Jean Marie Seroney: A fearless champion of democracy

By Titus Too

Last week, the country marked the 20th Saba Saba anniversary. What many Kenyans perhaps did not know is that the struggle against dictatorship started much earlier. Among the few politicians who courageously stood out and fought for the voiceless Kenyans during this period was the late Jean Marie Seroney.

The former Tinderet MP stood up and steadfastly fought against single party dictatorship inside and outside Parliament.

"Why substantiate the obvious," that was the answer Seroney, who was the Deputy Speaker in Parliament in 1975, gave after MPs demanded Butere MP Martin Shikuku explain his claim that the then ruling party Kanu was dead.

Seroney was subsequently arrested from the precincts of Parliament and detained by President Kenyatta that afternoon.

Household name

Seroney was a fearless politician who also captured the headlines during the infamous Nandi declaration where he blamed President Kenyatta for allegedly grabbing land in the Rift Valley.

"Who but Seroney alone!" was a refrain of a popular Kalenjin song composed in praise of his agitation for land rights in 1969. That explains why apart from freedom fighter Koitalel arap Samoei, who was killed by the British during the 1905 Nandi resistance to colonial rule, Seroney is also a legend in the Nandi community of Rift Valley Province.

Seroney remains a household name and his portraits hang on walls in many homesteads in the North Rift.

The bespectacled face of the late fiery politicians is also a common feature in offices associated with politics.

The MP for the larger Nandi District and later Tinderet constituency, Seroney left a political legacy that could not be easily filled.

Despite his fame, his rundown home in Kaprotuk, has little to show anything synonymous with his name.

Twenty-seven years after his death, his graveyard, now overgrown with grass, serves as a playground or a resting place for pupils of Kolelach Public School at his former home.

Seroney’s former house, an old permanent building, provides tuition rooms, a staffroom, and a headmaster’s office for the school with an enrolment of 221 pupils in class one to five, just a few metres from his graveyard. The MP’s land was auctioned to clear a bank loan.

Seroney enjoys a place in the country’s history having been among the first legislators after the country gained self-rule in 1963. An independent minded politician who openly criticised the system, Seroney’s contributions in Parliament or in public forums attracted the wrath of leaders who were against his ideals.

The Nandi had great respect for him as he selflessly fought for the community’s rights, especially on land.

Seroney led the Nandi Hills Declaration, which also agitated for the rights of those moved by the white man to pave way for tea plantations.

A former civic leader who was an ally of the former MP recalls Seroney’s leadership in Nandi politics:

Seroney was MP for Nandi in 1963, while Gerald Kalya was a senator but the position of the Senate was abolished in 1965 when Nandi was split into Tinderet, Mosop and Aldai constituencies, recalls Samuel Chelule, a former civic leader and Chairman of Nandi County council. Mr Chelule is from Senetwo village in Tinderet, which neighbours Seroney’s Kaprotuk farm.

Seroney represented Tinderet while Mr Kalya and former MP Simon Kiptum Choge represented Mosop and Aldai.

Chelule said Seroney commanded a strong respect in Nandi and easily sailed through during the 1969 General Election. This was before some strong political forces in the Rift Valley started to gang up against him ahead of the 1974 General Election. Despite strong opposition in 1974, Seroney retained his seat and was determined to add a feather in his cap by gunning for the seat of Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly.

Chelule recalls what took place when Parliament was adjourned for a month after Seroney was elected Deputy Speaker. Former Uasin Gishu politician Paul Boit approached Seroney and took him to the then Vice-President Daniel Moi.

"It was after the meeting that the Government allocated some 1,500 acres of former Kapkures (present Kaprotuk farm) sisal estates to Seroney and he was to pay Sh1,035,000 to the National Bank," says Chelule.

The farm was sold by the National Bank of Kenya to recover the loan after he died.

In November 1975, Shikuku told Parliament that some legislators wanted to kill Parliament the same way they had killed Kanu. On being asked to substantiate, Seroney who was on the chair, said Shikuku did not need to substantiate the obvious.

Seroney became the first MP to be arrested within Parliament despite the parliamentary immunity.

The fiery legislator subsequently lost his seat after he was detained and his remarks against Kanu sounded a death knell to his political career.

In 1978, Seroney was released by President Moi when he took over after Kenyatta’s death. Seroney was later appointed an executive chairman of Industrial Development Bank, a position he held until he died in December 1982.

Mrs Agnes Seroney, a sister of the late legislator, said although the MP was agitating for his people, his lifestyle was private.

"During my stay with Seroney, I never came across any woman he called a wife. There is no time he came home accompanied by a woman despite appeals and pressure to him to marry," she said.