How Kenya has underrated the role played by Asians in the struggle for freedom

The statue of Alibhai Jevanjee erected at the centre of Jevanjee Gardens in Nairobi. Left: Freedom hero Pio Gama Pinto. [File photo]

Walking around Nairobi, Kenya’s political and financial capital is as edifying as reading through the roll of honour during a heroes day celebration.

Ideally, the stroll around the city’s Central Business District should be like stepping on a page ripped off the country’s history journals, where names of heroes beautifully inscribed on posters, buildings and roads celebrate sacrifices made by individuals who gave their all for Kenya to be.

There were epic battles from 1920 when Kenya was made a colony and the British supremacists attempted to transform it into a “a white man’s country”. One apologist, Sir Arthur Dave, summed it as a country” where an Englishman can work with his coat off if native or Indian labour was not available. “

When the Europeans started agitating for Kenya to be a white man’s country, they were strongly opposed by the Asians. The Indians were not willing to provide labour to the colonialists who treated them as sub-human, only a rank higher than the Africans who were derogatorily referred to as natives.

Minority rule

Ironically, at a time the colonialists were scheming to create a country where they would lord it over the other races, white settlers remained a minority.

Nazmi Durrani, in the book Liberating Minds: Restoring Kenyan History -- with additional material by Naila Durrani and Bengal Pereira -- says during this period, the country had a population of 2.5 million of which Europeans were only 10,000.

This agitation created a crop of Asian freedom fighters who would later inspire the country’s freedom struggle.

Leading the heated contest against the white supremacists was Manilal Desai. That was in February 1923, when he wrote a telegram to the Colonial Office in London arguing that Kenya was an African country and should be protected from domination by whites.

Curiously, the squabbling parties, the whites and Asians, sent representatives to London for a conference and conveniently excluded Africans.

Desai, who had migrated to Kenya in 1915, and had been chosen to lead the Asian delegation, relayed the African displeasure contained in a cable authored by Joseph Kang’ethe on behalf of East African Association.

The dalliance between the Asian delegation and the Africans yielded fruit. In July 1923, the colonial secretary, Duke of Devonshire, wrote that Kenya was predominantly an African country and the interests of the natives must be paramount to those of other races.

Desai and Alibhai Mulla Jevanjee later organised tax boycotts to protest the exploitation and oppression of the of Africans by Europeans who had not only taken over all the prime land but had formulated tough policies and taxes to force Africans to work for them.

Desai also founded an anti-colonial newspaper, “The Democrat” and teamed up with Kikuyu Central Association leaders Kang’ethe, James Beutah and Jesse Kariuki in voicing the tribulations faced by Africans.

He died in 1926 aged 48 during a tour in Zanzibar to raise funds for his newspaper. Although the first guns for liberating his country had not been fired then, his spirit inspired freedom fighters. In recognition of his work, Desai Memorial Hall was constructed along Tom Mboya Street near Nairobi Fire Station by funds from the East African Indian Congress. This monument has since been demolished, although the road named after him in Ngara, Nairobi, still stands. Jevanjee, the millionaire who at one time owned 70 per cent of Nairobi, was also instrumental in shaping the country’s politics. He had a penchant for using his resources to achieve his goals. He started off by building his own newspaper in 1902 to challenge the British domination. In the 1920s, he started East African Indian National Congress, a political party to articulate the wishes of his people.

At first, British Prime minister Winston Churchill supported Jevanjee’s view that there should be no racial segregation. Churchill later backtracked following pressure from colonialists who argued that they needed protection from a terrible Asiatic menace that threatened Christianity and modernity.

Jevanjee paid for his rebellion dearly when he was bankrupted by a section of his family with the assistance of the colonial government and settlers led by Lord Delemare. He died a broken man on May 2, 1936. Most of his buildings and business were taken over by the government. The only monument that still bears his name is Jevanjee Gardens which has on a number of occasions been targeted by grabbers.

Two years before the state of Emergency was declared, a trade unionist, Makhan Sikh was arrested alongside Chege Kibachia and Fred Kubai. That was on May 15, 1950. A few days earlier, he had demanded that all East African countries be granted immediate freedom without further delay. He was detained for six years in the harshest locations in the country. Even in prison in Lokitaung and Lodwar, his spirit was unbreakable as he staged two hunger strikes for a total of 33 days. He was finally released on October 22, 1961.

Other notable freedom fighters are Ambubhai Patel, who started his struggle in India at the age of 14 by smuggling photographs of protestors to newspapers. In Kenya, Patel linked up with Kenya Africa Union leaders and risked his life when he supplied arms to Mau Mau.

According to Durrani, “Patel and Pio Gama Pinto prepared a secret plan to leak the Kenyatta trial in Kapenguria to the public. They printed 300 copies of the 100-page judgement and sent 250 copies to various leaders of the world using government envelopes”.

He is also credited with taking the photograph of Dedan Kimathi in 1957 during his trial and leaked it against the wishes of the British.  Pio Gama Pinto, the man who started off as a clerk and ended up being a trade unionist deserves some mention. He also doubled as an editor with Daily Chronicle and linked Mau Mau suspects with lawyers.

Long detention

The government hit back by arresting him in 1954 and dispatched him to Manda Island where he was locked up alongside Muinga Chokwe and Achieng Oneko. His life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet on February 24, 1965 for aligning himself to a group led by Jaramogi Oginga, which was against Jomo’s style of leadership.

Although it has taken Kenya more than half a century to heed to the Asian community’s wish and recognise its members as Kenyans, a number have plunged into Kenyan politics and won parliamentary seats.

“I am a Kenyan but proud of my ancestry. I know no other home. History has not been very kind to my ancestors but things can change. We have been marginalised for decades but we are now happy to be counted as the 44th ethnic community which is duly recognised by the government,” Former Embakasi South MP Irshad Sumra said.  

[email protected]