The Man Who Fought Insects With Science

Before drones. Before AI. Before “climate-smart agriculture” became the buzzword in boardrooms.

Africa’s crops were vanishing. Not from drought. Not from war. But from an army of insects eating their way through entire harvests.

Pesticides were too toxic. Western solutions were too expensive. And the continent’s farmers were left fighting a silent war, with nothing but bare hands and hope.

Then came a quiet genius from Mombasa.
Armed with science, curiosity, and a garage that flooded when it rained, Thomas Odhiambo cracked the case of the disappearing crops.

No billion-dollar tech. No shortcuts. Just insects, biology, and a stubborn refusal to accept defeat.

This is the story of the man who built Africa’s most important insect lab from scratch.

But before he built that lab, before the world called him the African Einstein, he was just a curious boy growing up on the Kenyan coast.

Here’s how it all began.

How It All Began

Thomas Odhiambo was born in Mombasa in 1931, at a time when science in Africa was something to be imported, not created. But even as a boy, he was drawn to questions most kids wouldn’t ask. Why do insects swarm? What makes things grow? Why does nature work the way it does?

He excelled in school and graduated from Maseno School in 1949, one of the oldest schools in Kenya. That earned him a spot at Makerere University in Uganda, the intellectual heart of East Africa at the time. There, from 1950 to 1953, he studied biology and somehow still found time to serve as editor of the Journal of Vernacular Studies.

His first job was at Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture, working as an entomologist. But Odhiambo wasn’t content just identifying bugs in reports; he wanted to understand them. So after four years, he took a leap: he resigned and set his sights on one of the world’s most elite science institutions.

In 1959, he landed at Cambridge University, where he dove into the Natural Sciences Tripos - an intense, interdisciplinary program covering everything from physics and astronomy to biology to the history and philosophy of science. It was at Cambridge that his fascination with insects evolved into an obsession.

Odhiambo stayed on for a PhD under the legendary Vincent Wigglesworth, one of the world’s top experts on insect physiology. His thesis? “The Reproductive Physiology of the Desert Locust, Schistocerca gregaria.” It was a deep dive into the hormones that control metamorphosis, groundbreaking work that would later help him rethink pest control in Africa.

By 1965, he wasn’t just a scientist. He was a man on a mission.

If James Africanus Horton had once fought to prove Africans could match Europeans intellectually, Odhiambo now set out to prove Africa could lead global science on its own terms.

Building a Lab From a Dream

When Thomas Odhiambo returned to Kenya in 1965, PhD in hand, he could’ve taken the quiet path, lecturing at the university, publishing papers, and climbing academic ranks.

And for a while, he did exactly that. He joined the Department of Zoology at the University of Nairobi as a lecturer. But something bugged him. Literally and figuratively.

Africa’s farms were still at the mercy of insects. Pesticides were expensive, dangerous, and often ineffective. Farmers were desperate. And yet, the continent lacked a serious scientific infrastructure to tackle this crisis head-on.

Yes, there were a few scientists scattered across the continent, but they were underfunded, isolated, and unsupported.

Odhiambo had seen what was possible in Cambridge. Now, he wanted to bring that level of scientific rigour home.

So he did something bold: he called for the creation of an insect research centre. Built in Africa, for Africa.

"The idea was actually very simple: Get the very best people and then if you have more money, put buildings and equipment around them." - Prof. Thomas Risley Odhiambo

Not a typical research institution. This one would train young African scientists, attract global experts, and build low-cost, environmentally safe solutions for real problems on the ground. In his words, it would be “a powerhouse for the initiated and those wishing to be initiated into research.”

He rallied the global scientific community, and surprisingly, they listened. Twenty-one national academies of science threw their weight behind his vision.

And in 1970, the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) was born in Nairobi.

It wasn’t glamorous. The first PhD student worked in a garage that flooded when it rained. The headquarters? Rented wooden barracks. But the mission was clear: to help farmers fight pests using nature itself - no toxic chemicals required.

In 1993, ICIPE made global headlines when it used tiny wasps from Pakistan to fight moth larvae that were wiping out half of Kenya’s maize crops.

The result? Larval populations dropped by 50%. Maize yields shot up.

From that success grew a bigger vision: ICIPE would tackle what it called the 4Hs:

• Human Health
• Animal Health
• Plant Health
• Environmental Health

Over the decades, ICIPE trained more than 160 PhD scientists, most of whom stayed in Africa. It grew to employ over 400 researchers and staff, and built partnerships with top universities and labs across the globe.

But at its core, it never lost Odhiambo’s original spirit: science with purpose, rooted in African soil.

Beyond the Lab

ICIPE was just the beginning.

For Odhiambo, science wasn’t something to be locked away in labs or hidden in journals; it was a tool for liberation. And if Africa was going to rise, it needed more than one research centre. It needed a network of institutions, run by Africans, shaping African futures.

So, he kept building.

A Builder of Institutions and Young Minds

Once he saw what was possible with the right minds and the right mission, he kept going, laying down the intellectual infrastructure for a self-reliant Africa.

Between 1983 and 1985, he helped launch three major scientific academies:

• 🧬 Third World Academy of Sciences (now TWAS) in Trieste, Italy (1983) - a hub for Global South researchers.
• 🌍 Kenya National Academy of Sciences, Nairobi (1984) - to advise government and institutions.
• 🧪 African Academy of Sciences (AAS), Nairobi (1985) - a pan-African network fostering research and innovation.

On top of that, in the same year he left the University of Nairobi (1970), he founded the Department of Entomology & Agriculture, ensuring future scientists could be trained at home, not abroad.

He even reached younger audiences: Odhiambo started a children’s science publishing house and authored six illustrated books (the Look At Life series, 1968–1973), teaching kids about food, gardens, pets, crawling insects, aquatic life, and wildlife in Kenya and East Africa.

Title	Year	Focus
Our Food	1968	Staple foods, fruits, and vegetables
Our Garden	1969	Home-grown plants and gardening basics
Our Pets	1969	Domestic animals - birds, reptiles, mammals
Crawling Life	1970	Insects and small ground-dwellers
Life in Water	1970	Aquatic ecosystems - ponds, rivers, lakes
Wild Animals	1973	African wildlife and their habitats

Odhiambo's purpose was clear: no bright African kid should be left without a chance to explore science.

Recognition from the World

Eventually, the world took notice.

Thomas Odhiambo had quietly built labs, founded academies, written books, and transformed African agriculture without asking for applause. But his impact spoke volumes.

He was honoured with the Albert Einstein Medal, a rare nod to his scientific brilliance and influence.

In 1987, he received the prestigious Africa Prize for Leadership, shared with Senegalese President Abdou Diouf, for their efforts in promoting sustainable development and empowering African institutions.

He also received:

• 🥇 The Gold Mercury International Award
• 🏆 The Gold Medal at the March International Congress of Plant Protection

And many more accolades that recognised what Africans already knew: Odhiambo was not just a scientist, he was a builder, a reformer, and a visionary.

But he never let the medals define him. His eyes were always on the future.

A Life That Still Speaks

Thomas Odhiambo passed away on May 26th, 2003, in Nairobi. In his final years, he urged African governments to invest more in science, not for prestige, but for survival.

Few listened.

But long after the speeches faded, his impact endured.

You can still find it in the labs he built. In the scientists he trained. In the quiet hum of research centres solving real problems in real communities.

You can find it in the maize fields that didn’t fail. In the child who opened a book and saw themselves in science. In every young researcher who walks into ICIPE, and believes they belong.

Odhiambo didn’t wait for permission. He didn’t wait for perfect conditions. He started where he was, with what he had, and built something bigger than himself.

His story isn’t over. It’s still unfolding, anywhere someone decides that science, curiosity, and courage still matter.

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