Biography of Samwel Onyango Ayodo, 1930-1998

Abstract

The late Samwel Onyango Ayodo former Member of Parliament for Kasipul-Kabondo Constituency and one time the first Member of Parliament for the entire South Nyanza in the Colonial Legislative Council made important contribution in the development and politics of Kenya before and after independence. However his contribution to Kenyan history has been overshadowed by the history of leaders whose political career influences the political direction of Kenya. The only area that has been studied with regards to Ayodo is his unpublished B.A dissertation on his 1969 election entitled “Ayodo Election 1969” which has not given a critical work on Ayodo’s  political career up to 1983,his role in development and his retirement from politics, this was the need for the present study. The purpose of the study was to establish the extent of Ayodo’s contribution to nation building in Kenya while he was a member of parliament and a minister. The broad objective was to find out Ayodo’s role in nation building, specific objectives were to explore Ayodo’s early life, to examine Ayodo’s political career as a Member of Parliament and minister and his life in retirement from active politics. Literature review involved the review of various biographies of Kenya and some selected outside Kenya that related to this study. The study applied the theory of Great Man by Thomas Carlyle which shows the role of great individuals in history making in order to demonstrate how Ayodo was a great personality with regards to his political career, his role in land consolidation programme, the establishment of Lambwe valley game reserve and unity of the Luo community. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. Archival and oral sources were important in generating data on Ayodo. Purposive sampling especially snowball technique was used to identify interviewees. Analysis and interpretation of data employed the historical method. The study findings filled a knowledge gap about Ayodo’s early life, his political career as well as his life after retiring from politics.

Keywords: Colonial Legislative Council, political career, Luo, Kasipul-Kabondo, Member of Parliament