A close observation will show you that a good number of professors in the nation hail from the Luo Nyanza region, not forgetting lawyers and other heavily educated nationally-known individuals.

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This achievement can be tracked back to Senior Chief Odera Akang'o, a dictatorial traditional chief who lived years back, before his execution by the colonialists.

According to a report published on a Standard publication, Akang'o introduced compulsory primary and secondary education to his constituents in modern day Siaya county by 1915, 88 years before retired President Kibaki did the same.

This followed his invitation by Bishop JJ Willis to Uganda for the consecration of Namirembe Cathedral, and on seeing the benefits of the western academic system, including the high levels of hygiene and roads among the Buganda, he ruthlessly introduced it in Gem.

Bragging of his own force of armed police and a prison in Siaya, any parent who failed to take their children to school was arrested and locked up or taken to work in his maize and rice fields as a punitive measure.

This was the beginning of the academic success in Nyanza, and since the Luo did not take part in the Mau Mau movement, they peacefully studied as others were in the forests trying to fight off the British.

He went ahead to influence the construction of the St Mary Yala School, and introduced agriculture and constructed tarmac roads, some of which still stand up to date.

Consequently, the region is bragging of the likes of Prof PLO Lumumba, Prof Governor Anyang' Nyong'o, Kenya's first African lawyer Argwins Kodhek, the Oginga's and very many other academic giants.

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