Kenya's first elected female MP and mayor Grace Onyango is dead

Kenya's first female MP and mayor Mama Grace Onyango has passed on aged 99.

She died at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital on Wednesday.

The icon woman had been ailing.

She was Kenya's first woman mayor, elected in Kisumu in 1965.

Grace was the first woman to be elected MP, for Kisumu Town in 1969 and served until 1983.

She was also the first woman secretary general of the Luo Union (East Africa) and the first woman councillor of Kaloleni ward in Kisumu.

The teacher-turned-politician was also the first woman assistant commissioner of the Girl Guides Association and chairperson of the Child Welfare Society, Kisumu district.