Ping me to anything you think significant.
I’ll do my best ...
I posted these items on the timeline thread to coincide with the 02/17/64 registration of birth.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7176683.stm
Odinga says Obama is his cousin
http://www.answers.com/topic/ajuma-jaramogi-oginga-odinga
Kenya gained independence in December 1963, and Kenyatta, a member of the Kikuyu, Kenya’s largest ethnic group, became president. Odinga, a leader of the second largest ethnic group, the Luo, was appointed minister for home affairs in 1963, and in 1964 he became vice-president. Kenya became a de facto one-party state that year when KADU merged with KANU.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaramogi_Oginga_Odinga
In 1960, together with Tom Mboya he formed Kenya African National Union (KANU). When Kenya became an independent Republic in 1964, he was its first Vice-President.
http://www.janda.org/ICPP/ICPP2000/Countries/9-CentralEastAfrica/96-Kenya/96-Kenya63-00.htm
In 1959 Mboya organized the Airlift Africa project, together with the African-American Students Foundation in the United States, through which 81 Kenyan students were flown to the U.S. to study at U.S. universities. One of them was Barack Obama’s father
http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-joseph-mboya#cite_note-0
In 1959 Mboya organized the Airlift Africa project, together with the African-American Students Foundation in the United States, through which 81 Kenyan students were flown to the U.S. to study at U.S. universities. One of them was Barack Obama’s father. In 1960 the Kennedy brothers joined this project, after Mboya visited them for that purpose, and Airlift Africa was extended to Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar (now Tanzania), Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and Nyasaland (now Malawi). Some 230 African students received scholarships to study at Class I accredited colleges in the United States. [3]
(snip)
After Kenya’s independence in 1963, Mboya was elected as an MP for Nairobi Central Constituency (today: Kamukunji Constituency)[4] and became Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, and later Minister for Economic Planning and Development.
(snip)
Mboya’s role in Kenya’s politics and transformation is the subject of increasing interest, especially with the coming into scene of American politician Barack Obama, Jr. Obama’s father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a US-educated Kenyan who benefited from Mboya’s scholarship programme in the 60’s, and married during his stay there, siring the Illinois Senator and President. Obama Sr. had seen Mboya shortly before the assassination, and testified at the ensuing trial. Obama Sr. believed he was later targeted in a hit-and-run incident as a result of this testimony.[8]
http://www.david-kilgour.com/2008/May_26_2008_05.htm
Tug of War
Courtesy Time Magazine Dec. 14, 1959