Man who almost became president

By Amos Kareithi

"I do not know the day or year I was born. A civil servant in Nyeri picked March 31, 1932, when I was a young adult. It is possible I was born in 1928 or 1930," Gideon Munyao Mutiso says.

But, one thing Munyao is sure of is he wanted to serve the country.

As soon as he finished his Kenya Advanced Certificate Examination, the equivalent of today’s Form Two, Mutiso was drafted into the army in 1950 to follow in the footsteps of his father.

Gideon Munyao Mutiso

Unlike his father who had fought in First and Second World Wars, Mutiso joined the army at a time the country was embroiled in political turmoil, which boiled over with the declaration of the state of emergency in 1952.

After he enlisted in February 1950, Mutiso trained at Kiganjo and graduated with an army certificate the following year.

"I was then posted to the Department of Defence headquarters in Nairobi and promoted to a Lance Corporal. Later, I became a corporal and was posted to Mombasa. My stay in Mombasa was short, as I was soon transferred to Nyeri," Mutiso recalls.

It was while in Nyeri he came face to face with the brutal face of colonial repression, which shaped his perception of life and persuaded him to change his career.

"I went to visit an outstation where I witnessed the brutality on local residents by home guards during screenings to determine who was sympathetic to the Mau Mau. I decided to quit the army from that day," the former soldier says.

He went to his bosses and lied he was needed home urgently. His chief wrote to the DC, who then communicated to the military.

Since the General Commanding Officer for the East Africa Land Forces was stationed in Cairo, Mutiso’s request to be released from the army had to be dispatched to Egypt. It was not until 1955 that he was discharged.

Armed with communication knowledge he had acquired in Kiganjo, Mutiso ventured in Nairobi where he worked for a company, Cables and Wireless, where he met Tom Mboya who was also at the General Post Office.

Mutiso started a trade union, Cables and Wireless African Workers Union that was affiliated to the Kenya Federation of Labour where Mboya was the general secretary. Without registered political parties, trade unions were the only legitimate vehicle for workers to express their grievances.

In 1958, Mutiso went to a Labour College in Uganda. A year later, he graduated just as Ghana gained independence, and its leader, Kwame Nkrumah organised All Africa People’s Conference, the harbinger of the Organisation of Africa Unity, now the African Union. When Kenya got independence in 1963, Mutiso contested Yatta Parliamentary seat on Africa People’s Party, but shifted to Kanu when other political parties were dissolved.

He was appointed an Assistant Minister for Education, a post he retained until 1969. During the 1969 General Election, Mutiso was barred from campaigning and advised to contact each of the 15,000 voters in the vast constituency in their homes if he wanted to be elected. After re-election, without holding a single campaign rally, Mutiso fought Government Bills in Parliament. He lost the seat in 1971 after he was arrested and jailed for nine and half years. He recaptured the seat during the 1988 General Election.