JOHN HEZEKIAH OUGO OCHIENG;THE MAN WHO SACRIFICED HIS SEAT FOR JARAMOGI OGINGA ODINGA.
His decision to resign as a Member of Parliament shocked his family, colleagues and constituents.
Close political advisers rushed to his home to talk him out of giving away the Bondo parliamentary seat but John Hezekiah Ougo would not budge.
By the end of that chilly day in 1980, Mr Ougo had tendered his resignation to facilitate the return to active politics of his friend of long standing, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga who had been languishing in the political wilderness following differences with then President Jomo Kenyatta and his successor, Daniel arap Moi.
About 32 years after he made history by resigning as MP to create room for a friend, Mr Ougo has come out to explain why he defied friends and family members to step down for Jaramogi.
“I was not forced to resign for Jaramogi. I was not bribed. I just sympathised with him and opted to sacrifice my political ambitions for the sake of this man whom I believed was going to liberate Kenyans,” Mr Ougo said.
He served for a term from 1974 and was re-elected, and before the last year of his second term, Jaramogi was released from detention.
Jaramogi, who had been MP for Bondo since 1963, lost the seat after he was detained by President Kenyatta following a public confrontation between the two leaders during the opening of the Nyanza Provincial Hospital in which many people died.
“Although some of my constituents asked me if I could step down for Jaramogi if he came back, the major decision was mine, especially when I considered how much he had suffered,” he says.
He received varied reactions from friends and relatives with some advising him against the move considering he had made a name for himself.
“After spending sleepless nights agonising over the matter, I decided to quit out of the respect I had for the former Vice President. I also decided to retire from politics altogether,” he says.
But his attempts to help bring Jaramogi back to the fold backfired when the then ruling party, Kanu barred Mr Odinga from contesting in the by-election after he allegedly referred to the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, who died in 1978, as a land grabber.Without Kanu’s blessings, Jaramogi was locked out and the former area MP, William Odongo Omamo who had lost to Mr Ougo in 1974, bounced back to Parliament.
The late Jaramogi, the father of Prime Minister Raila Odinga and assistant Minister Oburu Oginga had to wait until 1992.
