Leaders must tell their story; it is our story

Kenya is undergoing a silent literary revolution, seen in the way public figures are embracing book writing. Last week two books were launched, the first by one of Kenya’s pioneer journalists, Mzee Odinge Odera.

It is aptly titled My Journey with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga; Memoirs of a close confidant.

It is a journey in the footsteps of the late doyen of opposition politics, turbulent and bloody birth of a nation, and Jaramogi’s tribulations at the hands of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, whose release from colonial detention he ironically and heroically led.

It epitomises the sacrifices Jaramogi made for Kenya, unfurls the burning spirit that urged him on — by way of a viciously democratic spirit, unbridled tongue and willpower, as well as unrivaled love for nationhood, freedom and human love and equality.

It lays bare the roots of the old man’s principles, the fire that raged in his heart against suffocation and humiliation by the colonist, as well as the genteel upbringing and experiences that made him.

Even those who did not agree with Jaramogi’s political mannerisms, ideologies and modus operandi cannot help but admire the man and what he stood for, in the dark age when speaking up could earn you the colonist’s shackles or the budding African government’s assassin bullet, as happened to several in his league in the 1960s and 1970s.

Above all, the book is a journey in Kenya’s footsteps. It seeks and gives answers to the many questions on our national history and freezes for posterity the images and emotions of the heady times in black consciousness and struggle for freedom.

Corridors of service

At the very least, it is a signpost for us to understand where we came from, the sacrifices made in the process, the inspiration of the main actors for Independence, as well as to see clearly what our role should be in the present as the country stumbles into yet another turbulent, potentially divisive and challenging moment of our nationhood.

Former Cabinet minister and long-serving public administrator, and retired Chief Secretary Mr Simeon Nyachae also launched his memoirs, but on Friday.

Titled Simeon Nyachae: Walking through the corridors of service, the 2002 Ford People presidential candidate speaks from his heart on areas he feels he was overly misunderstood, especially on perceptions he was buoyed by unbridled ambition, pride and political arrogance.

It also opens a window into colonial Kenya, the role of African chieftaincy as seen through his late father Mzee Musa Nyandusi, the challenges faced by emerging black bureaucrats including himself in the Africanisation of governance, as well as insights into the heady times for Kenya during the assassinations of prominent personalities such as Tom Mboya and JM Kariuki.

Nyachae, albeit with some guarded streak of silence and don’t-tell-it-all counsel of the Official Secrets Act, talks of his relationship with Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and his long-time friend Daniel arap Moi.

He discusses their presidency with a surgical mind, lays bare the intrigues that defined Kenya as it is today, including the Change-the-Constitution Movement hatched by a group of Central Kenya and Rift Valley Kikuyu politicians to bar Moi from automatically taking over for 90 days were Kenyatta, then a frail old man stumbling from one coma and hallucination to another, to die abruptly.

Before Nyachae’s, which also spills over to relations with President Kibaki and his own frustrations in the Kanu regime, came autobiographies of former Cabinet ministers GG Kariuki and Mr Njenga Karume.

Graft-busting tapes

We have also in the bookstores two books on Moi, as well as one by Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi dubbed In the Mud of Politics. Just the other day foreign writers gave us two — on Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Mr John Githongo and his graft-busting tapes.

Because theirs is the Kenyan story, told outside the colonial prism, and narrated as they experienced it, these books enrich our national heritage, educate us on our past, and tell us who we are.

It is a trend that should be encouraged. It would be tragic if more of our elderly politicians and retired bureaucrats die with our story, for it never was theirs in the first place, like Kenyatta’s and Moi spymaster Joseph Kanyotu.