Ex-bank manager Peter Nyakiamo says his job was an accident

Former Health minister Peter Nyakiamo. [PHOTO: FILE /STANDARD]

By KENNETH KWAMA

KENYA: The first African to be appointed a bank branch manager in Kenya, Peter Nyakiamo, found himself in the profession as a result of a ‘beautiful accident’.

The 19-year-old had moved to stay with an uncle, Sylvester Odhiambo, in Nairobi on December 1946 after sitting his final exam at Mangu High School.

Like many other boys his age, he thought of going to Makerere University to be trained as a teacher.

“Somehow I didn’t feel inclined to being a teacher. One day my uncle told me that the son of an Asian (Kalasinga) he worked with had told the Kalasinga that Barclays Bank was looking to hire African clerks. He told me to try it,” recalls Nyakiamo.

The man who once served as a cabinet minister during the Kanu days went for the clerical interview where he sat two tests in mathematics and English.

The score

He got four out of the total six points and according to him the European who was administering the test told him he could have done better.

“But four out of six was not bad. He was impressed with my handwriting. The score plus my handwriting got me the job,” laughs Nyakiamo.

When he joined the bank, all the managers were British, while other staff including cashiers, tellers and heads of departments, were all Asians.

He, however, recalls that when he joined, he found a man called Stephen Mwangi who was his classmate at Mangu, but who didn’t proceed to ‘A’ levels, already working at the bank.

“Stephen was there as the first African to join Barclays Bank and there was a telephone operator called Mr Zaja, a Ugandan man who spoke beautiful English. We were later joined by a man called Daniel Omoto from Kakamega and Mr Ambundo who had been transferred from Uganda,” narrates Nyakiamo.

The British managers at the bank were so happy with Nyakiamo’s work ethic that in 1956, they sent him for a training course in England.

There, he met other trainees from other countries where Barclays had business interests like Egypt and the West Indies.

Somehow, this opened bigger doors and Nyakiamo found himself brushing shoulders with both British and Asian top managers after his return.

Good money

“My salary was Sh100, which was very good money then. Some of the Asians only managed that because they were not as educated.”

According to the former banker, he found himself working in Bungoma and later Kisii, persuading Africans to open bank accounts. The amount required to open an account was one shilling.

“It was a lot of money then, so we ended up with a list of several Africans who had opened bank accounts, but the ledger showed that they all had one shilling balance in their accounts,” he says.

One of the most intriguing things during Nyakiamo’s days as a branch manager was that Africans were not allowed to borrow more than Sh2,000.

“We couldn’t lend African women money unless they had permission from their husbands. Their spouses had to say yes.”