Ida left a big job in the trenches for a small role at UNEP

ida Odinga. [[Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Way back in the 1990s before Jaramogi Oginga Odinga died, one of the heroes of the ‘Kapenguria Six’, Achieng Oneko, visited President Daniel Arap Moi.

At that time, contact with Moi was political anathema in the eyes of those leading what has come to be known as the Second Liberation. Before Oneko’s visit, one of the Ford party leading lights, Martin Shikuku, had visited Moi in 1992 and he became a laughing stock among the men and women then called Young Turks. So strong was criticism against Shikuku’s meeting with Moi that he got a nick name that would henceforth be used in political banter — ugali eater.