Teaching Tool Index

Anti-colonial Resistance Publications
Underground Publications from the 1963-1978 period of Flag Independence and Rise of the Right
Publications in Resistance to the Nyayoism and Moi Dictatorship: 1978–1990s
Publications from the Post Fall of Berlin Wall and Rise of Civil Societies 1990 Period
Breaking the Colonial Library Mold: Study Sessions and New Publications

Regimes and Resistance: Kenyan Resistance History Through Underground and Alternative Publications

Presented by

Njoki Wamai

Wairimu Gathimba

Kimani Waweru

Archival Source

Ukombozi Library Archive

Journals Referenced

Pambana Mwanguzi / Cheche / MWAKENYA Manifesto

Last Updated

This tool is intermittently updated to integrate new information sent to the authors.

15 December 2023

PALIAct Ukombozi, a Library of Revolutionary Histories.

When Kenya attained its independence in 1963 from the British occupation, parliament passed an act to enable the creation of the Kenya National Library Service (KNLS). KNLS was established and mandated, among other functions, to provide library service to the public. However, the attainment of self-rule did not result in transformation of the politics of knowledge as far as library services were concerned. The reading and visual material in most public libraries reflected British colonial market epistemology. The spaces and the books remained inaccessible to the majority of the Kenyan masses. They did not include other forms of knowledge, like oral, sonic, and dance. The libraries remained disconnected from the communities which produced the materials in the books and have no relationship to any initiatives working towards social justice. They remain storerooms for elitist perusal rather than centres of active knowledge production and activism.

These challenges are what brought together a group of information activists with Vita Books and the Mau Mau Research Centre (MKDTM), to set up the Progressive African Library and Information Activists’ Group (PALIAct) Ukombozi library in 2017. The idea of establishing the Ukombozi library was meant to break the old model of libraries set up under colonialism which continued after independence by the neocolonial class without any qualitative change on what a library does and how. Ukombozi library strives to provide a new vision to help create a people-oriented information service that can meet the information needs of workers, peasants and all working people. It works towards providing an anti-imperialist and a Pan African world outlook among people in the country. It also seeks to set up an alternative information service in partnership with local communities and potential service users to show an alternative approach to providing people with relevant information. Ukombozi Library seeks to contribute to awakening people who can then participate in the struggle for a better Kenya. It focuses on materials geared towards empowering the working class. For this reason, the library has formed partnerships with various grassroots movements in the country.

The library places an emphasis on books covering history, resistance, and theoretical works on socialism, Marxism and Pan Africanism. Kenyan materials held in the library include studies on the Mau Mau, and earlier struggles against colonialism. We also have material published underground by movements such as DTM (December Twelve Movement) and Mwakenya, as well as Umoja and the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners in Kenya. The Library is not neutral in the ongoing class struggle. We have openly declared its commitment to the side of working people. The library seeks to empower working people with a socialist world outlook, challenging the capitalist and imperialist epistemologies that have come to appear as the only way of seeing the world. Its strength lies in the strong support it receives from the communities it serves. To accomplish this mission the library conducts different activities, among them study sessions and forums. These activities aim to increase awareness and raise consciousness of political, economic, and social issues.

These activities, especially the study sessions, have had significant impact. They’ve contributed to the emergence of the Organic Intellectuals Network, a network of activists who write about and document political struggles in working class areas. Network members belong to different Ukombozi Library study groups formed over the last three years. It is through study sessions organized by the library that they have acquired confidence in writing and reviewing radical books about the history and struggle of the working class in Kenya. The Network, through the guidance of the Ukombozi Library, has been able to produce four review booklets, which include:

25 Years of Kenya A Prison Notebook: REFLECTIONS Grounding with Prof. Maina Kinyatti Edited by Sungu Oyoo
Organic Intellectuals’ Reflections on the Legacy of Pio Gama Pinto Edited by Nicholas Mwangi & Lewis Maghanga
Mathare: An Urban Bastion of Anti-Oppression Struggle in Kenya by Samuel Gathanga Ndung’u
Breaking the Silence on NGOs in Africa Edited by Nicholas Mwangi & Lewis Maghanga

At one level, the library links with community organisations and political and social justice activists. It works with several progressive organisations to facilitate political and social meetings. Another aspect of the library’s work is its close partnership with Vita Books and the Mau Mau Research Centre, which also publish progressive books.

The library’s latest project in collaboration with Vita Books and the Marx Memorial Library, is the Kenya Trade Union Study Initiative. It aims to increase trade unionists’ and activists’ awareness of the history of the trade union movement and to support the struggles of the working class in Kenya.

Ukombozi Library’s activities are similar to those of a traditional library. It also undertakes research on social, environmental and political topics relevant to people marginalised by the effects of capitalism. Its collection is also different from that of a traditional public library. Its uniqueness is in its deep roots in community organisations, mostly linked to working people and those marginalised by mainstream society, particularly women.

Here we share a reading of Kenya’s history through alternative movements and the radical publications they produced. These are some of the publications housed at Ukombozi library, and they tells a different story from the dominant narratives advanced by the right-wing post-independence regimes. This teaching tool gives an overview of the publications at Ukombozi library, which houses these radical publications which map Kenyan resistance history through the anti-authoritarian regimes in four periods which include: Colonial, Kenyatta, Moi and post-Cold War period. The teaching tool concludes with the ongoing political work by social justice activists of reading and writing back with and in movements of the past and the present.

1. Anti-colonial Resistance Publications

African publishing was thriving and in response to colonial occupation political action through writing increased between 1940-1953. During the 1930s-1940s Africans and their Asian printing press partners published local and vernacular newspapers that had wide reach in Kenya and Tanganyika (present day Tanzania). Some of the most notable publications according to  ^{1Pugliese, C. (1992). Author, Publisher and Gikuyu Nationalist: the life and writings of Gakaara wa Wanjau. University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (United Kingdom}) were nation wide Sauti ya Mwafrika by the Kenya African Union Party (KAU). Nyanza Times, Avaluya Times, Dunia Yetu that were printed in Kisumu and Coast African Express, Hodi Kenya and Kenya ni Yetu that were printed in Mombasa.

Gikuyu newspapers and pamphlets were particularly active due to the presence of many Kikuyus in Nairobi and surroundings where the printing presses were located. Some of these publications were Muigwithania from the Kikuyu Central Association(KCA), Mumenyereri by Henry Mworia and later by Gakaara Wanjau, Mumenyeri and Waigua Atia. They became more radical as British repression increased. Other publications that were banned between 1950-1956 included the Voice of the Embu, Wasya wa Mukamba and 8 vernacular Gikuyu publications. As restrictions were imposed demanding that all newspapers acquire licenses, editors and publishers such as Gakaara wa Wanjau were detained for their role in supporting the resistance through his pamphlets.

As the colonial occupation and repression of the Land and Freedom Army (Mau Mau) [graphic] intensified, publications were censored in an attempt to stop the consciousness-raising of the masses against the British imperialists. By 1950, several publishers were charged with sedition charges, like Victor Wokabi and J. Kamau for their pamphlet Hindi ya Gikuyu, in which the British colonialists accused them of writing that ‘the British had enslaved Africans after robbing their land’ (Pugliese 2004).

Many more publications were banned in the emergency period. Publishers faced many challenges including inadequate access to funding to ensure consistent output in addition to threats by the colonial government. Since many of the African publishers could not afford the printing presses, progressive Asians like Patel and Vidyarthi supported them by printing their pamphlets leading to the jailing of these Asian printers. Despite these challenges, African and vernacular newspapers were politically influential in shaping public opinion towards supporting resistance to colonial rule because they were widely read. The African resistance press was only silenced in 1952 when a state of emergency was declared, only to reemerge in postcolonial Kenya.  ^{2Gadsden, F. (1980). The African Press in Kenya, 1945-1952. The Journal of African History, 21(4), 515–535.}

2. Underground Publications from the 1963-1978 period of Flag Independence and Rise of the Right

Kenya gained its independence in 1963 after a protracted struggle against British colonisers since the 1920s led by Kenya Land and Freedom Army (Mau Mau). Mau Mau leadership and left leaning nationalists were sidelined by the right wing and moderates led by Jomo Kenyatta (who became Kenya’s first president in 1963-1978) because of their uncompromising stance on addressing issues affecting the majority of people, such as land and redistribution of resources and centralised power. This was within the context of the Cold War which pitted left and right ideologies against each other. In Kenya, the British colonists supported the right leaning KANU-A (The Kenya National African Union)-one of the independence political parties led by Jomo Kenyatta to take over leadership in independent Kenya. This group served British imperial interests by ensuring British economic, political and military interests were prioritised in a Cold War context. The Mau Mau leadership and other left leaning radicals such as Pio Gama Pinto, Bildad Kaggia, and Jaramogi Odinga [link to books] were sidelined and eventually detained, or assassinated as in the case of Pio Gama Pinto in 1965. Pio became Kenya’s first independence martyr whose assassination (discussed below) is attributed to his vigilance on the excesses of the Kenyatta government. After conceding power, the British colonialists continued courting and supporting moderates and conservatives such as Jomo Kenyatta, Tom Mboya, and James Gichuru.

Although the first postcolonial government was composed of both the conservative and left-leaning radicals like Jaramogi Odinga, the conservatives wielded more power and so they controlled the government, with the support of their former colonisers-the British. It was on this basis that Kenya allied itself with imperialist powers and rarely questioned the neocolonial policies that were detrimental to the Kenyan economy such as exploitation of workers by multinational companies (MNCs) and British military training partnerships including British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) which continue to devastate local communities to date. Cases of pollution and exploitation of women during the training periods of British soldiers in Laikipia – a Kenyan County where the British maintains a 1965 exclusive agreement with Kenya to retain a military base – is one such example (NTV 2023).

Despite the efforts made by the Mau Mau freedom fighters, prime land remained with white settlers and the loyalists who collaborated with the colonial government. Kenyatta’s extended family alone owns thousands of acres of prime land in Kenya and is one of the wealthiest families in Africa. Jomo Kenyatta conspired with the Ministry of Lands and Settlements led by Jackson Angaine to buy the prime land previously owned by communities at very cheap prices from a settlement transfer fund scheme that was established by the British colonial government and the World Bank to facilitate the buying of land from the British settlers.  ^{3Angelo, A. (2019). Taming Oppositions: Kenyatta’s “Secluded” Politics (1964–1966). In Power and the Presidency in Kenya: The Jomo Kenyatta Years (African Studies, pp. 179-218). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.} The fund was a loan acquired from the World Bank for Kenya to buy back its own land in debt from the British! Kenya became indebted to the British but failed its landless population who fought for their land in Africa’s most violent and famous war of independence led by the Mau Mau in the 1950s.

The radical or left-wing politicians in the then-ruling party KANU (mentioned above) led by Jaramogi, Pinto, and Kaggia, questioned the handling of the land issue since many Kenyans had no land. To appease the landless, the Kenyan government encouraged people to form cooperative societies so that they could buy land from the settlers. Financially well-off peasants heeded the idea and benefited from the scheme. Those who could not raise money remained landless, and a majority of them were forced to sell their labour to earn their living in the numerous settlement schemes that were established across the country.

In a desperate move to align with neighbouring Tanzania in promoting socialist ideals in 1965, the government developed an African Socialism Policy paper as a governance framework which was published in Sessional Paper number 10. In reality, the paper had nothing to do with Socialism. It was attributed to American economist Edgar Edward who had been contracted by Tom Mboya to draft it. It was later reviewed and revised; first by an informal group chaired by Mboya with Mwai Kibaki, Ndegwa, Knowles and Edwards as members, and then by the Ministers sitting in the Development Committee.  ^{4http://www.developmentstrategies.org/Archives/1977ReviewEastAfrica/rea2.htm}

Pio Gama Pinto, with other left-leaning politicians, developed a counter paper which Pinto himself was to table in parliament and which could have possibly led to a no confidence vote for Kenyatta. But before this could happen, Pinto was assassinated on February 24, 1965. The assassination of Pinto did not deter the radical group in the government from highlighting people’s issues, such as land, imperialism, and the resulting exploitation of workers. In response to this, the reactionary wing of the KANU government convened a delegate conference meeting in March 1966 in Limuru with the aim of replacing the so-called rebel members.

Having been expelled without procedure from the only political party and government, the rebel members resigned from KANU and decided to form an opposition party named the Kenya People’s Union (KPU). The party was meant to further the people’s ideals, and when general elections were announced later that year, KPU contested and won several seats despite attempts to rig elections against them. Fearing the leftist ideological challenge it faced from KPU, the Kenyatta government decided to ban the party in October 1969 for supposedly instigating chaos in Kisumu, a city in the West of Kenya where Odinga hailed from, during a presidential function. The ban was followed by the jailing and detention of KPU leaders, among them Jaramogi Odinga and Ochieng Oneko. Rivalry among reactionaries within KANU also led to the assassination of Tom Mboya, a loyal Minister of the Kenyatta government and close American ally, who was considered by the left as serving imperialist interests in 1969. With the silencing of the progressive forces, the government embarked on entrenching an authoritarian and capitalist system in the country. Multinational companies partnered with the Kenyatta regime and by the early 1970s, many of the multinationals faced little competition which allowed them to thrive through abnormal profits exploiting the poor.  ^{5Leys, C. (1975). Underdevelopment in Kenya. East African Publishers.}

In 1971, there was a conspiracy to overthrow the government of Jomo Kenyatta, and 13 military officers who were implicated were tried and jailed. In response to this Major General Joseph Ndolo, the first African head of the military, resigned and was replaced by Major General Mulinge. The clamor for land among the squatters, clamor for better wages among the workers and for better payment for cash crops produced by peasants in the rural areas continued. J.M Kariuki, a politician, former Mau Mau detainee during the colonial era, and a former private secretary of Kenyatta, became the people’s darling for articulating their issues. The Jomo Kenyatta government felt threatened by his bold resolve to protect the rights of the lower classes and he was assassinated in 1975. His death led to student protests against the Kenyatta regime but the dictatorship continued undeterred.

As Jomo Kenyatta’s authoritarian state entrenched itself it shut down physical and print media spaces for expression. Left leaning academics within the universities formed an underground party called the Workers Party in 1975. The party took a leftist stand and operated in secrecy. The party endeavored to reach the masses of workers and peasants and enlighten them. It did this through some of its members working in cultural activities. The most famous of their activities was the Kamirithu people’s theater, co-founded by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, whose play Ngaahika Ndeenda (I will marry when I want) was performed in Limuru by ordinary peasants. The play depicted the exploitation of peasants and workers in postcolonial Kenya and their agency. As soon as the government recognised the power of People’s Theater in raising consciousness of the masses, it banned it and detained Ngugi wa Thiong’o and forced his co-writer’s of the play, Ngugi wa Mirii and Prof Micere Mugo, with whom he co-wrote another critical play, the Trial of Dedan Kimathi, into exile. The Workers Party also produced newsletters and booklets, but the regime did not know the origin of the underground publications nor the people behind them. The party later renamed itself the December Twelve Movement (DTM) as a reminder of the failed independence of Kenya on December 12, 1963.

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▴ 1 of 3 — Mwakenya Draft of Minimum Programme September 1987

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▴ 2 of 3 — Image: Cover of Pambana No.2 July 1983

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3. Publications in Resistance to the Nyayoism and Moi Dictatorship: 1978–1990s

Kenyatta died in his mid 80s in August 1978. Daniel Moi, the unassuming Deputy President of Jomo Kenyatta, was a devout evangelical Christian and school teacher before joining politics and had been Vice President since 1966. He was considered a safe pair of hands from the Kalenjin community and became President in 1978. Moi promised to follow the Nyayo (footsteps) of his predecessor. The word Nyayo became synonymous with his leadership and his naive ‘ideology’ of Nyayoism of peace, love and unity. He believed Kenyans should live in harmony in peace, love and unity without providing how he would address the structural issues that underpinned Kenyan post-colonial society. Immediately he was sworn in, he released all political detainees of the previous regime, including scholar and writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o.

In following the footsteps of Kenyatta as he had promised, he banned unions that he deemed powerful including the Civil Servants Union (CSU) and the Nairobi University Academic Staff Union (UASU). He also co-opted some organisations such as Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organisation (MYWO), a national non-governmental organisation for women to become a women’s wing of the ruling party KANU. The organisation then changed its name to KANU-MYWO. As the workers are a powerful sector that drives the economy, he courted the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) an umbrella body for most of the trade unions in Kenya by co-opting its leadership.

These developments led some politicians organised by Jaramogi and George Anyona to form another party- the Kenya African Socialist Alliance in 1982. The party was meant to challenge the KANU regime and offer Kenyans solutions to the economic challenges they were facing. The government didn’t allow the idea to get to the fruition stage as it arrested and detained Anyona, while Jaramogi, due to his age, was put under house arrest. This action by the two motivated the dictatorial regime to change the Constitution by introducing Section 2A. This clause changed Kenya to a one-party state thereby making it illegal to form another political party. An increasingly insecure Moi started clamping down on fundamental freedoms by jailing dissidents and the first culprit was a young leftist journalist Wang’ondu wa Kariuki, arrested and detained in May 1982 and later jailed in July 1982 for four years on fictitious charges for being in possession of Pambana an underground newsletter.

On August 1, 1982, a group of young soldiers from the Kenya Air Force attempted to overthrow the government but were unsuccessful as loyal Kenya Army soldiers led by Mahamoud Mohamed thwarted the coup. After this coup attempt, the Moi government became even more repressive against anyone challenging their authoritarian leadership. The first to bear the brunt of this oppression were student leaders, academics and politicians thought to be critical of the government. Progressive academics at the University of Nairobi and its constituent Kenyatta College (now Kenyatta University) such as Maina wa Kinyatti, Mukaru Ng’ang’a, Katama Mkangi, Atieno Odhiambo, Ngotho Kariuki and Wanderi Muthigani were detained. Mirugi Kariuki, Wanyiri Kihoro, Onyango Oloo Israel Angina and Paddy Onyango were also jailed. Other left leaning academics like Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Micere Mugo, Ngugi wa Miiri and librarian Shiraz Durrani were forced to seek asylum in Britain and Zimbabwe to avoid detention. Many students were jailed, among them including Onyango Oloo, Gitobu Imanyara, Paddy Onyango, Wahinya Boore, David Murathe, Kimani Wanyoike, Karuga Wandai, Tirop Kitur and Kangethe Mungai.

Cover of Kenya News, Issue 3, 1984. [Click to view PDF]

The repression was not limited to leftist intellectuals and students. On February 10, 1984, the KANU government sent its military to Wajir to disarm the Degodia clan following clan-related conflicts with the Ajuran clan. Wajir is in the North Eastern part of Kenya and is a region populated by Kenyan-Somalis. The army rounded up around 5000 men of the Degodia clan and took them to Wagalla airstrip for interrogation. Women were beaten up, raped and their houses burnt. After four days of torture, without food and water, hundreds of men lay dead after being mercilessly murdered by the state for what the state claimed was their failure to cooperate in the disarmament process. This extremely violent episode has been referred to as the Wagalla Massacre and continues to inform the Northern Kenya violent relationship with the Kenyan state to date.

Mwakenya Draft of Minimum Programme September 1987

The December Twelfth Movement (DTM) underground movement continued with its underground work of publishing and distributing numerous newsletters, booklets and leaflets for several years without detection by the state. Unfortunately, most of the movements Central Committee members including left leaning lecturers and civil servants Kamoji Wachiira, Al-Almin Mazrui, Edward Oyugi, Willy Mutunga, Maina wa Kinyatti, Maina wa Kiongo, Ngotho Kariuki, Raila Odinga were arrested or went into exile for their progressive ideas which had an impact in their universities. Their arrests affected the movement as other members of the DTM assumed leadership. DTM merged with other groups that were opposing the Moi regime and formed the Muungano wa Wazalendo wa Kukomboa Kenya using the acronym (MWAKENYA) in June 1985. Mwakenya played a critical role in awakening students, workers and peasants using left leaning ideologies that encouraged them to resist the oppressive regime despite their internal ideological disagreements.

With dissenting forces crushed, the Moi government entrenched an authoritarian dictatorship by manipulating the Constitution and undermining democratic ideals. For example, the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Act No 8 of 1988 made it lawful to detain capital offenders for 14 days before they could be formally charged in a court of law. The regime also denied its citizens the right to secretly vote for the candidate of their choice by introducing the Mlolongo (queue) voting system in 1988. The system rigged out most people who challenged the dictatorship and their sympathisers, and intimidated those voting for the ‘enemies of the state’ (as the queue would betray who you were voting for). The church was the only institution that Moi shied away from suppressing and several church leaders including Bishop Alexander Muge, Bishop Gitari, Bishop Ndingi Mwana Nzeki, Reverend Njoya stood in the gap by persistently and consistently criticizing Moi’s authoritarian regime. The exiles played a crucial role in exposing the dictatorial regime to the rest of the world through the support of international organisations like Amnesty International. Those in exile also created affiliates of the Kenyan DTM, such as UKENYA which was created by some DTM members in London. Like the Kenyan DTM, UKENYA was an anti-imperialist organization committed to the struggle for democracy and the regaining of Kenya’s sovereignty. It was opposed to the KANU-led neo-colonial regime and was committed to the dismantling of the neo-colonial structures in all sectors of Kenya’s economic, political, social, and cultural lives. Members worked to raise awareness of the dictatorship with notable members including the Late Wanjiru Kihoro, Yusuf Hassan (current Kamukunji MP), Ngugi wa Thiong’o, and Shiraz Durrani.

4. Publications from the Post Fall of Berlin Wall and Rise of Civil Societies 1990 Period

Internationally things were changing as countries in Eastern and Central Europe that were under the influence of the Soviet Union began to pull out of the Soviet camp. On 9 November 1989, East Germany finally allowed its citizens to visit West Germany and West Berlin, and this facilitated the fall of the Berlin Wall which had separated the country for decades. These developments led the Soviet Union to disintegrate into fifteen separate countries each declaring its independence and the end of the Cold War. The battle of ideology and propaganda between the Western bloc and the Eastern bloc also reduced. Following this, the capitalist camp was emboldened without any serious challenge to their ideology.

During the Cold War both camps, capitalist and communist, tried to influence Kenya to join their respective camps. In the early 1960s, the Soviet Union helped build the Lumumba Institute (present day Pan-African Christian University, PAC) and the Kisumu General Hospital in Kenya (presently Jaramogi Odinga Referral) through Jaramogi Oginga and Pinto Gama Pinto’s relationship with the Russians. The influence of the Soviets became minimal after the crushing of the Kenya People’s Union (KPU) in the late 1960s. This left the USA and other NATO countries with the space to impose their capitalist ideology. Thus Kenya became a comprador state under the influence of the USA and Britain. At home, the Kenyatta and Moi regimes did their best to impress their masters by supporting proxy wars and right-wing groups including Moi’s hosting of Mozambican right-wing RENAMO which, with support from USA, was trying to overthrow the leftist leaning FRELIMO government. Due to such actions Moi, despite being a dictator, was protected by the USA government as he continued widespread human rights abuses.

With the end of the Cold War, most global south countries were forced to adhere to liberal democracy. Interestingly, the USA and Britain, traditionally strong defenders of the Moi regime, began to exert pressure on the Kenyan government. This encouraged politicians rigged out of the government in the 1988 mlolongo elections, such as Kenneth Matiba to team up with activists, progressive lawyers and the church to demand changes including the introduction of a multi-party system. Moi could not withstand the pressure and, in December 1990, summoned KANU delegates (National Governing Council) to propose the changing of the Constitution to (re)legislate a multi-party system in Kenya. The meeting ordered the Attorney General to prepare legislation that would make Kenya a multi-party state. Moi, in a desperate move to prove his claims that the multi-party system would bring divisions, sponsored ethnic clashes and gerrymandering in which he incited Kalenjins against Agikuyu living in the Rift Valley in 1992. The clashes caused many deaths as well as significant displacement and loss of property as recorded in the Akiwumi Report on 1992 Ethnic Clashes.

Neoliberalism and Effects of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) in Kenya

The western states, in partnership with the World Bank Group, imposed political and economic conditionalities, including democracy and ‘good governance’, all while introducing Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) in the country. The SAPs imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) imposed austerity measures in provision of public goods by the state, including health care and education, while introducing deregulation and the privatization of public institutions and services. As widely documented, SAPs led to the impoverishment of many Kenyans as they undermined the provision of free or affordable education and healthcare services especially in a time that the AIDS pandemic was ravaging the population. The government was forced to slash the social services budget and was therefore compelled to introduce user charges (fees charged are for registration, consultation, for drugs and medical supplies or charges for any health service rendered, such as outpatient or inpatient care). This ‘cost sharing’ was introduced alongside the deregulation of pharmaceutical drugs among other essential goods. Since then, many poor Kenyans were and still are unable to seek health services in public hospitals and cannot afford much needed drugs due to these policies. Likewise, the education sector was not spared either as public universities that used to offer free tertiary education introduced tuition fees that were prohibitive to many families in Kenya ending the golden years of government provision of public services. The policies contributed to the loss of many jobs as subsidised commodities and cheap products from the USA, Asia and Europe found their place in the Kenyan economy leading to the closure of local industries. Price controls were abolished thus giving the multinational companies, together with national capitalist opportunities, free range to maximise their profits.

Continuation of Resistance and Rise of NGOs

This period witnessed the formation of many Non-Governmental Organisations with different mandates, many with the goals of ostensibly reducing the effects of neoliberalism. Western foundations mainly funded such NGOs. Leftist activists were coopted into these NGOs and formed human rights organisations such as the Kenya Human Rights Commission (by Al-Amin and Willy Mutunga, former members of the December Twelve Movement) and SODNET (formed by Edward Oyugi). Such NGOs helped in opening up the democratic space.

The Release Political Prisoners Group was also formed, demanding change and the release of political prisoners. This was because despite the introduction of multi-party politics, it was noted that most of the unjust laws were left intact and many of the people who had been jailed for fighting them were still in prison. Due to this, the emerging civil society embarked on fighting for reforms and for the release of political prisoners. This resolve led the mothers of political prisoners to camp at Freedom Corner (Uhuru Park), and they staged a hunger strike demanding the release of their sons. This fight for reforms saw many activists arrested and charged with fake charges.

The repeal of Section 2A opened the floodgate of political parties formed mostly by the politicians who had been edged out of the ruling parties. They had no ideological distinction from KANU. Progressive politicians and lawyers who had left KANU joined the Forum for Restoration of Democracy (FORD) due to its connection with Jaramogi Odinga. One time Moi vice president, Mwai Kibaki, together with some wealthy politicians formed a center right party, the Democratic Party. The December Twelve Movement which was operating underground at the time, had a different ideological outlook from these parties. During this time, it decided to change its name to MWAKENYA DTM (MKDTM). This change was meant to capture the history of the party. The party’s leadership met some opposition leaders, among them Jaramogi, and requested them to push for the change of the Constitution before competing with KANU. Their request was not adhered to as the opposition leaders thought they could defeat the KANU regime with the same Constitution. When elections were held in December 1992, the government used its state machinery and rigged them. Nonetheless, some opposition members won some seats and this brought about the first multi-party government.

The introduction of a multi-party system did not stop the KANU regime from dictatorship- it continued to use oppressive laws to harass critics including civil society activists. MKDTM refused to participate in the 1992 elections and continued to operate underground producing leaflets and newsletters. Because of the party’s ideological outlook, it differed from other parties and continued on with its work to end the system of capitalist exploitation. The state’s crackdown on radicals continued. Karimi Nduthu the national coordinator of Mwakenya, was assassinated for ‘unknown’ reasons on 24th March 1996.

Alternative Publications, Dangerous Reading, Democracy and the End of Moi Authoritarianism, in the Late 1980s-2002:

As underground publications came to an end largely due to harassment and co-option of leftists to political ruling elites, some open alternative publications continued providing the much needed space for expression in the face of repressive conditions. These included the Beyond Magazine by the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), Society, Finance, Nairobi Law Monthly, and the People Daily Newspaper.

In March 1988, Bedan Mbugua the publisher of Beyond Magazine was arrested and charged for his sharp editorial condemning irregularities in the selection of parliamentary candidates for the 1988 elections which Moi had allegedly rigged. He was jailed for 8 months under the pretext that the NCCK magazine had failed to file sales returns to the registrars of books, according to media reports.  ^{6Perlez, J. (1988, August 19). MAGAZINE EDITOR JAILED BY KENYA. The New York Times}. He later joined People Daily, owned by the then opposition politician Kenneth Matiba. He was jailed for reporting on the excesses of the regime in the 90s and veteran journalist Mugo Theuri was hired as the news editor at People Daily. Mugo had previously been arrested for four years as a young journalist working at Standard Daily in Nakuru in September 1986 along with other journalists including Wahome Mutahi and Njuguna Mutahi for fictitious charges including sedition. This is documented in his memoir, Threads of Time, published by Vita Books in 2013.

These alternative publications filled a significant gap when mainstream media press, such as Nation and Standard had been muzzled through arrests of journalists such as Bedan, Wahome and Njuguna Mutahi and Theuri Mugo. Alternative publications provided space for the expansion of the democratic space when the mainstream media was threatened. For instance, when opposition and democracy leader Oginga Odinga announced that he would form the opposition party Forum for Restoration of Democracy (FORD), the mainstream media would not cover the story but the alternative press covered the launch, prompting the mainstream media to start questioning government’s refusal to register the opposition party (FORD).

Society magazine pioneered the use of cartoons and caricatures of politicians by Paul Kelemba (Maddo) at a time when it was treason to do so. The founders of the publication, Pius and Joyce Nyamora, published Society on a weekly basis from 1988-1994 despite being on the dreaded watch list of the Special Branch (the KANU dictatorship undercover police) up until they fled Kenya after escaping a fire bomb in their Nairobi Office. Society serialised the assassination of William Ouko, a powerful cabinet minister, which led to the seizing of the published copies and dismantling of the printing press.

The Nairobi Law Monthly, formerly published by its founder Gitobu Imanyara was another magazine that challenged the state. Imanyara was arrested several times and the publication was banned, but it continues to exist to-date. Moi was finally defeated when the various fragmented pro-democracy elites and forces united in the 2002 election which ushered in a new democratic dispensation.

4. Breaking the Colonial Library Mold: Study Sessions and New Publications

Ukombozi Library has incorporated the Community ReachOut initiative which breaks the colonial library mold and takes the library to various communities to enhance personal and national development. Community groups, libraries and institutions are welcome to become institutional members of the Ukombozi Library.

Presently, Ukombozi Library has become a hub and a meeting place for reading, sharing, discussing and reflecting on progressive books, publications, and ideas, among other engagements by college students and social movement activists from all generations that are actively engaged in the struggles for social justice in Kenya and elsewhere in the region and globally.

The library undertakes various activities with local communities to enhance learning, widen awareness and expand intellectual horizons of members. Its other activities include group study sessions, film screenings and discussions, regular civic engagements and the Ukombozi Forums. The Library publishes a quarterly newsletter, Ukombozi Review to encourage an exchange of ideas and experiences, and to create reading and writing opportunities for working people. It also partners with publishing house Vita Books to publish The Kenya Socialist magazine, a magazine that aims to encourage the free flow of information, knowledge and discussion which can lead to a better understanding of socialism.

The Organic Intellectuals Network, a collective of the Ukombozi Library, is an offshoot of the Kenyan Social Justice movement which seeks to challenge the superficial ways that the Kenyan elite deals with history. The elite in power often sanitise the legacies of neocolonialists such as Jomo Kenyatta who wielded the country’s independence and used positions of influence within the new government to amass wealth at the cost of the majority. The network achieves its mission through a retelling of the stories of unsung heroes such as Pio Gama Pinto, a socialist politician assassinated in 1965 for his outspoken criticism against the Kenyatta government, and Maina wa Kinyatti, a Marxist historian imprisoned for six years due to his research on the Mau Mau and association with the December Twelve Movement (DTM).

Furthermore, the network sheds light on the neglected spatial geographies such as Mathare, an “informal” settlement in Nairobi. Mathare, despite its role in Kenya’s liberation struggles as the epicenter of the Mau Mau during the independence struggle and home to the first social justice center in the country, is systematically erased from the nation’s history and future because of its location outside the country’s colonial-informed aspirations for itself. The Organic Intellectuals Network emerges as a crucial force in rewriting a more inclusive and honest narrative of the country’s history, reclaiming the voices and spaces marginalised by historical oversights and political agendas.

Pugliese, C. (1992). Author, Publisher and Gikuyu Nationalist: the life and writings of Gakaara wa Wanjau. University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (United Kingdom→
Gadsden, F. (1980). The African Press in Kenya, 1945-1952. The Journal of African History, 21(4), 515–535.→
Angelo, A. (2019). Taming Oppositions: Kenyatta’s “Secluded” Politics (1964–1966). In Power and the Presidency in Kenya: The Jomo Kenyatta Years (African Studies, pp. 179-218). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.→
http://www.developmentstrategies.org/Archives/1977ReviewEastAfrica/rea2.htm→
Leys, C. (1975). Underdevelopment in Kenya. East African Publishers.→
Perlez, J. (1988, August 19). MAGAZINE EDITOR JAILED BY KENYA. The New York Times→

Mwakenya (1987–2001)

Mwakenya Draft of Minimum Programme September 1987

Mwakenya (1985) was a socialist movement and political platform of diverse groups against Moi’s repression which also produced various publications for its members known as Mwakenya. Mwakenya was formed to amalgamate all underground movements fighting the repressive dictatorship in Kenya and externally under one organization. This was also known as the Kenya Register of Resistance published by the Union of Patriots for the liberation of Kenya. By 1986, Moi had jailed 100 dissidents over seditious charges or other fictitious charges against his critics. The Mwakenya pamphlets often updated members and recruits on outcomes of Mwakenya’s Central Committee Meetings while providing direction on ideological clarity in the context of dictatorship. Mwakenya released several letters and bulletins between 1987-2001 including The Mwakenya Stand (1992) on Moism without Moi as Dangerous, Political Priorities for March 1993. Mwakenya also issued reprints of Democracy Plank in July 1991 among other documents advocating for reform.

Mwakenya the organization and the newsletter was formed in 1987 after the 1982 coup and was an offshoot of Mpatanishi newsletter. Mwakenya publication provides a detailed record and analysis of the resistance against the government by different working people of Kenya, subdivided into actions by workers (Industrial proletariat and agricultural proletariat), peasants, the lower petty bourgeoisie, and progressive intelligentsia.

The minimum demands of Mwakenya included demands for social justice, which it defined as more efficient public transportation, improved working conditions for workers as well as an end to capitalist exploitation and dictatorship by Moi. Mwakenya document breaks down the worker’s demands into three categories:

Economic Demands: demand for higher wages, land, and employment.
Social Demands: safety at places of work, improved working conditions, adequate health facilities, and adequate and relevant education.
Political Demands: right to organize, right to assembly, union rights, support of other workers, liberation from the entire oppressive system.

Mzalendo Mwakenya Special Issue – 1st May 1994

The register was prepared by Upande Mwingine (The Other side), an allied group of Mwakenya.

References

Kinyatti, Maina (2014) Mwakenya, The Unfinished Revolution. Mau Mau Research Centre, Nairobi
Awaaz, Background To Saba Saba – The story of an on-going iconic struggle.
Unity of the Left in Kenya, Dreams or Reality, Ukombozi Review

Pambana (1982–1984)

Cover of Pambana, July 1983

Pambana and Cheche were pamphlets and newspapers of the party organ of the December Twelve Movement (DTM) launched in May 1982. DTM emerged from an underground Marxist-Leninist worker’s political party established after the first conference of the Kenyan Marxists-Leninists in Nairobi on December 22-23 in 1974. Later in May 1982 the DTM launched the Pambana pamphlet which when translated from Kiswahili means ‘struggle’. Pambana, was an unapologetically leftist people’s newspaper to counter the dominant foreign owned colonial settler newspapers Daily Nation and East African Standard (now named Standard) which represented and continue to represent liberal interests. The five members initially charged with the production of the Pambana in 1981 were five academics including Willy Mutunga, Maina wa Kinyatti, Sultan Somjee, Al Amin Mazrui and Edward Oyugi.

Though short lived, Pambana had a wide circulation and it made an impact by providing a local alternative newspaper to the foreign owned dominant print media in post-independence Kenya. The first issue was published in May 1982 under the theme Cheche, in Kiswahili meaning a spark, inspired by the quote by Lenin: ‘A Spark Can Light a Prairie Fire’. Pambana was to provide a cheche (spark) to light and represent the truth to the masses of dispossessed Kenyans by Daniel Moi, the dictator who ruled Kenya from 1978-2002. Pambana was deliberate in its use of Kiswahili language, the language of Kenya’s working people and peasants who were the main audience for the publication. It also took a strong anti-imperialist position and focused on analysis of neo-colonialism on Kenya’s economy and among the working people. Pambana was inspired by Dedan Kimathi, the Mau Mau leader who fought against repression and occupation by the British and it sought to unite the poor and working people against the Kenyan ruling class and their foreign masters.

The Politics of Food, from Pambana No.2 July 1983

In May 1982, Wang’ondu wa Kariuki a youthful journalist and member of the DTM became the first person to be jailed by the Moi Dictatorship because of Pambana. He was charged with sedition for possessing a proscribed publication according to the dictatorship’s intelligence service called the ‘Special Branch’. Soon after an attempted coup in August 1982 by Kenya Airforce servicemen, the Special Branch planted Pambana on suspected and outspoken critics of the dictatorship and consequently detained and jailed them. A few fled into exile making Pambana an underground publication read clandestinely but as the crackdowns intensified it wound up.

References

Kinyatti, Maina (2014) Mwakenya, The Unfinished Revolution. Mau Mau Research Centre, Nairobi
Nyambega Gisesa (2021), Mwakenya the Only Movement Moi Admitted Torturing
Kenya’s ‘Seditious’ Pambana

Umoja wa Kupigania Demokrasia Kenya (Umoja) and Ukenya

Movement for Unity and Democracy in Kenya, known as Ukenya was formed on the 13th anniversary of Dedan Kimathi’s death on 18 February 1987 in London as an external affiliate of Mwakenya. Its manifesto highlights the contradictions of a neo-colonial state, the imposition of imperialism on the Kenyan people and the tactics used by the state to intimidate and suppress resistance.

Umoja was another group also affiliated to Mwakenya in Europe and the US. These two movements expressed solidarity with Mwakenya while providing an international solidarity network to advocate for those jailed and detained without trial by the KANU government led by Moi in Kenya. Led by Ngugi wa Thiongo, UMOJA’s membership was spread across Europe. It later absorbed Ukenya under Yusuf Hassan the coordinator who was later succeeded by Ngugi wa Thiongo and Abdilatiff Abdalla who were both previously detained by Jomo Kenyatta’s dictatorial regime before 1978. Members later proposed that Ukenya merges with Mwakenya to strengthen their advocacy against the dictatorship and repressive governance.

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Kenyan News No. 3, April 1984

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Naive ‘ideology’ of Nyayoism

Cover image of book on Nyayoism by Moi

Nyayo is a Swahili word which means footsteps. Moi’s Nyayoism philosophy, was therefore a declaration that he would follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, Mzee Jomo wa Kenyatta. The core values of this philosophy were listed as peace, love and unity which in his 1986 book Moi writes are “the living and activating cement to the fundamental African socialism”. It is to be noted that the version of African socialism Moi speaks is a watered-down version outlined in the (in) famous Sessional Paper no 10 of 1965: African socialism and its application to planning in Kenya. This sessional paper, while at face value revolutionary with its claim of socialism and visionary opening statements, failed to address many emerging concerns at the time of independence related to reversal of colonial neglect of certain areas and communities, and the place of those excluded from the colonial enterprise, such as women, those with disabilities and ethnic and religious minorities. The paper’s social justice aims, so grandly declared at its opening, are quickly forgotten as the parameters of planning are laid out. In another curious instance, and in seeking to disavow Marx’s socialism and attempt at indigeneity and non-alignment, the paper insists that class problems are not a problem in Africa, ignoring the discernible class structure that had already started emerging in the country even before independence.

At their core, Kenyan national philosophies, from Jomo Kenyatta’s Uhuru na Kazi (Freedom and Work) and Harambee (pulling together) to Moi’s Nyayo philosophy and more recently President Ruto’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda, have been nothing more than populist declarations that stress the role of the individual in changing their condition while ignoring systemic injustices that bring about the individual’s condition. For Moi then, Nyayoism meant a continuation of the ways of Kenyatta—those of autocratic leadership especially. Indeed, Moi is quoted demanding that Parliamentarians sing for him in the same way he sang for Kenyatta saying that, “I call on all ministers, assistant ministers and every other person to sing like parrots. During Mzee Kenyatta’s period I persistently sang the Kenyatta tune until people said, ‘This fellow has nothing to say, except to sing for Kenyatta’…Therefore, you ought to sing the song I sing. If I put a full stop, you should put a full stop. This is how the country will move forward. The day you become a big person you will have the liberty to sing your own song and everybody will sing it”

Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organisation (MYWO)

Maendeleo ya Wanawake started in 1952 by a group of white settler women under the colonial government’s Department of Community Development and Rehabilitation to promote the “advancement” of African women and to raise African living standards. The founding patrons of the group included Lady Mary Baring (the Governor’s wife), Lady Eleanor Cole, Lady Worley, Mrs. A Beecher (wife of the Anglican bishop), Mrs. C.H. Williams (wife of a provincial commission), and Mrs. T. Hughes (wife of a provincial agricultural officer). The group has existed under patronage of upper middle-class women since its inception and thus work was done for Africans in a spirit of imperial obligation. The organization’s programs ranged from instructions in traditional handicrafts, to farming methods, to child care, to literacy classes. The organization also participated in cultural work, often conducting traditional singing and dancing competitions and even offering the first avenue for women to participate in team sports, with a monthly newspaper highlighting these activities (Wipper 2/22). Organizing was done through voluntary clubs that offered women an opportunity to take part in the creation of the new society unfolding. This was especially important as political associations and mutual aid societies were mostly inhabited by men. By 1964 the membership stood at 42,447 women within 1,120 clubs.

Post-independence, MYWO began working separate from the government, though it remained partially funded by government grants. Still, the government expressed the wish to work closely with the organization through its Department of Community Development, with MYWOs clubs/branches facilitating the mobilization of women. The reach of MYWO extended very widely. It existed as the first large scale women’s organization in the country and women spoke out forcibly for themselves through it in the 1960s. The organization’s magazine, Voice of Women often called for a more inclusive administration, advocating for women’s roles in the development of the nation.

Despite its rejection of the traditional rules of deference by women that often went unspoken within all facets of Kenyan life, MYWO fell victim to an alignment with (and even dependence on) the same patriarchal government it sought to admonish. As it was with the founding patrons, the post-independent patrons of the organization fell victim to middle-class tendencies, often limiting the scope of their advocacy to activities within the social and political elite such as exhibitions and fund-raising social events that the majority of members were not included in. By the mid-1970s, membership within the organization had started dwindling with members in the rural base expressing discontent with the executive leadership nested in the urban areas.

This model of paternalism in place of a well-organized structure with grassroots activities led to the subdual of a potentially disruptive women’s movement. MYWO was to become an organization to be seen, and not heard, time and time admonished to not be “political” and focus on development efforts. It is to be noted that in Kenya, “politics” and “development” are vernaculars seen as existing on the opposite sides of a spectrum, where “politics” is taken to mean senseless and needless bickering and not actual ideology or influence on policy-making, including on development projects. In Kenya’s most authoritarian regime to date, MYWO was even incorporated into the only political party, as KANU Maendeleo ya Wanawake with Moi advising the women to desist from politics and devote their efforts to “development” issues. MYWO continues to exist in this capacity to date, as a mouthpiece for women, but only within the acceptable space fashioned for them within Kenya’s patriarchal and patrimonial politics.

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On August 1, 1982

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Kenya Air Force

1982 coup leader, Hezekiah Ochuka

On August 1st 1982, a group of servicemen in the Kenya Air Force led an attempted coup d’état against the government of the then President Moi. Working under the banner of The People’s Redemption Council, these servicemen included Hezekiah Ochuka, Pancras Okumu Oteyo, Bramwell Injeni Njeremani, Joseph Ogidi Obuon, Fenwicks Chesoli, Samuel Opiyo, Charles Mirasi Odawa, Walter Odira Ojode, Edward Adel Omollo, James Odemba Otieno and George Akoth Otila. The leaders of the coup were contending with a range of issues in the Moi administration, including corruption, tribalism, nepotism, cronyism, political opportunism, embezzlement of public funds, authoritarian rule, poverty, underdevelopment, meager wages for military personnel, and the political marginalization of various ethnic groups, among other issues in Kenya.

Due to lack of support from other branches of the military and within the Kenya Air Force itself, the coup was short-lived and was crushed after 6 hours. The organizers were later convicted of treason by the court martial and hanged. Despite the fact that the coup was successfully suppressed by Moi loyalists, the underlying causes behind the coup have yet to be effectively addressed in Kenya with the political and economic issues that motivated the coup leaders remaining unattended to.

▴ Audio recording of Hezekiah Ochuka and Titus Adungosi (SONU student leader) announcing the coup

Sauti ya Mwafrika

Created in 1954, Sauti ya Mwafrika was a monthly publication from the Kenya Africa Union (KAU) that was released monthly in both English and Kiswahili. In accordance with its name, the monthly paper was intended to give a voice to Africans to lament their outrage at colonial violence. For the most part, the paper reflected the moderate policies of the then KAU leadership of Francis Khamisi, Tom Mbotela and W.W.W. Awori. Other party members were however advocating for a more “radical” political ideology and these backroom power struggles led to the failure of Sauti ya Mwafrika in establishing itself as a leading nationalist newspaper. Publication ceased between 1945 and 1949 as KAU operations lulled but was revived in 1951 with Fred Kubai as editor, this time aligning the paper among a more radical and uncompromisingly anti-imperial approach. This rebirth however only lasted for a year as KAU leaders were imprisoned after the declaration of a State of Emergency in 1952 and the publication subsequently banned.

▴ A cover of Sauti ya Mwafrika

▴ Francis Khamisi who later went on to found other publications such as Hodi, a paper focusing on politics along the Kenyan Coast.

Gakaara wa Wanjau

portrait of Gakaara Wanjau

Gakaara Wanjau (1921-2001) was an organic intellectual who started writing in the mid 1940’s after returning from the Second World War and founding the African Book Writers Limited with friends and ex-servicemen. He published the first ever fiction book written in Kikuyu Uhoro wa Ugurani (Marriage Arrangements) under African Book Writers Limited publishing house. He however soon abandoned fictional works in favour of more political works after witnessing the conditions Kenyans were subjected to in the Rift Valley during his time as a clerk for a British company in Nakuru. Gakaara released his first political pamphlet ‘Roho ya Kiume na Bidii kwa Mwafrika’ in November 1948 denouncing this situation which, shortly after, he translated and released in Kikuyu.

This pamphlet was well received, prompting Gakaara to move to Nairobi where he established his own publishing house. In Nairobi, which was the centre of militant politics at the time, he became a political activist and writer involved in the vernacular press and started a Gikuyu nationalist magazine titled Waigua Atia. Besides putting out anti-colonial articles, Gakaara was very active in generating, publishing, and distribution of popular anti-colonial songs alongside publishing more works of fiction in Kikuyu shortly after. This involvement in the anti-colonial struggle eventually led to Gakaara’s arrest in 1952 during the state of emergency. He spent the next 6 years in Kajiado, Manda Island and Hola detention camps among others before being released in 1959 recording his experiences in a hidden diary he kept under a false bottom in his box.

Cover of Gakaara’s prison diary Mwandiki wa MauMau Ithamirioni

After his release, Gakaara set up the Gakaara Press in his hometown of Karatina. There, he shifted focus in his writings to address the new generation of Kikuyus who he felt were at risk of losing touch with their traditional culture, norms and sense of morality. He mostly did this through the Gikuyu na Mumbi Magazine which featured the adventures of Kimani wa Nduuta as Kimani moved between the city, his village and other areas of Gikuyu land addressing the different problems Kikuyus faced in various contexts. Eventually, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, a Gikuyu academic sought out Gakaara to have him read some of his manuscripts. In the course of their encounters, Ngugi learnt about Gakaara’s prison diary and encouraged him to get it published by Heinemann. The resulting book Mwandiki wa MauMau Ithamirioni was released in Kikuyu in 1983 and English in 1988 and won the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa in 1984.

Kenya Land and Freedom Army (Mau Mau)

The Kenya Land and Freedom Army emerged from a belief that only armed resistance could get people back their wiyathi (self-rule) and ithaka (land) as they became increasingly disillusioned with the conservative change driven by organisations like the KAU (Kenya African Union).

Starting from 1952, the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, commonly referred to as the Mau Mau, began targeting collaborators and loyalists, and this violence eventually extended to British settlers. In response, the police initiated a widespread campaign of arrests mostly targeting Kikuyus. The aim was to weaken the Mau Mau’s support base, but this indiscriminate repression had the unintended consequence of driving even more indigenous Kenyans to rally behind the movement. But while they initially had an upper hand because of mass support, 90% of Kikuyu male adults were estimated to have joined the movement by mid-1952, the British employed several heavy-handed tactics to crush the resistance. The Kikuyus were moved into reserves which cut off the army from much needed logistical support and carpet bombing of the forests the Mau Mau operated from.

This led to the eventual defeat of the Mau Mau by 1956, but the uprising put Kenya on an inevitable path to independence from colonial rule. It became clear to the Kenyan population that the Europeans were far from invincible and this encouraged further resistance and calls for nationalism.

Patel and Vidyarthi

Indigenous newsletters and newspapers played a vital role as a means of communication and political expression within a predominantly white journalism landscape during the colonial resistance. Writers of these papers often found a home in predominantly South Asian publishers such as Girdhari L. Vidyarthi and V.G. Patel who dominated the publishing industry due to their position as traders in the colony. Vidyarthi’s Colonial Printing Works published Sauti ya Mwafrika, the Kenya African Union (KAU) newspaper, Henry Githigira’s Habari za Dunia, and Francis Khamisi’s Mwalimu.

V. G. Patel on the other hand published and printed the Daily Chronicle and Henry Mworia’s Mumenyereri. Both men often got into trouble with the colonial government for the publications they produced, and were sent to detention camps on claims of sedition during the round-up that happened after the declaration of the State of Emergency in 1952.

▴ Girdhari L. Vidyarthi

▴ The Colonial Times, a publication he was responsible for printing

Pio Gama Pinto, Bildad Kaggia, and Jaramogi Odinga

Pio Gama Pinto, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Bildad Kaggia were among a postcolonial crop of leaders who were in disagreement with Jomo Kenyatta and the emerging comprador elite on land distribution, development priorities and the issues of corruption and cronyism within Kenyatta’s administration. All three espoused socialism as a more equitable system in rejection of the capitalism that was advocated by Kenyatta and friends, even as it was thinly veiled as “African socialism”. They held that true liberation of Kenyans could not be achieved under a system that was perpetuating inequality and ignoring the country’s first liberation heroes barely a decade after it acquired self-rule. The three books written by these men explain this conviction; that the country was yet to be liberated, that uhuru (freedom) had not yet been achieved for all.

▴ Pio Gama Pinto

▴ Bildad Kaggia

▴ Jaramogi Oginga Odinga

Jaramogi, Pinto, and Kaggia

Jaramogi Odinga, Pio Gama Pinto and Bildad Kaggia authored three books which explained the belief they firmly stood by, i.e., that Kenya was to be liberated, uhuru (freedom) had not yet been achieved for all.

▴ Glimpses of Kenya’s Nationalist Struggle by Pio Gama Pinto

▴ Not Yet Uhuru, an autobiography of Oginga Odinga by Jaramogi Odinga

▴ Roots of Freedom, 1921-1963. The autobiography of Bildad by Bildad Kaggia

Sessional Paper number 10

Kenya People’s Union (KPU)

Headquarters of the Kenya Peoples Union, Nairobi

Kenya People’s Union was formed in 1966 after Jaramogi Oginga Odinga quit the KANU-led government after being sidelined within it due to his differences on general ideology, and resource and land allocation issues with Jomo Kenyatta and other party members. In response, KANU passed a constitutional amendment requiring MPs who defected to seek re-election, leading to mass by-elections. The plan was to limit Odinga’s influence and obstruct KPU’s growth. Legal registration of KPU was delayed, and candidates faced hurdles in obtaining rally licenses. The state-controlled broadcaster, Voice of Kenya, imposed a news blackout on KPU whilst their supporters faced harassment.

Voting occurred over two weeks, resulting in KANU winning 21 of 28 House of Representative seats, while KPU won 7. In the Senate, KANU secured 8 of 10 seats, and KPU won 2. Some politicians affiliated with KPU were; Okuto Bala (Nyando), Ondiek Chilo (Nyakach), Bildad Kaggia (Kandara), Luke Rarieya Obok (Alego), John Odero-Sar (Ugenya), Oginga Odinga (Bondo), Tom Okello-Odongo (Kisumu Rural), George Fredrick Oduya (Elgon West), Achieng Oneko (Nakuru Town), Joseph Mwasia Nthula (Iveti South) and Wasonga Sijeyo (Gem).

press article on Jaramogi Oginga Odinga of the KPU’s arrest.

KANU employed various tactics to undermine KPU. Employers were pressured to dismiss KPU supporters, leading to the dismissal of over 35 civil servants and demotions. Passports of KPU members were seized to hinder international travel, and companies were forced to dismiss KPU-supporting employees. Ultimately, 3 years of political harassment and detention of party leaders, including of Oginga Odinga himself, led to the demise of KPU. In an act that made Kenya a de facto one-party state, KPU was banned in 1969 with claims that it was a dangerous outfit that posed a threat to the ‘good’ government of the Republic of Kenya.

J.M Kariuki

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.

Ngaahika Ndeenda

Ngahiika Ndeenda (I Will Marry When I Want) is a 1977 play produced by Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Ngugi wa Mirii. The play was first done at Kamirithu, Limuru, in Kikuyu language. It satirized the state of neocolonial Kenya, criticizing the new crop of black bourgeoisie that had arisen and drew the wrath of the then president Jomo wa Kenyatta. The play centres on Kiguunda, a peasant farmer and his family as he is tricked by Kioi wa Kanoru, a representation of the postcolonial black elite into selling his prized piece of land.

Ngahiika Ndeenda was powerful in its use of an indigenous language to deliver critique against the government at a time when a big chunk of the native population could not understand English. The play also drew from the local community to find actors and actresses delivering very organic theatre.

The 1977 Gikuyu play and the play that precedes it, The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, mark Ngugi’s first substantial incorporation of local language into his work in the play. In both plays, and the subsequent works of Ngugi, we see Ngugi emerge as a Gramscian organic intellectual moving away from the realist writing influenced by Marxist thought that is experienced in his earlier works.

Describing his experience producing this play, Ngugi writes of this time as being the most exciting in his life and the true beginning of his education, where he learnt his language anew and rediscovered the creative nature and power of collective work (Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary). In making this play, Ngugi drew from Paulo Freire’s mutual learning theory fashioning this work with the people it so represented. Ngugi describes this experience with the Kikuyu community base at Kamirithu as the key to the epistemological break between his earlier works and his work today.

December 12th Movement (DTM)

Mwakenya (Muungano wa Wazalendo wa Kenya) was an off-shoot of the December Twelve Movement (DTM) that was founded in 1974 as an underground avenue to express dissent against the government after opposition parties such as the Kenya People’s Union were banned. This made Kenya a de facto one-party state, something which was to be formalized in 1982 after the failed coup attempt against Daniel Arap Moi.

The aim of this underground socialist movement was to counter the new crop of black bourgeoisie in Kenya and their alliance with capital and imperialism in other regions of the world. The name December 12th reflected the belief by members that what had gone wrong with Kenya began the very day of independence. That the idea of independence and self-determination for all Kenyans had been subverted to only serve the interest of the postcolonial elite and other imperialist interests.

Members of Mwakenya advocated for various things including the opening up of democratic space in the country, social justice for all and for an independent Kenya that is in control of its own resources and free of foreign interference. These ideas were disseminated through public lectures which stopped as the post-colonial government cracked down on intellectuals. The movement was accused of disruption and trying to overthrow the government. The movement’s main publications were Pambana, a mass paper by the movement, and Mpatanishi, the ideological journal of the movement. Pambana and Mpatanishi set out to spread revolutionary appeal among Kenyans who took an anti-imperialist stance but were passive in their expression.

▴ Koigi wa Wamwere, former member of the DTM Mwakenya. Daily Nation, 13 August, 1982

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Kenya News, 1984

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December Twelth Movement Mwakenya Draft of Minimum Programme

The 1988 Mlolongo Elections

After getting away with 6 years of having Kenya as a de jure one-party state, Moi finally overplayed his hand in the 1988 elections by introducing the mlolongo or queue system where voters lined up behind their favourite candidates. The mlolongo system was yet another of Moi’s efforts to purge KANU, (which at the time was even more powerful than parliament) of dissident voices. Candidates who received more than 30 % of the vote or finished among the top 3 in the queue voting round were issued a party nomination certificate and cleared to proceed in the final round where the secret ballot was used. Any candidate who got more than 70% vote in the queue voting round was declared elected without the second round.

Kenneth Matiba, MP for Mbiri, Minister for Transport and Communications was one of the marked dissident voices for being a rather outspoken defender of Kikuyu interests at a time where Moi was becoming increasingly paranoid about dissent. In the parliamentary elections held in March 1988, Matiba outsmarted Moi and his cronies by hiring a helicopter to provide video evidence that he won in case of any dispute (in many other cases candidates did not have evidence to show they had been rigged even after opponents with shorter queues were declared winners due to lack of paper records). But by the time KANU branch elections were held in September of the same year, Moi in cahoots with Joseph Kamotho (MP for Kangema) outsmarted Matiba in his quest for the position of Chairman of the Murang’a branch. Though a repeat election was held after Matiba disputed the results, Matiba and his supporters boycotted the election. Matiba then went even further and resigned as cabinet minister in protest. This was extremely audacious and unheard of; government officials waited to be sacked and even thanked the president for it. If they were lucky, they got offered another post, such as Mwai Kibaki who was offered the position of Minister for Health after being let go from the Vice President job. To punish him, Moi expelled Matiba from the party and Matiba lost his parliamentary seat.

The expulsion of Matiba among other significant members of government broke the elite consensus that held together the autocratic government. This group of reluctant reformers joined forces with other activists, church leaders and intellectuals who were advocating for a multiparty system. This domestic and international pressure forced Moi to reintroduce multiparty politics in 1991.

Akiwumi Report on 1992 Ethnic Clashes

The Akiwumi Commission of Inquiry was formed on July 1st 1998 to inquire into the tribal clashes that had occurred in various parts of Kenya since 1991.

Their terms of reference were;

“(a) To investigate the tribal clashes that have occurred in various parts of Kenya since 1991 with a view of establishing and/or determining — i) the origin, the probable, the immediate and the underlying causes of such clashes; (ii) the action taken by the police and other law enforcement agencies with respect to any incidents of crime arising out of or committed in the course of the said tribal clashes and where such action was inadequate or insufficient. The reasons therefore; (iii) the level of preparedness and the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies in controlling the said tribal clashes and in preventing the occurrence of such tribal clashes in future; (b) to recommend prosecution or further criminal action against any person or persons who may have committed offences related to such tribal clashes; (ii) ways, mean’s and measures that must be taken to prevent, control or eradicate such clashes in future; (c) to inquire into or investigate any other matter that is incidental to or connected with the foregoing.”

The 291-page report comprises of an introduction explaining the circumstances under which the commission discharged their functions, four chapters offering insights on the facts and circumstances around tribal clashes in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province, the Western Province, the Coast Province and the North Eastern and Eastern Provinces, including the names of individuals deemed responsible for the violence and one chapter offering recommendations to right wrongdoing. The commission found that the tribal clashes were mostly related to feelings around land and belonging by different communities, and feelings of dispossession arising from feelings of neglect by the government in areas such as the North-Eastern/Eastern and some parts of the Coast. These feelings were exploited by politicians and leaders named in the report. Provincial administrators and the police were found to have been partisan, working towards the interests of tribal leaders and politicians who in some cases instigated the clashes.

Although the commission concluded its inquiry on 11 June 1999, the report was only released to the public following an order of the High Court in 2002. As is the case with many other commissions of inquiry in the country, the report was “left to collect dust” and largely ignored. Named perpetrators of violence in the report, like Nicolas Biwott, who in 2002 got a 3-judge bench to demand the removal of his name from the report continued to have successful political careers with their misdeed largely ignored.

Freedom Corner (Uhuru Park)

One cannot tell the story of Kenya without mentioning Uhuru Park. It was here that Kenya’s independence was declared at midnight on December 12th, 1963. A Mugumo (fig) tree within the park marks the spot where the Union Jack flag went down, and the Kenyan flag went up. Due to this historic significance, the park was declared a National Monument in 1966 and on 23rd May 1969, officially opened to the public by Jomo Kenyatta. Since then, Uhuru Park has consistently featured in Kenya’s resistance narratives, including being the place where the landmark 1992 protest by the mothers of political prisoners happened.

Because of its prime location within the city, the park has been targeted for annexation multiple times. Prof. Wangari Mathai, environmental activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize 2004 lamented the shrinking size of this green space which by 1989 had been reduced due to the development of a road, a hotel, a football stadium and a members-only golf club. By the time the government announced yet another proposed development (the Kenya Times Media Trust which was to house the headquarters of KANU, Kenya’s only and ruling party at the time) Wangari Mathai had had enough and single-handedly took on the government to stop this from happening.

Wangari Mathai tirelessly appealed to both local and international leaders and even went through the judicial process. Despite the personal attacks against her, including a forceful eviction from her office, Wangari’s efforts bore fruit and the government eventually halted the project at the corner of the park which came to be known as freedom corner. It was almost premonitory that the construction fence around the freedom corner which had been erected in late 1989, was removed only week before the first significant protest in it, that of the mothers of political prisoners.

Mothers of Political Prisoners

After multipartyism was legalized in December 1991, several mothers of political prisoners lobbied to negotiate the release of their sons who they argued had been detained for something that was now legal. After it became apparent that the state did not treat their appeal with agency, the mothers on 28th February 1992 congregated at Freedom Corner in Uhuru Park to call for the release of political prisoners in the country.

The protest lasted for 5 days before the government came to crush it, after it started attracting unwelcome local and international attention. 6 Mothers were involved; Monica Wamwere (mother of Koigi Wamwere, Milka Wanjiku Kinuthia (mother of Rumba Kinuthia), Ruth Wangari Thungu (mother of Harun Wakaba Thungu), Leah Wanjiru Maungai (mother of Samuel Kang’ethe Maungai), Gladys Thiitu Kariuki (mother of Mirugi Kariuki), and later Priscilla Mwara Kimani (mother of Hosea Gitau). The mothers were accompanied by sympathizers who created the organization Release Political Prisoners, which was instrumental in facilitating technical and moral support for the 6 mothers. Police arrived and charged the tents with batons and beat the women. In the chaos that ensued, some women fainted while other sustained heavy injuries. In retaliation, women stripped naked to curse the police officers who dared beat their elders, a move known as guturamira. The policemen turned their heads and walked away from the women.

The women were taken to their home areas after the incident. Many citizens were outraged at the beating of the women and riots erupted within Nairobi. Two days later, the women themselves regrouped near Freedom Corner at the All-Saints Cathedral which offered refuge for them for the duration of their protest. They held well-attended open forums where people spoke and performed in solidarity with them until the police raided the Cathedral to disrupt these ongoings. Undeterred, the women found other means to spread their message and it is reported that on the 16th and 17th April, the mothers distributed 6,000 leaflets at a bus terminal hoping those going to their rural homes over Easter would spread the message there. Their actions are credited with the release of 4 prisoners on 24 June 1992 and 4 prisoners, including Koigi wa Wamwere, on 19 January 1993.

Society, Beyond, People Daily, Finance, and Nairobi Law Monthly

Alternative periodicals such as Beyond Magazine, Nairobi Law Monthly, Society, People Daily and the Financial Review offered avenues for dissent and expression at a time when Moi’s consolidation of power and influence had a hold on mainstream press. The Standard and The Nation, Kenya’s leading press had significant shareholding held by members of Kenya’s ruling class and other corporate organizations at the time and their editorial policies were strongly tied to safeguarding their business interests.

Beyond Magazine, an outlet owned by the National Council of Churches of Kenya, was banned for exposing fraud in the 1988 mlolongo system elections, during which voters queued behind their candidates of choice instead of casting their votes secretly. The Financial Review, which had been in publication since the middle of 1986, was banned in 1989 and its editor forced into exile after it had revealed cases of fraud by powerful government officials. The Nairobi Law Monthly which started in 1987, interlaced its legal articles with extensive coverage of the one-party system and of the Moi administration’s questionable record on human rights, was banned in 1990 for its advocacy of multi-pluralism. Society, which began publication in 1987 was also banned in 1990 after criticizing Moi’s decision to disband the commission of inquiry into Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko’s death, the article implicated his allies with the headline “Moi knows Ouko’s Killers”.

Retelling of Stories

Kenyan Organic Intellectuals Reflect on the Legacy of Pio Gama Pinto by Lewis Maghanga & Nicholas Mwangi, a publication produced by the Organic Intellectuals Network, Ukombozi Library 2021.

Maina wa Kinyatti

Written 25 years ago, Kenya: A Prison Notebook has inspired generations and proved a great resource and hand book in political education in Kenya and beyond. It chronicles Maina Wa Kinyatti’s arrest and detention by the Moi regime, and powerfully captures Kenya’s history.

Maina wa Kinyatti was then a university professor and foremost researcher on the Mau Mau (Kenya Land and freedom Army), the liberation movement that engaged the British colonialists in armed struggle for land and freedom. In 1982 he was arrested by state agents for ‘possession of seditious material’ and detained by the Moi regime. Maina wrote Kenya: A Prison Notebook over the course of the next six and half years he spent in detention – mostly in solitary confinement.

Maina’s work and writing remains a constant and painful reminder that the objectives of the freedom struggle the Mau Mau engaged in are yet to be achieved. Kenya is a neo-colonial state. Its economy is in the hands of global capital and imperialism, while constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms are blatantly disregarded with impunity everyday.

Maina’s generation continued with the struggle for a better society, and showed great courage by confronting a regime that was prepared to go to any lengths to suppress dissenting voices. Today, another generation is continuing with that struggle in fulfillment of its historical responsibility. Through this collection of reflections on Kenya: A Prison Notebook, young comrades from various movements and organizations interrogate the lived reality and material conditions of their generation whilst relating them to past struggles and experiences. They reflect on a range of themes, including: the purpose of education as a tool for liberation or bondage; the unfinished task of national liberation; intergenerational inheritance of social struggles in Kenya; and not forgetting the pain, courage, patriotism and organizing reflected in the book.

These reflections are a celebration of Maina wa Kinyatti and all those who engaged in struggles for a better Kenya and Afrika. They additionally are an urgent reminder of the need to organize more than ever given the lived reality and material conditions of our people – those living in deprivation, those whose rights are suppressed and freedoms infringed. They are a reminder that struggle, like change, is a constant. These reflections were inspired by a conversation at Ukombozi Library between Gacheke Gachihi, Nicholas Mwangi, and Brian Mathenge.

A luta continua!

Mathare

Mathare, An Urban Bastion of Anti-Oppression Struggle in Kenya by Samuel Gathanga Ndung’u, a publication produced by Organic Intellectuals Network, Ukombozi Library 2021.

Cite this teaching tool:

Regimes and Resistance: Kenyan Resistance History Through Underground and Alternative Publications

Regimes and Resistance: Kenyan Resistance History Through Underground and Alternative Publications

Presented by

Archival Source

Journals Referenced

Last Updated This tool is intermittently updated to integrate new information sent to the authors.

PALIAct Ukombozi, a Library of Revolutionary Histories.

1. Anti-colonial Resistance Publications

2. Underground Publications from the 1963-1978 period of Flag Independence and Rise of the Right

3. Publications in Resistance to the Nyayoism and Moi Dictatorship: 1978–1990s

4. Publications from the Post Fall of Berlin Wall and Rise of Civil Societies 1990 Period

Neoliberalism and Effects of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) in Kenya

Continuation of Resistance and Rise of NGOs

Alternative Publications, Dangerous Reading, Democracy and the End of Moi Authoritarianism, in the Late 1980s-2002:

4. Breaking the Colonial Library Mold: Study Sessions and New Publications

Mwakenya (1987–2001)

References

Pambana (1982–1984)

References

Umoja wa Kupigania Demokrasia Kenya (Umoja) and Ukenya

Kenyan News No. 3, April 1984

Naive ‘ideology’ of Nyayoism

Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organisation (MYWO)

On August 1, 1982

Kenya Air Force

Sauti ya Mwafrika

Gakaara wa Wanjau

Kenya Land and Freedom Army (Mau Mau)

Patel and Vidyarthi

Pio Gama Pinto, Bildad Kaggia, and Jaramogi Odinga

Jaramogi, Pinto, and Kaggia

Sessional Paper number 10

Kenya People’s Union (KPU)

J.M Kariuki

Ngaahika Ndeenda

December 12th Movement (DTM)

Kenya News, 1984

December Twelth Movement Mwakenya Draft of Minimum Programme

The 1988 Mlolongo Elections

Akiwumi Report on 1992 Ethnic Clashes

Freedom Corner (Uhuru Park)

Mothers of Political Prisoners

Society, Beyond, People Daily, Finance, and Nairobi Law Monthly

Retelling of Stories

Maina wa Kinyatti

Mathare

Last Updated

This tool is intermittently updated to integrate new information sent to the authors.