Not Yet Uhuru

Years ago OGINGA ODINGA led the fight waged by KANU, Kenya's ruling party, for the release from detention of Jomo Kenyatta (accused of managing 'Mau Mau'), and the formation of a KANU government. In April 1966 Odinga broke with KANU and Kenyatta, surrendered public office as Vice-President of Kenya, and announced that he could no longer support the government's policies at home and abroad, and that the time had come to found an opposition party. With Bildad Kaggia, Denis Akumu, Achieng Oneko, Tom Okelo-Odongo, and other former members of KANU, he established the Kenya People's Union. From then onwards, upto the time of his death in 1994, he embodied opposition politics; contending that those who sacrificed most for Kenya's independence 'lost out' to people who played safe. He was always a controversial figure in East African Politics - having at one time been labelled a 'communist', a pawn of the East, a subversive influence, and, with his strong backing in Nyanza, a tribalist. Even when he was a staunch supporter of KANU, before and after Uhuru, he was known to be critical of some of its policies and alliances.In this autobiography, Not Yet Uhuru, Oginga Odinga sums up his political beliefs and tells the story of his development from a local teacher to an international figure.