How It Happened

How it Happened, included scholars Bethwell Ogot, Thomas Odhiambo, Henry Muwanga Barlow, and Josphat Karanja. Mwai Kibaki would join them later.

It was while at Makerere that Nabwera’s political stirrings morphed into a discernible awareness of a skewed and race-based political structure, imposing on him little choice but to forge alliances with other politically conscious figures including Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, whom he had met while at Maseno School, Masinde Muliro, and WWW Awori.

These, among others, would be Nabwera’s comrades in the then nascent political terrain that they would go on to dominate from the early 1960s to the 1990s, only breaking their political involvements to pursue higher education. For Nabwera, who later went to London School of Economics to study sociology — awareness of political disadvantages went parallel with alertness for educational and economic opportunities.

This is probably what led him to the path of a successful academic career, a stint in the diplomatic service when he was appointed, in 1963, as the first Kenyan African ambassador to the United States and Permanent Representative to the UN, and an illustrious political career, all spanning a staggering 55 years of public service to his country...