James Orengo

James Orengo, (James Jimmy-Jimmy Owadgi Adhiambo Orengo) is a lawyer and former presidential candidate in Kenya. He comes from Ugenya Constituency of Siaya District; he was educated at Ambira Primary School and the Alliance High School. He is law graduate of the University of Nairobi where he was the student body president in his final year. He graduated in 1974. James Orengo is well known for his fight against unjust rule. He has spent a good number of years in detention and is viewed by many young upcoming politicians as a role model. Orengo was among the Young Turks who brought about the what can be considered as the second liberation, when he, Michael Wamalwa Kijana, Kiraitu Murungi, Paul Muite and a bunch of old guards like Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Masinde Muliro and Martin Shikuku formed the formidable Forum for the Restoration of Democracy, a vehicle that nearly (thanks on KANU's side, to the disunity amongst FORD Luminaries) pushed KANU out of power.Orengo ran for presidency in 2002 for the Social Democratic Party, but finished fourth with just 0.4% of the votes. His party lost all of its parliamentary places, as many SDP:s leading figures had joined the NARC coalition. Orengo has been formerly an MP for FORD-Kenya. He is a founding-member of Muungano wa Mageuzi (Movement for Change), a cross party lobby group.

As of 2007 he is still the SDP chairman. The party supported Raila Odinga of Orange Democratic Movement at the 2007 general elections. [Daily Nation, September 27, 2007: [http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=2&newsid=107305 New SDP team to back Raila] ]

In the 2007 elections Orengo won the Ugenya Parliamentary seat thus proving his return to Kenyan politics on ODM ticket. He had been in cold since the 2002 elections after losing the seat to Arcbishop Stephen Ondiek. In the post-election crisis, Orengo served as one of the main spokesmen for the Orange Democratic Movement in its attempts to have .

Orengo has since been sworn in as a Minister for Lands in the new Coalition Government formed by the National Accord Act of 2008. This is his first stint as a cabinet Minister. The minister recently discovered the sale of the Grand Regency hotel at 2.7 billion Kenyan Shillings (approximately $30 million US). He managed to blow the whistle when the transfer of the land ownership from the Central Bank of Kenya to the new Libyan owners was accomplish under the direction of Amos Kimunya, finance minister. This has set off the Grand Regency Scandal.

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