Lady Ida Odinga

Mrs Ida Betty Odinga was born in Kenya in 1950 and is considered by many
Kenyans today as great mentor in her own right. A much known face that is
also celebrated for her grace, talent in leadership as well as intellect, Ida is a
teacher by profession having taught for a period of over 20 years since she
graduated from University of Nairobi with a Bachelor of Arts in 1974. She can
be proud to have influenced the lives of very many girls who today hold high
offices in Kenya and attribute their success to the motherly love and patience
she showed to them.

Ida is also celebrated as one the first women to head major corporate when
she took over as the Managing Director of East Africa Spectre in 2003.

Ida has great compassion for children and especially those that have no one
to take care of them. She is a constant visitor to many children’s homes where
she is the patron.

The wife of Kenya's Prime Minster, Ida has been a great influence in
that journey and career that has made it possible for The Prime Minister.
For more than two decades, Ida came to be known as the face of defiance
to injustices and the intolerance that was witnessed during the one
party state regime and came to be known as the longest political widow.

Her untold suffering during that time influenced her to found a leading
National Institution known as The League of Kenya Women Voters in
1991 where she served as National Chairperson until early this year.

She wanted to see women end decades of poverty, humiliation, human rights
abuses, violence and economic blackmail though participating in the ballot.
She still is very influential in pushing women to plunge into political activism in
order to make that change and the struggle for women continues.

In May 2009, she was nominated and accepted to serve as the Ambassador
for Freedom from Fistula and has recently launched a programme that
mentors girls to stay and complete their education in schools. She also
supports various initiatives including Breast cancer, children with cancer, end
the jiggers campaign as well as heading the advisory board of the Kenya
paraplegic Association among others.

Ida is a mother of four children and a proud grandmother of baby Safi.