The place of Gikonyo in Kenya's journey towards independence

When then Labour Minister Dr Julius Gikonyo Kiano was pictured dancing with his wife Jane at the Rahimtula Hall on September 26, 1966. [File, Standard]

In 1963, Julius Gikonyo Kiano was one of the prima donnas, led by Jomo Kenyatta, who straddled the anti-colonial stage inspiring others. He was one of the young men in the 1940s that Kenyatta and Peter Mbiyu Koinange, son of Senior Chief Koinange, inspired. At times called Ka-Wanjiru, Kiano became a major anti-colonial player on the eve of independence.

Born in 1926 to Jonathan Kiano and Damaris Wanjiru at Githiga, Murang'a, Kiano exhibited brilliance all around. In primary school, fellow pupils remembered him receiving a kamukanda, or medallion, to commemorate the 1936 coronation of King George VI. At Alliance High School he met other boys including Munyua Waiyaki, Njoroge Mungai, and later Mau Mau General Karari Njama. Their teacher, besides headmaster Carrey Francis, was Eliud Mathu, the first African to be nominated to the Legislative Council in 1944. Mathu's nomination overlooked Mbiyu, the founder of Githunguri Teachers College which was to train teachers in preparation for Kenya's eventual independence.