Okaku Constituency is an

electoral constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

in the

Oshana Region Oshana is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, its capital is Oshakati. The towns of Oshakati, Ongwediva and Ondangwa, all situated with this region, form an urban cluster with the second largest population concentration in Namibia after the ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. It had 19,262 inhabitants in 2004 and 10,384 registered voters . Its district capital is the settlement of Okaku. Okaku falls under the

Ondonga Ondonga is a traditional kingdom of the Ovambo people in what is today northern Namibia. Its capital is Ondangwa, and the kingdom's palace is at Onambango. Its people call themselves ''Aandonga''. They speak the Ndonga dialect. The Ondonga kingdom ...

Traditional Authority. Okaku residents depend on farming. They cultivate their fields on a subsistence basis to get food such as millet, beans, melons, sorghum and nuts. Their staple is porridge (''oshithima''), and their traditional drink is ''ontaku''.

Politics

Okaku constituency is traditionally a stronghold of the

South West Africa People's Organization The South West Africa People's Organisation (, SWAPO; af, Suidwes-Afrikaanse Volks Organisasie, SWAVO; german: Südwestafrikanische Volksorganisation, SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former ind ...

(SWAPO) party. Its first councillor is Henock ya Kasita who served the constituency from

Namibian independence The history of Namibia has passed through several distinct stages from being colonised in the late nineteenth century to Namibia's independence on 21 March 1990. From 1884, Namibia was a German colony: German South West Africa. After the First W ...

till 2010. Ya Kasita was followed by Joseph Kapya Endjala who was the head of Cosdec centre in

Ondangwa Ondangwa (earlier spelling ''Ondangua'') is a town in the Oshana Region of northern Namibia, bordering the Oshikoto Region. Ondangwa was first established as a mission station of the Finnish Missionary Society (the FMS) in 1890. In 1914, it became ...

. In the 2015 local and regional elections the SWAPO candidate won uncontested and became councillor after no opposition party nominated a candidate. The SWAPO candidate won the 2020 regional election by a large margin. Gerson Kapenda obtained 3,261 votes, followed by Foibe Nashongo of the

Independent Patriots for Change The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) is a political party in Namibia. It was founded by Panduleni Itula in August 2020. As an independent presidential candidate in the 2019 Namibian general election, November 2019 election, Itula won the b ...

(IPC), an opposition party formed in August 2020, with 970 votes.

Education

Schools in the constituency include Oshikondiilongo Combined School, Otala Combined School, Okaku Primary School, Ankambo Primary School, Nengushe Junior Secondary School, Eloolo Combined School, Onyeka Combined School, Iindangungu Combined School and Ontinda Primary School.

Development

Okaku has 4

ELCIN The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN) is a Lutheran denomination based in Namibia. It has a total membership of over 772,398, mainly in Northern Namibia. Formerly known as the Evangelical Lutheran Ovambo-Kavango Church (ELOC), it pla ...

parishes,1 Engelical and one Catholic parish. It has two clinics, one named after the constituency and the other one at Eloolo near the church. Most of the infrastructure in Okaku has electricity through the Ministry of Mines and Energy's ''Rural Electrification Programme''. Except the main roads between

Oshakati Oshakati is a town in northern Namibia. It is the regional capital of the Oshana Region and one of Namibia's largest places. Oshakati was founded in July 1966 and proclaimed a town in 1992. The town was used as a base of operations by the S ...

and

and between Ondangwa and

Oshikango Oshikango is a former village in northern Namibia and since 2004 part of the town of Helao Nafidi, although it still maintained its own village council for a number of years. ''Oshikango'' is still the name of the border post with Angola and the ...

, most of the roads in the constituency are gravel. The communication network is available in the area. Residents do their shopping in Ondangwa and Oshakati. As one of the constituencies in the flood prone area, Okaku suffered by the flood during rainy season. The road between Ondangwa and the T-junction on the way to Oshakati was under flood water in 2009. A number of schools cannot be reached during the rainy season. Okaku has a gravel road from Okapya to Ongha via Onanime.

References

Notes

* Shivute, O (27 February 2009): "Okaku prone to flood."

The Namibian ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, p.6 * W.J Mbangula (2011): "Okaku hungry for development." New Era p.2 {{coord, 17, 48, S, 15, 51, E, source:itwiki_type:adm2nd, display=title Constituencies of Oshana Region States and territories established in 1992 1992 establishments in Namibia