Biographers add rich footnote to our history

The triple release, last month, of Jeremiah Kiereini's "A Daunting Journey", Bishop Gitari's posthumous "Troubled but not destroyed" and Jeff Koinange's "Through My African eyes" is another milestone in Kenya's growing tradition of memoir writing.

For decades, Kenya's literally scene was starved of any first hand elucidation of the events that shaped Kenya. After Jaramogi's autobiography "Not yet Uhuru" released in 1968, Kenya went into an autobiographical desert until all of a sudden, every other month celebrates a release of yet another expose of the early years of Kenya as told by those who shaped it.

We have seen books written by Duncan Ndegwa and Simeon Nyachae, Kenya's powerful Chief Secretaries, and we enjoyed Njenga Karume's "Beyond Expectations, From Charcoal to Gold" a thrilling account of how an itinerant charcoal dealer ended up being one of Africa's richest men and a Kenyan Kingmaker. Though not as self-revealing, we also have a few biographies including former President Moi's "The Making of an African Statesman" by Andrew Morton and Raila Odinga's "An Enigma in Kenya's politics" by Nigerian author Babafemi Badejo. Two things can be said about the autobiographies released so far.

Many are colourless and will elicit little more than a yawn. Indeed one wonders why some people bother to record what is no more than self-glorification through their bland non-events. Several however are page-turners, with interesting titbits that enable us see aspects of our leaders that horrify, endear or just entertain! Who can forget Karume's recollection of Charles Njonjo's famous beer mug whose search roped in a PC, DC and DO before it was traced in some kitchen!

Unsurprisingly, all autobiographies are loudly silent on the not so positive aspects of the writer's lives. Karume's book, by far one of the most enthralling, manages to gloss over the epochal event of his political career, the "Change the Constitution" movement which was intended to stop Moi from acceding to the Presidency after Kenyatta. Kiereini's book does a virtual passover on the deal-making season of the early Kenyatta season of which he was a major player. To their credit many close gaps in Kenya's still contested history, the way David Goldsworthy's "Tom Mboya, The Man Kenya Wanted to Forget" closes many gaps in Kenya's political and Trade Union story.

One awaits with relish the promised "tell-all" by Charles Njonjo; it should be a thriller if he agrees to bare all. But of course the greatest loss for Kenya and a tremendous disappointment is the lack of a credible memoir on Jomo Kenyatta, our first President. Kenya's history is incomplete without this man, the reverberations of his leadership continue to be felt to date. The fact that we have no first hand record of how the fun loving Londoner named Johnstone converted to the larger than life Jomo of the 60s is unfortunate. What is the story behind his expansive family that has produced King and Priest and how did it end up owning a significant part of the entity called Kenya? What explains the changed perception of the colonialists who at one point believed he was the "leader unto darkness and death" but later on became his most voluble supporters? What informed the bitter dispute between him and erstwhile colleagues including Jaramogi? What conversations defined the first leadership team and what were his personal impressions of them especially the two who ended up being Presidents after him?

The Kenyatta family owes Kenya the Jomo story told from his perspective not the many versions we have from those who watched and interpreted him. I worry that with the passing of his compatriots, the latest being former Minister and personal physician Dr Njoroge Mungai, whole chapters in Kenyatta's life are getting buried. This is no vain desire to feed our collective curiosity, it is a recognition that a great portion of building a nation is having a uniting history, however wart filled that history may be. The lack of a credible expose of what started us on this journey as a nation from one of the most significant players in the formation of Kenya denies us that shared story and must be cured soon. Over to the Kenyattas.