Eddy Oketch continues to attract attention after putting up a spirited fight in the just concluded Migori County Senatorial by-election.
Vying on the little known Federal Party of Kenya (FPK) ticket, the youthful politician secured 60, 555 votes, losing to ODM’s Ochillo Ayacko who garnered 85, 234 votes.
A publication by the African Leadership Academy indicates that Oketch was born as the seventh child in a struggling family of eight siblings, and grew up in an underdeveloped village of Mang’ong’o in Migori.
After his mother’s death, he was forced to drop out of school to provide for his younger siblings, working in tobacco farms, in backstreet canteens as a dish-washer, and as a garbage collector, earning meager wages so that he could buy food for his family.
Through the help of well wishers, the 27-year-old later attended Friends School Kamusinga, the Johannesburg institution, Trinity College in the United States, and Yale University, where he graduated with a Masters in Global Affairs.
During the 2007/2008 post election violence, Oketch founded Peace for African and Economic Development (PAD) mobilizing 11,000 youth ambassadors to foster peace.
He has participated in leading conferences around the globe including the World Economic Forum, the 2012 Clinton Global Initiative, and the G8 Summit, where he was a panel leader.