rights, fair trade practices and debt relief for Africa through platforms like the World Social Forum in such far flung locations as Mumbai, India and Porto Alegre, Brazil. Locally, he pressed for responsible governance through the unique "After the Promise" annual governance report card. An avid reader and consummate writer, the Hubert Humphrey Fellow/Fulbright alumnus was also a regular columnist with the Sunday Nation and later Standard on Sunday, Kenya's top two newspapers, where he wrote weekly political analysis for over five years. Community service In 2003, he initiated the Ababu Namwamba Foundation, a charity that supports education, talent growth and economic empowerment for hundreds of young Kenyans. He calls the foundation his ‘payback’ to Kenya, himself a beneficiary of a Jomo Kenyatta Foundation scholarship in high school. The foundation offers scholarships to bright students from economically challenged backgrounds, runs a mentorship program for students, supports development of sporting talents and works with women and youth groups on income-generating activities. Political career Namwamba was first elected to parliament in the 2007 Kenyan parliamentary election as a member of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), representing Budalang'i Constituency in the National Assembly of Kenya. He was Parliamentary Secretary of the ODM from 2008 to 2013, and served as Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs from 2012 until the ODM lost office in the 2013 election. In 2016, Namwamba quit ODM where he was serving as secretary general. He felt that the party leader Raila Odinga (who had stood for the presidency twice) was no longer capable of convincing voters to support him. He joined the newly relaunched Labour Party of Kenya, and since September 2016 he has been the leader of the Labour Party. In March 2017 the Labour Party announced that it would support the presidential candidacy of Uhuru Kenyatta in the election of August 2017. Namwamba lost his Budalang'i seat in that election. In January 2018, Namwamba was nominated to the position of Chief Administrative Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was sworn into office in March 2018. References External links Kenyan Labour Party Living people Kenyan Luhya people Orange Democratic Movement politicians Members of the National Assembly (Kenya) Year of birth missing (living people)