Despite being brought up in a wealthy family, Peter Aringo, son of the once powerful Minister for Education Oloo Aringo lives in abject poverty in a poorly developed house in Nakuru county.
According to an article by the Standard, Aringo was born and raised in affluence lacking nothing including enrolling in the best schools.
However, involvement in drug abuse and trafficking would later cost Aringo a great future despite having good education overseas where he had secured a prestigious job as a manager in a logistics company.
After all the opportunities placed on him, he now lives a humble life in Nakuru Town, battling advanced throat cancer associated with the many years he engaged in smoking and in the use of other hard drugs.
According to the Standard, Aringo began abusing drugs and substance at age 10 after in an effort of emulating politicians who would visit his father’s home, unknowingly brooming a character that would later prove hard to drop.
“Though my father used to drink alcohol with other politicians, what attracted my attention was their laughter. They would refer to each other as ‘mkubwa’ and have a jovial mood. I too wanted to be mkubwa. Slowly, I began taking alcohol,” remarked Aringo as quoted by the Standard.
Aringo would later join St. Mary’s school in Nairobi where he joined other students from wealthy families and together continued the trend of abusing drugs.
This would later lead to his transfer to St Mary’s School Yala and later sat his Level A examination at St Patrick’s Iten in 1987.
After high school Aringo flew to the US where he was enrolled for a course in Business Administration and Architecture Studies at Iona College, New Rochele in New York.
“Though I was an addict, I concentrated on my studies, but I could not leave my bottle and drugs. There is nothing I could do, be it studying, without abusing drugs and substance,” he remarked.
After completing his studies in 1992, Aringo got a job as a regional manager at Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company where he progressed to even start a landscaping business.
With the growing appetite for drugs, he began trafficking hard drugs, including heroin and cocaine, an action that led to his arrest and prosecution.
Although he managed to secure a release, he was later re-arrested for drug trafficking where he was held at a US penitentiary for one year and later deported in September 2012.
“I did not know I was being monitored by the federal government while trafficking in drugs. I received [the] news of my deportation with shock. That is the least I expected, having had a house, a family and a good job,” recalled Aringo.
Aringo is still battling with throat cancer that has reportedly affected his voice.
More than just the ministerial role, his father Oloo Aringo served as the MP for Asembo in 1974 - 1988 and 1997-2002.
Oloo also served as the chairman for the long-time ruling party KANU during former President Moi’s tenure.
In 2012, Oloo was appointed by President Mwai Kibaki as a commissioner in the Salaries and Remuneration Commission SRC.
