Reports Leo Odera Omolo
Phares Oluoch Kanindo a one time two terms KANU MP for the larger Homa-Bay constituency has died at the Agakha Hospital Kisumu after along but undisclosed illness. He was 72. He had served briefly In the KANU government as an Assistant Minister for education. However, he did not last longer at the Ministry because he was sacked within three months after his appointment by the retired President Daniel Arap MoI following allegation that he had used his ministerial position and lured girls students at the Ogande Girls High school and took them out of the institution for an evening outing.
The most eloquent politician, especial in Dholuo vernacular, Kanindo, however, never made his maiden speech in the house owing to allegation that he was handicapped in English owing to his elementary education standard which never went beyond KAPE.
He took his early primary education at Manyatta,Pe-Hill and Luwala Primary schools between 1949 and 1961.He was one of the hundreds of Kenyan students who benefited from scholarship received by the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga from Eastern European countries then under the USSR communist and went to Yugoslavia where they were taught guerrilla tactics and warfare and how to sabotage communication infrastructure including dismantling bridges to harass colonialists. Jaramogi was a close friend and political associate of Kanindo’s late father Mzee Andrea Anindo Nyakachunga a prominent businessman at Awendo town. with the KNA developed interest in productions of disc records and became a prominent producer with his own branch of “POK” records. He prospered very fast and became a prominent businessman in both Nairobi, Kisumu and Awendo. He was later managed to win the larger Homa-Bay parliamentary electoral constituency, which has since been sub-divided into four electoral areas, namely Rongo, Awendo, Rangwe and Homa-Bay town
After losing his parliamentary seat to the late John LINUS Aluoch Polo in 1992 Kanindo served two terms as the chairman of the board of directors of the SONYSUGARcompany.
Kanindo was a polygamist with married to ten wives and left behind dozens of children, most of them grown up and grand children. On Monday morning the family and friends flew the body of the politician to Nairobi’s lee Funeral Home where it will stay pending the burial arrangement. This is an act which did not go down well with his hundreds of supporters, relatives and friends. A member of the family said the politician body would attract a lot of money in terms of donations for funeral arrangement than in Kisumu. Those who did not welcome the idea said it is wrong for the body of such a respected person to be taken to Nairobi for the use the body of a man who died peaceful near his home commercial purpose of attracting hefty donations from politicians.
ENDS