Riaga Ogalo, the Vice Chairman for the Council of Elders has died on the evening of Wednesday, August 12, 2015.
Ogalo was undergoing treatment in Nairobi at the Kenyatta National Hospital when he passed away. The Vice Chairman for the Council of Elders had been battling a kidney infection. He also formerly served as the chairman for the Luo Council of Elders.
“He had been admitted at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital, from where he was transferred to KNH,” Philemon Riaga, Ogalo’s son, told the Daily Nation.
Ogalo was succeeded in his role as Chairman for the Luo Council of Elders by Willis Otondi. The elections were hotly contested, with the resulting conflict partially mediated by Raila Odinga, the party leader for CORD.
On their Facebook page, the organisation describes their goals saying,“Kenya National Council of Elders comprises all registered traditional councils of elders; objective: peace, cohesion and integration for development.”
Source-tuko.co.ke
About the Luo People
The Luo of Kenya and Tanzania are a Nilotic ethnic group native to western Kenya and the Mara Region of northern Tanzania in East Africa. The Luo are the fourth-largest ethnic group (10.65%) in Kenya, after the Kikuyu (17.13%), the Luhya (14.35%) and the Kalenjin (13.37%).
The Tanzanian Luo population was estimated at 1.1 million in 2001 and 3.4 million in 2020. They are part of a larger group of related Luo peoples who inhabit an area ranging from South Sudan, southwestern Ethiopia, northern and eastern Uganda, southwestern Kenya, and northern Tanzania.
They speak the Luo language, also known as Dholuo, which belongs to the Western Nilotic branch of the Nilotic language family. Dholuo shares considerable lexical similarity with languages spoken by other Luo peoples.
The Luo are descended from migrants who moved into western Kenya from Uganda between the 15th and 20th centuries in four waves. These migrants were closely related to Luo peoples found in Uganda, especially the Acholi and Padhola people.
As they moved into Kenya and Tanzania, they underwent significant genetic and cultural admixture as they encountered other communities that were long established in the region.
Riaga Ogalo, Vice Chairman, Luo Council Of Elders, Dies
