1962 was a busy year for former minister Tom Mboya who was at the forefront of the push for constitutional reforms to grant Kenya independence and had just secured the release of Jomo Kenyatta from his prison sentence in Kapenguria.
In this busy schedule, Mboya found some time to wed the love of his life, Pamela Odede in n event dubbed the ‘wedding of the year’ and true to that, it lived up to all the hype.
The April 1962 Ebony magazine in the USA hyped it more and gave it a four-page special coverage headlined ‘Africa’s No. 1 Bachelor Takes a Bride’.
So big was it that even the Pope sent them a congratulations message.
Mboya, who was 32 at the time, was named Africa's most eligible bachelor while Pamela was 10 years younger.
The political wonderboy was so popular locally and internationally and was personal friends with John Fitgerald Kennedy, who would later become the president of the United States.
At the wedding, in attendance was the Kabaka of Buganda, alias King Freddie, who was a bigwig at the time.
Kenyatta was also present as a personal friend to Pamela's father, veteran politician Walter Odede who was serving alongside Mboya in the LegCo.
Also in attendance was Crown Counsel Charles Njonjo, who was also at the wedding dressed in an English styled three-piece suit.
Others were then colonial governor Sir Patrick Renison and his wife. Pope John XXIII wired his apostolic blessings to the couple together with The Aga Khan from Pakistan.
Then Tanzanian Prime minister Mzee Julius Nyerere at the time also sent his congratulatory message to the couple as 4,000 Kenyans stood outside the church to get a glimpse of the action.
Mboya had paid a bride price of 16 cows and during the mega ceremony, he warned of politics at his wedding, stating clearly in his speech, "I am strictly here on the capacity of a new husband."
The Presiding Bishop was Archbishop J.J Macarthy.
After the wedding, Mboya took his wife for a 10-day honeymoon in Tel-Aviv, Israel and then jetted to London for the second Lancaster House Conference.
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