Millie Odhiambo : From a shy village girl to a tough cookie

Mbita MP Millie Odhiambo during the Interview    Photo by WILLIS AWANDU

Growing up, Millie Odhiambo was a shy, village girl. Her widowed mother had the Herculean task of bringing up eight children. Her mum was a conservative but liberated woman. “You do not have to be in an unhappy marriage, she would tell them.”The one thing I wished I had in my childhood was a pony,” says Millie.

The books she read as a child influenced this, she says. Being shy, however, did not stop her from standing up for what she felt was right. Most of Millie’s high school days were punctuated with run-ins with the school administration.