Background
Ouko was born in Nyahera village, near Kisumu, Nyanza Province.
Ouko was born in Nyahera village, near Kisumu, Nyanza Province.
He went to Ogada Primary School, Nyang’ori School. After schooling he studied at the Siriba Teachers Training College. He worked as a primary school teacher. In 1955 he landed a job as the revenue officer of Kisii District. In 1958 he joined the Haile Selassie University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, graduating in 1962 with a degree in Public Administration, Economics and Political Science. He then went to Makerere University in Uganda for a diploma in International Relations and Diplomacy.
After three years in the District Commissioner’s office in Kisii from 1955 to 1958 he went to Haile Selassie University in Ethopia, where he got a BA degree in 1962. From there he went to Maker ere and did a postgraduate diplomacy course, followed in 1963 by in-service diplomatic training at the British embassy in Rome and at the foreign Office in London.
Returning to Kenya he worked briefly under Malcolm MacDonald, the Governor who saw Kenya to independence. In June 1963 he moved to the Prime Minister’s office where he was quickly promoted to Senior Assistant Secretary becoming Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1963 to 1964 and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works between December 1964 and July 1969.
In July 1969 a major promotion came in his appointment as Minister for finance and Administration in the East African Community at Arusha, Tanzania. He became Minister for Community Affairs in November 1970. He has won a reputation for himself in the field of public administration, attending international conferences and becoming President of the African Association for Public Administration and Management.
Shortly before Kenyan independence in 1963 he worked as an Assistant Secretary in the office of the Governor. He was soon posted as the permanent secretary in the ministry of works. After the East African Community collapsed in 1977, Ouko became a nominated member in the Kenyan parliament and appointed as the Minister for Economic Planning and Community Affairs.
He was elected to the parliament at the 1979 general elections from Kisumu Rural Constituency and retained his seat at the 1983 elections. For the 1988 elections he moved to Kisumu Town Constituency (later split to Kisumu Town West and Kisumu Town East constituencies), and was again elected to the parliament. Ouko represented KANU, the only legally operating party at the time.