Like his moniker “Kaliech” (Dholuo for “like an elephant”), Dr. William Odongo Omamo made a significant political impact in Kenya. He was among Kenya’s most accomplished and persuasive politicians to have ever served. A man with a fantastic sense of humor and the ability to gab, he could talk for hours on end without boring his listeners. He was once challenged relentlessly by his constituents to list his accomplishments while on the campaign road. Omamo’s response had his audience in stitches.
Omamo has sixteen children and two marriages, Joyce Acholla and Anne Audia. Among the most well-known is Raychelle, a former chair of the Law Society of Kenya and ambassador of Kenya to France.
A prominent farmer in Bondo and Muhoroni, Omamo also held the position of Chancellor at Great Lakes University in Kisumu. He was appointed the first African principal of Egerton College, which has since grown into a university, at the time of independence. In 1969, he entered politics and ran a strong campaign for the Bondo seat. Jaramogi Odinga had previously owned it, but he was arrested just before the elections.
On February 27, 1928, Omamo was born in Bondo into a family of eight children—six girls and two boys. His father had several offspring and was married to eight different women.
In 1936, he attended Maranda Sector School, which was five kilometers away from his house. “I was half naked, with only a goat skin strip to cover the private parts and buttocks,” he said describing his first day at school.
The next day, his parents made plans to buy him new clothes that would comply with the stringent regulations imposed by the colonial authorities on the school.
Because of his oratory skills and quick learning curve, his professors and students saw a leader in him from the very first day. “Like a cockel among chickens,” he was conspicuous. According to his friends, he was an intelligent student who enjoyed growing flowers and trees and going hunting.
Omamo’s school days were bright and sunny, in contrast to his classmates who quit or had to retake classes due to unpaid fees or subpar grades. His performance in the national examinations was outstanding. Later on, he enrolled in secondary school at Maseno School. He fell in love with agriculture as a topic at Maseno.
Omamo was awarded a scholarship in 1951 to further his education in India. At that point, he got to know Odinga, a panelist who evaluated Kenyan applicants for scholarships from the Indian government. “I was one of the few Kenyans who benefited from an Indian scholarship,” he recalled at the time. I attended the Punjab Agricultural College for two years before relocating to Madras Agricultural College, where I earned my agricultural bachelor’s degree in 1955.
During his time as an undergraduate in India, the only Kenyan he remembers seeing was Titus Mbathi, who attended the nearby Madras Christian College. Later on, Mbathi would advance in the public service, enter politics, and hold the position of cabinet minister. Mbathi is now the Kenya Generating Company’s (Kengen) chairman.
Omamo was employed as an assistant agricultural officer and assigned as a lecturer at Siriba Teachers College in Western Province upon his return to Kenya. However, he left after just two years, in 1957, to pursue a two-year postgraduate degree in agricultural economics at Lahore University in Pakistan.
