Global InformationEric Edward Khasakhala information
Eric Edward Khasakhala | |
|---|---|
 Hon. Eric Edward Khasakhala 1963 parliamentary election campaign portrait | |
| Cabinet Member - Assistant Minister (Kenya) | |
| In office 1963 – 31 December 1968 1979 – 31 December 1988 | |
| President | Jomo Kenyatta Daniel arap Moi |
| Preceded by | 1963 Office created 1979 Wilson Mukuna |
| Succeeded by | 1969 Wilson Mukuna 1989 Samuel Muhanji |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Eric Edward Kwendo Khasakhala 26 March 1926 Ebwali Village at Bunyore, Kenya Colony |
| Died | 14 July 2000 (aged 74) Nairobi, Kenya |
| Political party | Kenya African Democratic Union Kenya African National Union |
| Alma mater | Maseno High School, Kenya |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Educationist, Businessman, and Politician |
| Cabinet | Assistant Minister of Education Assistant Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry |
| Committees | Chairman of Kenyan Cultural Council Vice-Chairman of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Kenya Chapter |
Eric Edward Khasakhala, known as "Omwana wa Kwendo" (26 March 1926 – 14 July 2000) was a Kenyan politician, educationist, Pan Africanist, independence activist, Cabinet Minister and one of the founding fathers of the Republic of Kenya.[1] He was a participant of the delegation at the negotiations for Independence at the Lancaster House Conferences; he was instrumental in the formation of Kenya's Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) party, which he served as one of the party officers. The KADU advocated for the federalist post independent Kenya.[2]
Khasakhala was a political protégé of Esau Khamati Oriedo who indoctrinated him into politics and the early trade union movement[3], that led to formation of Kenya African Union (KAU)—the first truly all-inclusive pan-ethnic Kenyan political movement.[4][5] Unlike his mentor, Khasakhala embodied a non- provocative amicable political style, which endeared him to foe and comrade, alike. Moreover, akin to his mentor, he embraced reconciliatory strategies and pan-ethnic Kenyanism. These are qualities which he acquired in part due to his formative years when he assisted his father who was a preacher and as a member of the aboriginal Ebwali village council of elders. These qualities earned him the recognition of the colonial governor, Sir Patrick Renisson; which occurred during Khasakhala's tenure as the headmaster of Ebwali African Government Primary school. Afterwards, he was transferred to Lunza Secondary School at Butere in Kisa where he served in the dual capacity as both teacher and headmaster; thus, becoming one of the first native African headmasters of a secondary school in colonial East Africa. During his tenure as the headmaster of Lunza Secondary School, the school witnessed extensively improved all-round academic outcomes. Preceding his vacating from an academic vocation, Khasakhala had become one of the most successful academicians, at the early educational level, in the colonial Kenya; a feat of great accomplishment du jour.
He started his successful political career in 1957, when he was elected secretary of North Nyanza District Congress. Moreover, in 1961 he was elected to the legislative Council of Kenya—popularly known as the LegCo—as a representative for the Nyanza North electoral constituency. He was later to be elected the first Member of Parliament for Emuhaya in 1963. He held the post of a regional vice-president for Western Province, one of the seven regional vice presidencies in postcolonial era Kenya period spanning 1966–1970.[6][7][8][9]
He was an ardent champion of literacy and early education in Kenya; and was very much at home serving as an Assistant Minister for Education in the early 1960s in Jomo Kenyatta's cabinet. During his tenure as an Assistant Minister for Education he spearheaded the restructuring of the early education system infrastructure in embryonic postcolonial Kenya.
Albeit his relaxed reconciliatory and non-provocative amicable political style, which endeared him to foe and comrade, alike; Khasakhala was an ardently uncompromising advocate of social justice for his Nyole/Nyore people of Bunyore, a subtribe of the Luhya or Bantu Kavirondo, who were being marginalized and their land purloined from them by the more homogeneous and colonial era politically better connected archenemies the Luo tribe or Nilotic Kavirondo. Maseno settlement and township was one of the several key flashpoints. In 1965 as a member of the House of Representatives at the dawn of independence he successfully defended the location of Maseno as Bunyore, to the chagrin of Okelo Odongo a Luo and fellow member of the legislator; the protagonist engaged in a bitter exchange from which Khasakhala would not backdown. During the debate, another post-independence MP, lawyer Argwings Kodhek a Luo went as far as to claim that Khasakhala was behind the burning of his five houses.
Khasakhala was a faithful cabinet member in both the Kenyatta and the Moi regimes. Regrettably, he was often a political victim of his loyalty to friends and superiors. Many have wondered why someone with such an illustrious political career, never made it to a full Cabinet Minister.
- ^ "Mashujaa Day – A Country in Need of Heroes". Retrieved 2 February 2017.
- ^ Hornsby, Charles. "The Social Structure of the National Assembly in Kenya, 1963–83." The Journal of Modern African Studies 27.02 (1989): 275-296.
- ^ Spencer, John. The Kenya African Union. Taylor & Francis, 1985.
- ^ Kenyatta, Jomo, and Paul Halsall. "The Kenya Africa Union is Not the Mau Mau, 1952." (1998)
- ^ Nye, Joseph S. "Patterns and catalysts in regional integration." International Organization 19.04 (1965): 870-884.
- ^ Bulimo, Shadrack Amakoye. Luyia Nation: Origins, Clans and Taboos. Trafford Publishing, 2013.
- ^ Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard) Dec 4, 1979 - Jun 18, 1980
- ^ Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard) Feb 6 - Mar 20, 1970
- ^ Kenya Gazette 19 Dec 1969