Educationist, envoy and ex-MP leaves rich legacy

PROF Filemona Indire often told his contemporaries Africa is a rich continent that can solve its problems and should not rely on any help from outside.

He lived most of his 95 years trying to prove that.

“This country is very rich and we should not even be thinking of getting alms from abroad,” he said in Parliament when he served as a nominated MP from 1983 to 1988.

The life-long educationist and church leader died on Tuesday in Nairobi.

His family describes him as a foresighted leader and loving patriarch who was the glue that held his sprawling family together.

Growing up in a Vihiga village during the colonial days, he rejected tradition and pursued education.

He was admitted to Nairobi School, known at the time as the Prince of Wales School, before proceeding to Makerere University and later Ball State Teachers College.

He became the first African deputy head teacher of Friends School Kamusinga in 1957 before proceeding for further studies in the US between 1959 to 1962.

He was appointed the first African provincial director of education in Nyanza province.

When the country got independence in 1963, President Jomo Kenyatta appointed him deputy ambassador to the defunct Soviet Union, serving for a year.

After his brief diplomatic stint, Kenyatta appointed Indire the first Kenyan professor of education.

Most of his studies focused on how to improve the education curriculum and shoring up the number of teachers.

This is how he found his way to the Davy Koech commission on education reforms established in May 1998 by President Daniel Moi.

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula eulogised him as a ground-breaking leader