How boycott of South Africa goods shamed Commerce and Industry Minister Julius Gikonyo

Former Trade Minister Dr Julius Gikonyo Kiano. He was 'detained' in South Africa for his anti-apartheid stance (File: Standard)

NAIROBI, KENYA: “We had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way,” wrote Charles Dickens in his masterpiece, A Tale of Two Cities.

Dickens notes, in the book whose plot focuses on the years leading up to the French Revolution, that some of the noisiest authorities during that time insisted on being received; for good or for evil.