Kibera's forgotten scholar

BY NANJINIA WAMUSWA

In Africa, scholars of his nature are rare. And the few who have several degrees or just PhDs are revered for their intellect, exposure and financial success.

But for Dr Lihanda Kemeni Savai, who has several degrees – in theology, law, education, philosophy and art on top of some diplomas – life would probably have been better without education.

Savai, referred fondly as ‘Mr President’ in Kibera, is perhaps the slum’s most prominent scholar. But he lives the life of a pauper and has nothing to show for his 30-plus years of modern education — except his ‘papers’.

To locate his ramshackle house in Kibera, where he has lived for decades, one has to tread filthy heaps of garbage, jump over open sewers and negotiate dark alleys — some of them notorious spots for muggers. When you finally find his shack, you get the sense of how Nairobi’s urban poor live.

It is a single room mud house, propped up by old, rusty corrugated iron sheets. But as the home of the 73-year-old ‘President’, it perhaps better kept than others in the neighbourhood. This is the place the Greek-trained scholar calls home.

In this restricted space — which serves as his study, kitchen and living room — are strewn old tomes, mostly from the disciplines of literature, psychology and history, and heaps of old newspapers.

“It is disorderly with important literature. I cannot afford to lose any,” says the scholar as he clears heaps of books from an old armchair to find his guest from The Nairobian a seat.

He has three manuscripts lying forgotten in his shack for lack of funds to publish in any journal. Among the manuscripts is Kenya Colonial Classics written in 1990. In academic circles, such independent projects would earn one fame and fortune. But to Savai, his writings tell the story of his forlorn attempt to earn a decent living. 

Savai says his fate was decided in 1989 by the Kanu administration when he landed from Greece after his studies. Initially, he thought the CID officer, who delivered the message that the scholar had been blacklisted for holding ‘revolutionary ideas’, was bluffing.

But 24 years later, the ‘curse’ remains. Savai is still unemployed. In between he has made an unsuccessful attempt to contest the country’s presidency and earned some media coverage, but his condition has not changed much.

“I have applied and been invited for interviews for various positions in public service and public institutions without success,” he says.

In 2002, he formed a party with much difficulty in the hope of running for the presidency, but he failed to meet the nomination requirements. 

The scholar says his problems began while he was at Athens University in the 1970s and Kenyan students at the institution disagreed over tribalism. He supposedly angered a group of Kenyans at the university in 1978 when, as a student leader, he questioned why scholarship beneficiaries from Kenya were only from one community.

What followed were allegations against him that he was a revolutionary planning a coup in Kenya. Eleven years later, as he returned to Kenya, state agents accused him of involvement in subversive activities. He claims he has been a marked man since then and has struggled to find a steady job.

Although he has been condemned to oblivion, Savai continues to study. His dream now is to buy a piece of land in Kibera and build a small institute where he will teach philosophy and sociology.

“I want to pass my vast knowledge,” he said as he showed The Nairobian certificates awarded to him by BBC after numerous talk shows on arts and philosophy.

The father of four children relies on income from his wife’s kiosk at Toi market in Kibera. The family is now struggling to pay fees for their last-born son in Form Two.

His dignity may be gone, but one thing he believes cannot be taken away is his knowledge.