When Kenya gifted Russian leader a Mau Mau gun

Field Marshall Baimungi M'Marete (left) and other Mau Mau freedom fighters surrender their firearms. Looking on are ministers Jackson Angaine and Mbiyu Koinange at Kinoru stadium in Meru 1963. [File, Standard]

A year after Kenya got her independence, it was time to look for allies, both within the Western and Eastern blocks. Favouring neither side at the time, the government of Jomo Kenyatta would look for aid from the two key protagonists, America and Russia.

It was against this background that the government sent a delegation in May 1964 to both Russia and China. It was led by Vice President Oginga Odinga and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Joseph Murumbi.

The cabinet-sanctioned mission was to get economic aid, arms and scholarships though Odinga had another request; that Russians build a hospital in Kisumu. In Russia, the team was privileged to meet the premier, Nikita Khrushchev who treated the Kenyan delegation with “lavish receptions”.

After one such dinner, Khrushchev was so drunk that he had to be supported by Odinga on one side and Murumbi on the other in order to get to a concert hall later that evening.

“In these Kremlin banquets, particularly with Khrushchev, you’ve got to knock back one vodka after another because there were so many toasts,” wrote Murumbi in his posthumous collection, A Path not Taken.

Odinga, who never drank, would only let the small glass touch his lips, to the consternation of his hosts.

The drowning (or lack thereof) of vodka was not the only curious thing during the visit. The two senior Kenyans in the delegation had chosen some unorthodox gifts for Khrushchev.

Perhaps to reiterate their need for Russian arms, Odinga and Murumbi chose to gift the Russian leader with a panga and a homemade gun used by the Mau Mau. “[Krushchev] was very tickled with this, seeing the homemade gun as compared to the modern guns they have in Russia,” said Murumbi.

While the Russians had no qualms acceding to their demands, a “small” quarrel arose between the two parties. Murumbi wanted to know why Russia was supplying arms to Somalia, weapons that were in essence being used against Kenya during the Shifta wars.

“Who are you to ask us as to who we should give arms and not give arms?” an officer replied Murumbi who by now had threatened to leave the country.

Of course, temperatures cooled with the Russians even offering the Kenyan delegation a plane to China.

Two years after the visit, construction of the “Russia” hospital, now Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital, began in Kisumu as promised.

During the official opening in October 1969, 11 people were killed after the crowd became hostile to President Jomo Kenyatta. The opening ceremony came only three months after the assassination of Tom Mboya.

By then Odinga had resigned as Vice President and his place taken up by Murumbi.