihieit in South
Africa
mu
tb cottipatmutis ('hamlet
Njonjo, late Ma.sinile Muliro and
late Fred Mutt, lanterns the over.
wheitning anrouimt of powcrthc curreniCi,ivstrtutitirm and iitlacrtaws place
in the hands of the presidency. trans.
era) leadershipsinue iiidvlrencdncc
u.sirresponsible and out to destroy
ittstltUttofls
Late in 991, he ciiiseit ripples
mu hen he suggested lie attrendmntenr
il Sectntn 3.) itt the ('eny tnt tin ii)
bar the President lrirmtiti imnittutitig
Mcmbcrs ml Parhiariw-tir.
He insisted there was no need
for anyttmie to be nominated to Par.
Itatnent and that all MIt5 should
have equal status - that is being
represent.i tiles of the ('onsittuenHe also called on Ktuiu to decen.
traltse its power hates from the
hrmiricties t it sit h-hrmutc hey. 1_ike a
seer. Mm Okitndit said their a party
only needed itittreetiiisiltuencies to
win an elecittin 'intl finnut a government.
Ordinamm I y. host en er Mr Okondo
will herentenuberedforhis ''loose"
tongue. He prided and even gloated
about his tongue. Newspaper cartoonist.s had zt field day with the
comment that MrOkondo's tongue
was loose.
With the 1992 multi -party dcc'
lions loonung. Mr Oktrndtt who had
a lot of unsavoimry thiitgs to say
about Kanu and the Presidency
when citrttered for clarificatirni,
would muse that it stat not that his
timligue was loose but rather that it
was just ''Ilesihle''
He said at one mntre' "I nt proud
that lean twism u.ords arttund to gun,
things dime. l'nm pritnd to have a
loose tongue that can tuttle things." ,
MR PETER Habenga Okondo
will for long be remembered for
warning two Church of the Province of Kenya bishops Alexander
Kipsang' Muge and Henry Okullu
of Eldoret and Maseno South
Dioceses, respectively, against
entering Busia or they would
never leave alive. That was August 11, 1990.
He had claimed that the two
Paae 2 - CnI