User:Gordon Castro/sandbox

Gordon Oduor Okumu (born 20 July 1986) is the leader of the People's Freedom Movement, a Kenyan political movement, which he founded in July 2010. He is also a former student leader at the Multimedia University of Kenya. Okumu was a member of the Students Liberation Movement until his completion of studies in August 2012 when he joined the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and become the youth leader in the Friends of Raila 2012 lobby group. He later left the friends of Raila and together with other young politicians in ODM, they formed Raila na Katiba (RANK) where he remained to the end of the 2013 Kenyan general elections. Okumu occupies a notable position in Kenyan public and political life; having risen to prominence with his support for formation of a new political to battle with ODM in Luo Nyanza. He has been described by Hon. Dalmas Otieno the party leader KDP and Hon. Joseph Ndiege the member of parliament for Suna East constituency as the "future leader" of Kenya. Less favorable portraits paint him as a "reckless populist" with the potential to destabilise the Luo Nyanza and to spark political conflict.  Early life

Okumu, a Luo, was born and grew up in Nairobi, in the slums of Kangemi of Westlands district. His mother was a domestic worker and a single parent. Okumu studied in Kangemi and went to a day secondary school within the estate. After his form four, he got a job as a secondary school teacher teaching English, Biology and Christian Religious Education. He taught for one year and joined the Society of Jesus of East African Province(Jesuits) to train and become a Jesuit priest. Okumu went through the training in the Jesuit novitiate in Arusha Tanzania where he took vows of Chastity, Obedience and Poverty, and later went to Zimbabwe for his bachelor's degree in Philosophy. After completion of his degree in Philosophy, Okumu wrote to the superior general of the East African Province of the Society of Jesus to allow him leave the seminary as he (Okumu) had realized that it wasn't his call to become a catholic priest but rather a political leader. Okumu was allowed to leave the Jesuits in May 2010 and right on arrival in Nairobi from Zimbabwe, joined the Multimedia University of Kenya to study Communications. At the Multimedia University, Okumu started the students revolution that pushed the administration of the University to allow students form their union which had been burned in 1998 when the then student leaders incited the students to riot. Okumu was able to convince the Multimedia University administration to form the students union and together with fellow students, drafted the first constitution of the students council. Two months later, Okumu was elected the first Secretary General of the Students association of Multimedia University of Kenya on which occasion he also formed the Students Liberation Movement - A students political party that is still in power at Multimedia University to date.