Pamela Mboya

Tom and Pamela Mboya on honeymoon in Tel Aviv, 1962

Pamela Mboya (1938 – 26 January 2009) was a Kenyan political activist and diplomat, the wife of government official Tom Mboya.

Early life and education

Pamela Odede was born at Maseno, near Lake Victoria. Her father Walter Odede was a politician. She studied art at Makerere University from 1957 to 1959. She earned a bachelor's degree in sociology at Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio.[1]

Career

Pamela Odede married Thomas Mboya in 1962, in a large Roman Catholic wedding.[2] She was widowed when he was assassinated on 5 July 1969. Images of Pamela Mboya as a glamorous bride, and as a young widow grieving, became iconic in Kenya's turbulent 1960s and 1970s; the name "Pamela" even became trendy for Kenyan girls after her influence.[3] Pamela Mboya was frequently photographed as a hostess with international visitors: during her marriage, she danced with Prince Phillip to celebrate Kenya's independence in 1964; after she was widowed, she visited with Coretta Scott King and other survivors of loss by assassination.[4][5]

Pamela Mboya was Kenya's permanent representative to the UN Habitat in the 1980s. She chaired HelpAge Kenya, and was a member of the Kenyan Women's Political Caucus.[6]

Personal life

Pamela and Tom Mboya had five children together, one of whom died as a young boy. After her first husband died, Pamela Mboya was briefly married to her brother-in-law Alphonse Okoku, in observance of Luo tradition, and had a sixth child, named Tom Mboya Jr., with Okoku.[3]

Pamela Mboya died from ovarian cancer in 2009, aged 70 years, in South Africa.[7]

Her daughter Maureen Odero is a judge in Mombasa, and her daughter Susan Mboya is president of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation and the wife of Evans Kidero, governor of Nairobi.[8]

References

  1. ↑ David Goldsworthy, Tom Mboya: the Man Kenya Wanted to Forget (Heinemann 1982): 93, 120. ISBN
  2. ↑ "Africa's No. 1 Bachelor Takes a Bride" Ebony (April 1962): 25-32.
  3. 1 2 Joe Ambuor, "Final Journey of an Icon, Tribute to Pamela Mboya," Standard Media (5 February 2009).
  4. ↑ "Light Fantastic" Pittsburgh Courier (4 January 1964): 9. via Newspapers.com
  5. ↑ "Widow Says Investigation into Slaying Should be Reopened" Evening Independent (28 November 1975): 1. via Newspapers.com
  6. ↑ "Pamela Mboya, former Kenyan permanent representative dies" UN-Habitat (29 January 2009).
  7. ↑ Peter Opiyo and Maina Muiruri, "Pamela, Mboya's Widow, Dies in S. Africa" Standard Media Digital (27 January 2009).
  8. ↑ "Dr. Susan Mboya Kidero Appointed President of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation" New Vision (22 August 2013).
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