How Kenyan saved South Africa from slipping into chaos after apartheid

Prof. Washington Jalang'o Okumu, the man who in 1994, brokered peace between Nelson Mandela and Zulu Leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, thus paving way for South Africa independence elections that brought the African National Congress (ANC) to power.

Ahead of South Africa’s Independence elections 20 years ago, Prof Washington Jalang’o Okumu had his fingers on the heart valves of history by single-handedly saving the epoch exercise from collapse and inevitable bloodbath.

And as he successfully intervened for peace in the faraway land, he witnessed a series of events back home that would see Jaramogi Oginga Oginga and Tom Mboya decline to take over Government when Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was in detention. Okumu recalls that even though Kenyatta eventually ascended to power on Odinga’s intervention, the two would soon fall out and set the country on the road to political divisions that have never healed to date.