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Kenyan literary icon Asenath Bole Odaga dies in Kisumu

Kisumu, Kenya: Prominent author and literary scholar Asenath Bole Odaga is dead. She has passed on in Kisumu after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Mrs Odaga was pronounced dead Monday at 5pm after suffering two successive heart attacks before succumbing at the Avenue Hospital.

Her son Peter Odaga, a businessman, confirmed the death and said the family was in shock after the tragedy and was planning a befitting send off for the literary icon.

She is survived by the husband James Odaga, the son, and daughter Adhiambo Odaga, the former representative Ford Foundation West Africa and currently the head of Dangote Foundation.

The late writer was the sister of Dennis Akumu, the veteran trade unionist and former Nyakach MP.

Bole specialized in oral literature, Africa poetry, music, folklore and relived story telling by the fireside for generations that have come later today.

She is remembered as a pioneer woman publisher and printer in East and Central Africa and a champion of women empowerment.

She started an NGO Gender and Development Centre in the 1980s in a bid to empower women literary and financially.

One of her books Between the Years, is compelling political read which reflects on where the rains started beating Kenya. It asks how Kenya impoverished soon after independence was.

Bole in her lectures and writing fought pitched for drama powerful tool for communication and for propagating African languages.

She wrote several stories for children in a bid to bridge the gap created by colonialists who started changing children’s perception of life.

Bole went to Guu Primary school in Nyakach then Alliance Girls High School and the University of Nairobi.

She authored over a dozen books including six novels and several short stories.