J.M Kariuki

JM Kariuki was a Kenya Land and Freedom Army freedom fighter turned MP post-independence. JM’s convictions were really confounding to understand; on the one hand he was one of the Kikuyu postcolonial elite, on close terms with the first President Jomo Kenyatta who took advantage of his position to acquire massive tracts of land and wealth for himself. On the other hand, he was a populist leader who still aligned himself with the veterans and peasant farmers of the Mau Mau (Kenya Land and Freedom Army). JM often spoke out in favour of land reform and decried elite graft, a message that gained him a national following among the rural and urban poor. Stating that:

“Every Kenyan man, woman and child is entitled to a decent and just living. That is a birthright. It is not a privilege. He is entitled as far as is humanly possible to equal educational, job and health opportunities irrespective of his parentage, race or creed or his area of origin in this land.”

JM Kariuki was assassinated in 1975 on account of challenging the authority of “mzee” as Jomo Kenyatta was widely referred to. Pio Gama Pinto had met the same fate a decade earlier.