Uhuru rewrote more than Odinga role

There was something else quite odd in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s speech in Machakos on Mashujaa Day apart from the editing out of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga from the Independence struggle list and his son Raila Odinga from the list of the second liberation heroes.

Given that Uhuru and his speech writers could not have failed to see that the two names were missing, it can only have been a sadistic and unfortunate case of historical revisionism.

This is especially because Jaramogi hoisted the Kenyan flag in New York’s UN headquarters on Independence night as the Union Jack came down in Nairobi.

Secondly, I learned something else at Jaramogi’s funeral service at Uhuru Park, Nairobi, from angry speakers like Mwai Kibaki, then head of Opposition and Mr George Anyona, (with whom Jaramogi tried to register the first opposition party in 1982).

Angry that he died without any medal of honour like MBS and EBS, which some disgraced VIP thieves have today, they explained that it was a pity that the Kenyan flag he had helped design was not even draping his coffin, but the Ford Kenya flag.

Remember that when a boy graduates into adulthood in Luo culture, he is given a spear, an axe, cock and spear, to move to his own simba (house). Now look at the Kenyan flag and our court of arms and you see Jaramogi’s enduring legacy, infused with his cultural trait.

The same looks at us from the currencies we have in our pockets and the Government documents we come across daily.

But back to Uhuru, he told us the interesting role of his father in one line: “Others - Jomo Kenyatta and Musa Gitau among them - founded independent schools to defend the dignity of African customs.”

The line before ran: “Some bore arms – we recall Dedan Kimathi, Paul Ngei and Field Marshall Muthoni.” Now compare and contrast as we shall come back to this shortly, with focus on the claim by the white man during the Kapenguria Trial that the “leader unto death and darkness" was an oathed member of the Mau Mau.

We shall contrast this with what Kenyatta’s fellow detainee (who Mzee threw out once he settled in office!) – Bildad Kaggia – had to say, that Mzee’s only value in the struggle was his English mannerisms, suave lifestyle and mastery of English.

Kaggia, who had fought in Burma, felt Mzee Kenyatta had betrayed the struggle once in power because of how he promoted the ‘homeguards’ and oversaw redistribution of land in a manner that discriminated the Mau Mau veterans who had lived in the forests fighting. Here is where the story of Kikuyu influx in the Rift and Coast begins, but that is too obvious, so let us move on.

When Mzee died, author Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, who was in detention then, wrote in Detained that at his burial, the carriage on which his hearse rode was a gift from the Queen of England.

He described her as the epitome of Bourgeoisie exploitation of the masses.

In life and death, he was categorical that nothing had changed after Independence except the colour of the oppressor. Kamiti’s grey walls, he said, remained grey and the prisoners blacks! Of course the New York Times, when reporting Kenya’s Independence celebrations, had said that power had shifted from, “55,759 whites and was taken up by its (Kenya’s) 8,365,942 (people)”.

Now according to Kaggia, again one of the reasons why he was convinced Mzee Kenyatta had given up on the struggle and had to be persuaded to come back to Kenya from London was that he and Dr Gikonyo Kiano had married white women (effectively marrying into the families of the Oppressor!)

With one statement that was ill-thought in the President's speech, what will remain the enduring legacy of that speech will not just be the omission of the Odingas and introduction of the late Mutula Kilonzo into the heroes’ list but a new insight into Mzee’s main role, which moves far away from what is being taught in schools, and closer to what his critics claim!

Yes, no doubt he was involved in starting African schools and fighting female circumcision and ‘evil’ practices like oathing, but is that the main act that makes him a hero? From Uhuru’s statement, we can then say that the father’s legacy was either embellished or misrepresented.

Now look at this BBC dispatch on March 8, 1953, as quoted by Murphy Browne: “Jomo Kenyatta has been sentenced to seven years hard labour for his part in the organisation of the rebel Mau Mau movement.

"The leader of the Kenya African Union, who was found guilty on all charges, was also given three years hard labour to run concurrently for being a member of the movement. Kenyatta told the court he and his colleagues were not guilty but that they stood for the rights of the African people and peace in Kenya.

"Kenyatta was also given several opportunities to denounce the illegal movement which he refused to do.”

Be the judge even as you start asking questions.