Background
James Charles Nakhwanga Osogo was born on 10 October 1932 in Bukani Village of Budalangi District in Kenya.
James Charles Nakhwanga Osogo was born on 10 October 1932 in Bukani Village of Budalangi District in Kenya.
Educated at Port Victoria Primary School, he went on to St Mary’s High School, Yala and the Railway Training School.
He started his career as a railwayman, becoming a stationmastcr before switching to teaching Kagumo Teachers Training College (1953); Sigalame School, Busia (1955); headmaster of Kibasanga School (I960) and Nangina School (1961-2).
After cutting his political teeth in the Central Nyanza District Council from 1957 to 1958, he went into national politics. Defeated by Odinga in Central Nyanza in February 1961, he stood again as a KANU candidate in May 1963 in the Ruwambwu constituency. He won, and was appointed a Junior Minister under Bruce McKenzie in the Ministry of Agriculture.
Accepted as a valuable Luo voice in government, he was elevated to the cabinet in 1966 as Minister of Information. At the same time he was chairman of the Kenya Youth Hostels Association from 1964 to 1970. After being reelected for Busia South in December 1969, he was reshuffled to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry where his main task has been to Kenyanise the largely white sector of industry.
A self-made man from a poor Catholic fisherman’s family whose persistence, determination and ambition to succeed overcame his educational disabilities. Totally involved with his career in the Mau Mau era and the pre-independence period, he went into politics comparatively late. Never one of the Luo radicals (he stood against Oginga Odinga in the first election he fought), he was close to Tom Mboya and a supporter of orthodox Kenya African National Union policies.