Today on rewriting history, we focus on The Man of steel,James Aggrey Bob orengo.
When the story of Kenya’s Second Liberation is told, few names echo louder than James Aggrey Orengo, a man whose life became a living protest against dictatorship and injustice.
In the 1970s, while many Kenyans chose silence for survival, Orengo chose struggle. As a young law student at the University of Nairobi, he led demonstrations against government repression, acts that earned him arrest, expulsion, and lifelong surveillance by state agents. His fire was too bright to be dimmed.
By 1980, at only 29, Orengo became the youngest MP in independent Kenya, representing Ugenya. But he wasn’t content to warm a parliamentary seat,he used it as a platform to challenge President Moi’s one-party rule. His speeches were fiery, his questions bold, his defiance contagious. To the system, he became a dangerous man,one who could not be bought, silenced, or tamed.
When the clamour for multiparty democracy began in the late 1980s, Orengo stood side by side with Kenya’s bravest, Raila Odinga, Kenneth Matiba, Charles Rubia, Koigi wa Wamwere,Gitobu imanyara and George Anyona amongst others. Together, they were hunted like criminals for daring to imagine a freer Kenya. Orengo was arrested multiple times, beaten in the streets, tortured in the cells of Kamiti and Naivasha, and forced into exile when the state intensified its crackdown.
But exile did not kill his spirit. From abroad, he continued to speak, write, and organize,keeping Kenya’s struggle for democracy alive on international platforms. He returned home at great personal risk, rejoining the opposition forces that eventually broke the KANU stronghold in the early 1990s.
When others compromised for comfort, Orengo remained a voice of conscience,defending political prisoners, challenging illegal detentions, and representing activists in court even when it endangered his own life.
His courage wasn’t loud, it was consistent. His loyalty wasn’t to men, but to truth. And when Kenya finally opened the door to multiparty democracy, it was the blood, sweat, and defiance of men like Orengo that oiled its hinges.
Today, as Siaya Governor, Orengo stands not just as a politician, but as a living monument of resilience,a reminder that freedom is never given; it is taken, fought for, and guarded with vigilance.
James Orengo’s journey is proof that the Second Liberation was not won in one day, nor by one man,but by a generation that chose courage over comfort and justice over fear.
And for that courage, and for the sacrifices James Aggrey Bob Orengo’s name will remain etched amongst the brave who refused to kneel so that Kenya could stand. Now That is a Hero.
By: martin munyaga
Bantu MEDIA 