When the British colonialist government in Kenya banned any black from kissing or touching a white’s hand in public, defiant brilliant lawyer Argwings Kodhek went several steps further and married one!
Kodhek who was born 1923 in Nyawara, Gem constituency in Siaya county made history as the first black lawyer in Kenyan after graduating with a Barrister At Law from London’s Lincoln’s Inn University in 1951.
In 1952, when holding or kissing a white’s ‘imperial’ hand in public was illegal, Kodhek brought with him Mavis Tate, his nurse wife from England.
This was why then to be President Jomo Kenyatta wisely dumped his white wife Edna Clarke after a shot marriage that lasted between 1942 to 1946.
When Kodhek and Tate divorced in the 1960s, he decided to stay around, this time marrying fellow Kenyan Joan Omondo.
In 1963, the people of his Gem backyard sent him to represent them in parliament for six years until his death in 1969.
He was also the Assistant Minister for Internal Security and Defense at the time.He died in a mysterious road accident along Argwings Kodhek Road in Kilimani, Nairobi on 29 of January.
#historynow