Tom Mboya was an outspoken Kenyan leader whose oratory skills and brilliance were unmatched.
However, he was assassinated in 1969 when coming out of a pharmacy along Government Road, later named Tom Mboya Avenue.
His grandeur wedding with Pamela Orwa Odede
The wedding was conducted at St Peter's Clavers church in 1962 and was presided over by Nairobi-based archbishop Jj McCarthy and was attended by various dignitaries including the first President Jomo Kenyatta and Mama Ngina, Kabaka Mutesa II of Uganda, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and many others.
Pamela was a daughter to Walter Odede. Odede was an ex-emergence detainee and a former leader of KAU party. Pamela was one of the 10 children Odede had and received education in the best schools.
When Odede took the leadership of KAU from Kenyatta, he appointed Mboya as a communication officer. This is how Mboya got close to Odede's family and eventually, to Pamela.
When Odede was arrested, Mboya got the opportunity of taking care of the family and widened his advances to Pamela. Pamela was studying at Alliance Girls and later joined Makerere University in Uganda to study Geography, History and English.
In 1959, Mboya was invited to give a speech at a western college and many people attended such that Prisser hall was filled to the brim. Due to the fact that the college president, Henrick Going Black was his friend, he helped transfer Pamela from Makerere to western college Ohio. Their friendship blossomed.
In 1960, Mboya paid his dowry of 10 sleek cows which were transported to Odede's home in two lorries.
This was the first stage according to Luo tradition of marriage. He later walked down the aisle with her in 1962.