Just like former Gem Member of Parliament Argwings Kodhek was the first black Kenyan lawyer, Samuel Ayodo made history as the first ever person from the lakeside Nyanza province to set foot in the United States of America.
The man from Kowidhi in the now defunct Kasipul Kabondo constituency was also the first graduate from South Nyanza and the first Luo to study in the super power nation.
Born in 1930, he attended Maseno school where he was famed for his brains, with teachers branding him 'a man to watch', before joining Makerere University and later to the Union College in Nebraska on a scholarship.
He graduated with a BSC in education in 1956.
He also served in the first Cabinet under President Jomo Kenyatta at only 33 years, being among the youngest ministers at a time when the flag holders only earned a Sh7, 000 salary and an annual gratuity of 1000 shillings and had no security detail.
In 1974, he won the Kasipul Kabondo parliamentary seat on the independence party Kenya African National Union (KANU) single party system, serving until 1983.
He died while being treated at the Nairobi Hospital in 1998 aged 68 years old.
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