Former Alego Usonga MP Otieno Mak'Onyango has died while receiving treatment in a Nairobi hospital. Before entering Parliament, the journalist spent about four years in detention after the failed 1982 coup attempt.

His death was announced on Sunday night by the current Alego Usonga MP, Samuel Atandi. "We have this evening lost the Hon Otieno Mak'Onyango, Former MP, Alego Usonga Constituency," Atandi said, according to Nairobi News.

Kenyans.co.ke quoted the MP saying the constituency had "lost a former leader whose name will remain part of the constituency's political history." He added: "May God comfort his family, friends, and the people of Alego Usonga during this difficult time."

According to Kenyans.co.ke, Mak'Onyango suffered a stroke on October 3. He was first treated in the high dependency unit of a hospital in Ngong before being moved to Nairobi Hospital, and a fundraising appeal was launched to help his family meet the rising costs of his care. Funeral arrangements had not been announced by Monday.

From the newsroom to detention

Mak'Onyango was a journalist at the East African Standard, now The Standard. On August 17, 1982, shortly after air force officers tried to overthrow President Daniel arap Moi, he was arrested at the paper's Likoni Road offices in Nairobi and taken to CID headquarters, Nairobi News reported.

He was accused of involvement in the coup attempt and spent about four years in detention, one of several people rounded up in the crackdown that followed. Others detained in that period included the late Raila Odinga. He later told a court that he had been tortured in custody.

Ending Oloo-Aringo's long run

Mak'Onyango entered elective politics in 1992, when Kenya held its first multiparty elections after the return of political pluralism. Running on a Ford-Kenya ticket, he won the Alego Usonga seat in Siaya County. He defeated Peter Oloo-Aringo, who had represented the constituency since 1974.

He served one term as the constituency's fourth MP. Oloo-Aringo won the seat back in 1997 and held it until 2002, Capital FM reported.

A long fight for compensation

In 2003 Mak'Onyango sued the government over his arrest, detention and prosecution. In June 2012, High Court judge Kalpana Rawal found that his constitutional rights had been violated and awarded him Sh20 million in damages.

The money did not come quickly. A 2014 report by The Standard said the award, with interest, had still not been paid, and described a man struggling to meet basic needs and pay for medication. A December 2023 Standard report said he was living in Kibiko, Kajiado County, in poor health and financial hardship. Recent reports did not say whether the award was ever paid.

Mak'Onyango belonged to a generation of journalists and politicians whose careers were shaped by the Moi-era crackdown on dissent. Several of those detained after 1982 went on to play key roles in the push for multiparty democracy that brought him to Parliament a decade later.

Photos: Nairobi News; Kenyans.co.ke