Dr. Robert Ouko was one of the most brilliant technocrats on the whole African continent. He was intelligent - a borne diplomat – and he was dedicated to serve his country.
In a nation rife with corruption – right from the top echelons of power all the way to the bottom, he was the only one to mean what he said and to say what he meant.
After having finished his secondary education, he attended Siriba Teachers Training College and graduated with a Teachers Degree. As a teacher he taught at different Primary Schools in his home region.
He continued to study privately through correspondence for the Cambridge School Certificate and passed with a Division Two Certificate.
Consequently, the University of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia awarded him a scholarship for an under-graduate program. He graduated from university with a degree in political science, public administration and economics in 1962.
He returned to Kenya and joined the then colonial civil service as an Assistant Secretary in the office of the British Governor.
As a civil servant he proceeded to Makerere University, Kampala (Uganda) for a successful post-graduate study in Diplomacy.
After Kenya attained independence in 1963, he held different administrative positions, until President Kenyatta nominated him to the then East African Legislative Assembly. This organization brought together the three East African countries namely Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania as a kind of common market.
He first served as a Community Minister for Finance and Administration and then in 1970 he was appointed the Minister for Common Market and Economic Affairs – remaining in this post until the Community collapsed in 1977.
President Kenyatta then nominated him as a Member of the Kenyan Parliament and appointed him the Minister for Economic Affairs in his Government.
During the General Elections in 1979, he successfully contested the Kisumu Rural Constituency, thereby completing the transition from a bureaucrat to an elected politician.
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