Day police shaved school head without water, soap

By Standard Team

A former district commissioner in the Kanu Government who once ordered the shaving of a lowly teacher’s goatee in public, without soap or water, is unrepentant. With a sense of pride, Mr Fred Mwango told The Standard he would force Mr Joseph Mwaura to shave again, and anyone else for that matter, if given a chance.

But Mr Mwaura, says the incident that occurred during the rule of former President Moi gave him nightmares that jolted him from his sleep in a dead sweat. Now a senior deputy secretary in the Ministry of Labour, Mwango said such was his style of administration as he belonged to the same school of thought as the late Hezekiah Oyugi, the feared former Security PS whose very name evoked terror in the civil service.

Retired teacher Joseph Mwaura still maintains a goatee, almost two decades since his ‘public’ shaving made headlines. Photo: Peter Ochieng’/ Standard

Mwango said the shaving of Mwaura was not his first such order, insisting he was strict on discipline, etiquette and grooming of civil servants. The incident, nearly 20 years ago, sparked off a storm that put the provincial administration on the spot at a time when government officials lorded over citizens with a heavy hand. “When I went to sleep, I would see Mwango’s figure in my dream. It was like a bad spirit,” Mwaura said last week when we caught up with him at Kesegon trading centre, Trans Nzoia County.

He said his family members told him he used to shout Mwango’s name repeatedly while asleep. He would then wake up his scared wife.

“It reached a point my wife even went to my doctor and told him about my nightmares. She was the most affected,” said Mwaura, who has since retired. He still maintains his goatee, although he admits it is a shorter one. The two had met following a simmering dispute between the congregations of the African Independent Pentecostal Church of Africa (AIPCA) in Kiambu town. The Christians were sharply divided over the management of the church, and the DC had been called in to arbitrate.

Church row

All hell soon broke loose after Mwango ordered the church closed pending the resolution of the row. Spotting his long beard, Mwaura, who was a respected headmaster of a local primary school, rose and asked if it was prudent to shut the church, since it was used for other activities on weekdays.

“You look like a he-goat,” Mwango barked at the head teacher as a shocked crowd watched in disbelief. He then ordered the teacher to shave his goatee. Mwaura said he was taken aside and shaved without water or soap, a painful and humiliating experience.

Last week, Mwango repeated the same words, saying Mwaura was shaggy and did not cast the image of a role model.

“He resembled a he-goat with his unkempt, knife-like beard and I told him as much,” Mwango recalled at his office at NSSF building, Nairobi.

But he said he did not give the order to punish the head teacher for questioning his wisdom to have the church closed.

So intense was the debate at the time that it sucked in the then President Moi, who spoke at a public meeting and wondered what was wrong with a man keeping a goatee. Mwango said public servants working under him must dress properly and be well-groomed.

“I received my tutelage under the late Hezekiah Oyugi and Joseph Kaguthi who were strict disciplinarians. I am a stickler for neatness,” he said. “Those who work under me to this day, have no illusion about it. Woe unto you if you look shaggy or awkwardly dressed in my office,” Mwango added.