As the world celebrated International Women’s Day on Wednesday 8th March, Kenya’s first female Member of Parliament (MP) Grace Onyango passed on Kisumu.
Grace who was 99 years old died while undergoing treatment at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu. Onyango served as Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and also served as the first mayor of Kisumu.
Azimio leader Raila Odinga has mourned the former Legislator saying Kenya has lost a towering giant and an icon in Mama Grace Onyango. “Nyabugu illuminated independent Kenya political landscape with a stride of ‘firsts’, it was common to expect ‘the first African woman something’ every time her name was mentioned. She was a leader and trailblazer to hilt,” Odinga said in his condolence message.
“Mama grace was a wife, politician, mother, grandmother and great grandmother, all the while not letting her gender stand in the way of competing with men and winning.”
Kisumu County Governor Anyang Nyong’o noted that he learned about her death with great shock. “Mama Grace, a woman of many firsts, passed on this evening, four hours after we celebrated and honoured her during this year’s International Women’s Day at a social center we fondly named after her,” he said.
