Robert Ouko’s widow, Christabel, dies in road crash

The widow of former Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko has died in road crash in Kisumu County.

Kisumu Traffic Police chief Andrew Naibei said the crash happened at Kipsitet area, along the Awasi-Kericho Highway.

The local traffic police chief said the car she was travelling in rolled off course at the Muhoroni junction.

Mrs Ouko died while undergoing treatment at Siloam Hospital from what doctors said was internal bleeding.

Coincidentally, it was the same area where her late husband, Dr Ouko, had an accident a few days before he was assassinated on February 1990.

Mrs Ouko had attended the inauguration ceremony of new Kisumu Governor Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o.

Her son, who was the driver, survived with minor injuries.

Her body was taken to Siloam Hospital mortuary.

HUSBAND'S KILLERS

Mrs Ouko’s sudden death means she has died without knowing who killed her husband whose charred body was found by a herdsboy at Got Alila hills in Kisumu County on February 13, 1990.

The murder case remains unresolved, but she had gone on to establish key institutions among her rural community in Kisumu to commemorate her husband’s course.

These include libraries as well as school dormitories named after Dr Ouko.

Mrs Ouko, 76, was the mother of seven – four girls and three boys – and had demanded justice and truth behind her husband’s death.

TJRC

“I am not opposed to his being TJRC chairman because he can use it to let us know who killed Dr Ouko. I have no grudge against anybody and if the killers are known, I will welcome them for tea in my house,” she told the Nation in an interview seven years ago, referring to the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission then chaired by Ouko’s former Permanent Secretary Bethuel Kiplagat.

Kiplagat died on July 2017 and while his chairing of the TJRC was controversial, Mrs Ouko had argued that he could use the commission to establish clarity on her husband’s death.

“He loved his country, his children, family and his books. I never heard him even whisper that he wanted to be president and therefore I am still bewildered by what happened,” Mrs Ouko said then.

“I have no power to judge anybody but I am still at a loss. I don’t want to apportion blame, though the sad news is that I have gone through hell.”

Christabel first met Dr Ouko at Ogada Primary School where his brother, John Eston Okara, also deceased, was a headteacher. Dr Ouko, was a junior teacher in the school in Nyahera, Kisumu Municipality.

SCHOOLING

She was then a pupil at Chianda Primary in Rarieda where she sat for the Common Entrance Examination, done in Standard Four then. She passed the exam and joined Ng’iya Girls High for intermediate school (Standard Five to Eight) education and again the sky was the limit.

Mrs Ouko qualified to join Butere Girls’ for her O-levels at a time when girls excelled academically.

She proceeded to Alliance Girls High School and later to the University of Nairobi.

She and Dr Ouko had strengthened their love. The relationship was so deep that “I could pay any price to defend my turf”.

She, therefore, dropped out of the university to get married to Dr Ouko in 1966.

Mrs Ouko had been admitted to read English and Geography in the Faculty of Arts.

She joined the civil service as a tax officer with the East African Community in Arusha and later became an immigration officer before resigning to join Dr Ouko who was appointed head of the East African Community.

TRIBUTE

President Uhuru Kenyatta has praised Mrs Ouko as a person who was dedicated to both her family and country.

"During her long life, she distinguished herself by her dedication to her family, her community and her country.

"She served the nation as a civil servant, and then supported her husband as he too served Kenya with distinction," the President's statement read.

—Reports by Aggrey Mutambo, Justus Ochieng, Anita Chepkoech and Rushdie Oudia