Kenyan Poet Shailja Patel: Mochama Sexually Assaulted Me

http://jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/9193/kenyan-shailja-mochama-sexually-assaulted

Onyango Oloo and Davinder Lamba Assaulted by PCEA Goons at Kibarage wetlands in Westlands

By Onyango Oloo

I  left the MP Shah Hospital approximately an hour ago.

I was in the Casualty section of the hospital being treated for a fresh arrow wound from an assault inflicted by a horde of Maasai speaking militia wielding machetes, bows and arrows, iron bars, rungus and other crude weapons. 

Our attackers are employees of the PCEA Church with an assignment to guard a controversial piece of public land in Kibarage on Peponi Road across from the Westgate Mall.

Davinder Lamba, the Executive Director of the Mazingira Institute, founder and leading light of the Operation Firimbi campaign against land grabbing and corruption, was set upon by the same vicious assailants who clobbered him on the back, shoulder and upper arm.

How did this all come to pass on a mid Saturday morning in an otherwise sedate middle class suburb of Nairobi?

On the evening of Friday, July 11, 2014, Davinder Lamba got a call from Henry Mudogo, an activist and trader in Westlands inviting him to a public meeting convened by area  

MP Tim Wanyonyi to discuss growing concerns about a parcel of land at Kibarage River site adjacent to Peponi Road.   

This area is part of the wetlands designated as public land. Since the 1990s, these wetlands in Westlands which extend far beyond the above area, have been grabbed by well connected elites before being hived off by private developers and speculators, endangering flora and fauna and the environment. 

It was agreed that Davinder Lamba would meet with the MP at 10 am and provide the legislator with a detailed briefing on the history of protests and campaigns to conserve the Kibarage site-actions in which Mazingira Institute and Green Belt Movement have been at the forefront  for almost twenty years.

Onyango Oloo, who is a senior writer with the Operation Firimbi Bulletin, was part of a delegation which included Lillian Muchungi and Vertisine Mbaya of Green Belt Movement;  Kibe Mwangi and George Njoroge of the Westlands Environmental Caretaker Group which met with National Lands Commission Chairman Dr. Muhammad Swazuri on June 25, 2014, urging the NLC to intervene in the matter in order to suspend the ongoing construction of a perimeter fence pending further public consultations on the legality of the development at the site. It is understood that the Presbyterian Church of East Africa claims to have a title deed to what is presumably public land.

The National Land Commission responded by visiting the site a few days ago, and later on issuing 

a letter dated July 8, 2014 and copied to Nairobi Governor Dr. Evans Kidero and the OCS, Spring Valley Police Station advising that any activities on the Kibarage River site Peponi Road be suspended immediately.

On Saturday, July 12, 2014, Davinder Lamba, accompanied by Onyango Oloo, left the Mazingira offices at 9:30 am and walked to the Kibarage site to keep the 10 am appointment with the Hon. Timothy Wanyonyi, MP for Westlands. They arrived at the venue 20 minutes later.   

Having not seen the MP by around ten minutes after the scheduled time, Davinder called Henry Mudogo to inquire about the whereabouts of the MP and the rest of his entourage. 

Two minutes later, Henry himself arrived to inform Davinder and Oloo that the MP now preferred to meet in his constituency office located within the precincts of the Freedom from Hunger Council compound, off Rhapta Road around the corner from the Baptist Church.

At the site were almost two dozen heavily armed men who from their speech and physical features appeared to be a mix of individuals from Maasai and Turkana communities. 

There were also a handful of construction workers, easily identified by their hard hats. 

The armed men were quite menacing to us, especially when they recognized Davinder Lamba, well known countrywide for his long standing campaign against land grabbing, corruption and environmental degradation. 

Davinder on his part heartily greeted them assuring them that we had no conflict with them, even as he, Oloo, Henry and Kibe proceeded on foot up Peponi Road on their way to MP Timothy Wanyonyi’s office.

We had not walked more than a few steps when we were surrounded from the back and the front by the same armed men demanding in loud voices what we  were doing on the pavement. 

They were wielding their pangas, bows and arrows and other crude weapons.

They pounced on Davinder hitting him viciously with iron bars.   

They rained blows and kicks on Henry after shooting him on the forehead with an arrow. He  lost his mobile phone in the process.

Another attacker aimed an arrow at Onyango Oloo hitting his upper arm.

Fortunately, even though the arrow was embedded, it turned out to be a superficial flesh wound.

 Later at the MP Shah  Hospital, Oloo got a tetanus vaccine injection and prescribed some antibiotics after his wound was dressed and treated.

It was not immediately apparent why the PCEA Church (the alleged "owner"of the parcel of land who is listed  on a notice board inside the compound as opposed to being placed prominently along Peponi Road as the client who commissioned the construction of the fence) felt so threatened as to retain a battery of ferocious armed men to guard the controversial Kibarage site on a 24 hour basis.  Kenyan security guards are not allowed to possess dangerous offensive weapons of any nature. 

The entity that is in charge of PCEA properties, among other things is the PCEA Foundation.

In addition, the conditions under which the armed men live on conditions deemed unfit for human clearly violate a whole range of the country’s labour laws, apart from being in flagrant violation of the Constitution itself.

It is understood that Hon. Timothy Wanyonyi  denounced the outrage when he later visited the scene of the unprovoked violent attacks on Davinder Lamba, Onyango Oloo and Henry as well as members of the public including some tourists who were indiscriminately set upon by the armed mob.

A public response from concerned civil society groups is being prepared.


Onyango Oloo
Recuperating somewhere in the Kenyan capital

Oloo NOT Surprised by Mpeketoni Tragedy

[First of all, mkono wa tanzia kwa jamii, jamaa na marafiki wa waathiriwa wa maafa Mpeketoni jana usiku.The terrible tragedy that unfolded in Mpeketoni, Lamu County on June 15, 2014 shocked millions of Kenyans. But one of the few who was NOT surprised is the present writer, Onyango Oloo.  I am a senior writer with Operation Firimbi Bulletin, a publication of the Mazingira Institute which focuses on issues of land grabbing and campaigns against land grabbing and corruption in Kenya. About four months ago, I traveled all the way to Lamu to conduct research for issue number 37 of the Firimbi Bulletin. I reproduce below an article I penned in March.  I have also included a link to the entire issue saved in PDF format. If you go through article, you will see clearly why, even though I am traumatized and sad at the wanton destruction of human life, I repeat, Onyango Oloo is NOT SURPRISED. In passing I must say it is laughable to see Interior Security cabinet secretary Joseph Ole Lenku showing up after 19 hours and link the Mpeketoni attack to the CORD rallies in general and Raila Odinga in particular. Does the Jubilee regime gets its security briefings from  frothing nutbars on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere on social media? ]

The Ndovu (Elephant) in the Room

By Onyango Oloo, Senior Writer, Operation Firimbi Bulletin

In late February 2014, a member of the Operation Firimbi Bulletin team had the opportunity of travelling all the way to Lamu on a fact  finding mission to  see and hear first hand, the experiences, struggles of the challenges of the people of Lamu as they grappled with myriad challenges about historical injustices around land and their impact on matters of cultural identity, survival of   and issues of equitable and sustainable national development, protection  of the environment and the preservation of world heritage sites. 

Through this breathtaking odyssey the themes of inter-community harmony, conflict transformation, agrarian reform and new paradigms kept cropping and popping up.

Our main host was the multi-member Save Lamu Coalition ensconced right in the middle of Lamu, Kenya’s oldest urban area and a melting port of a range of religions, races, ethnic groups and shared destinies.

Before we got to the neighbourhoods of Witu, Mpeketoni, Hongwe, Morowe and Lamu Island proper, however, we made a brief one day stop over in Malindi.

And it was to meet the venerable scholar Professor Abdulla Bujra, the long serving founder and Director of Development Policy Management Forum, a  development  NGO which since its founding in 1995 has carved a niche for itself for its cutting edge interventions in the spheres of political economy, sustainable development, governance, environmental protection and social justice. Prof. Abdalla Bujra was born in Malindi in 1938, but spent most of his formative years in Lamu. He went to Lamu primary school, Mombasa Secondary school then joined University of London where he did a BA in African Studies and later obtained his Doctoral degree (PhD) in Sociology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. As an academic and scholar, Prof. Bujra has taught in various universities around the world. His teaching expertise includes supervising senior researchers and graduate students (PhD and MA) in academic institutions. He has also participated in and managed several major high level Pan-African panels and committees linked to the AU as well as Pan-African independent research organisations. 

We had actually planned to have an appointment with Prof. Bujra in Lamu, but when we contacted him over the phone he informed us that he had come to Malindi on other engagements. Since he had come highly recommended as a source on the intricacies of the land and resourced based issues in Lamu we offered that we could travel directly to Malindi from Mombasa and from there continue  towards our rendezvous with the Coalition at the archipelago up north.

The good university don-now retired- happily obliged.

Our first meeting was at the Jebreen Café, located ironically on Lamu Road in Malindi. He later took us over to the offices of MEDA, a well known civil society organization in the city which provided Vasco da Gama with his Kenyan pilot five centuries ago.

In our tête–à–tête with Prof. Bujra we were able to glean a lot of fascinating tidbits about Lamu-its inhabitants, heritage and storied legacy.

The professor did not disappoint when we zeroed in our main research interest: the context of the land question in Lamu County.

“What you have in Lamu is a question of internal colonialism. Lamu people, even though they are Kenyans have long been treated as second class citizens in their own country. All the powerful government people- the PCs, the DCs, the DOs all the powerful public officers, especially those handling land matters have never been local, they all come from Nairobi. Land in Lamu was declared government land, unlike other areas of Kenya. Most Lamu peasant and small farmers do not have title deeds. And then the ultimate monstrosity: in the 1970s, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta opted to tackle the burning land question in Central Province by importing thousands of Agikuyu into Lamu, creating the Lake Kenyatta Settlement scheme in what is today Lamu West This was done in total disregard to the interests of the Bajuni, Swahili, Orma, Awer and other indigenous Lamu people, many of whom had been evicted from their ancestral land earlier. Jomo Kenyatta and his acolytes like the former Coast PC were in power when local, politically connected elites from Nairobi grabbed a lot of land in Lamu County. All these issues planted the seeds of simmering conflict that will explode in the region if local grievances are not dealt with.”

Professor Bujra gave me the name of Abubakar El-Amudy and other members of the Save Lamu Coalition and advised me to make a point of meeting him and other members of the coalition. He also gave me valuable references to important documents and recommended I meet a range of contacts-not only in Lamu but also in Nairobi, especially the Katiba Institute. He insisted that I must see for myself Kililani, one of the proposed sites of the new port, and a scene of some recent protests.

Since this is NOT a glossy travelogue, to be read leisurely over a multi-time zone transatlantic flight, I will suppress my almost uncontrollable urge to construct a mental instagram , using adjectives, verbs and adverbs; I will therefore skimp on  the minutiae and skip over the sun kissed, breezy, meandering odyssey to history drenched Lamu by  sturdy country bus; of how we  breath takingly, zippily traversed the oceanic liquid expanse via steam boat-no, there was no time for  bumpy, rickety, donkey rides on the ageless, narrow lanes of the ancient, possibly enchanted town!

Upon arrival, Abubakar El-Amudy met me at the wharf and guided me to the squeaky clean guest house that was to be domicile during my brief sojourn in Lamu.

 A brief siesta on the humungous hand crafted bed segued into my face to face with invited members of the Save Lamu Coalition over at the second floor offices at the foot of downtown Lamu.

On hand for the meet, greet and round table session were Mohamed Mbwana of the Shungwaya Welfare Association; Mohamed Athman of the Lamu Marine Forum; Abubaker El Amudy himself of the Lamu Environmental Coalition; and Chair of the coalition; Wahid Ahmed of the Lamu Youth Alliance; Hussein Soud, the wise old man of Amu Council of Elders and author of a good book on Swahili culture and Mohamed Athman Khatib, the Coordinator of Save Lamu Coalition.

The gathering with the usual warm Swahili hospitality that I have come accustomed to having  grown up in Mombasa from my early teens welcomed me with tea and bitings and then fed me with a treasure of information about Lamu; especially about LAPSSET and details of how the people of Lamu were actually the first IDPs in post-colonial Kenya when Mzee Kenyatta’s regime used a ruse about a Shifta presence to force many local residents of Lamu to flee their burning, looted and pillaged homes for refuge in Malindi, Mombasa and even as far as Tanzania. They amplified what Prof. Bujra had recounted a day earlier about central government mandarins from Nairobi lording it over the residents of Lamu; of the corruption and land grabbing; of a sense of cultural and ethnic siege…

There was a very robust and frank discussion about the settlement schemes around Mpeketoni, Hongwe and elsewhere in Lamu West. There were echoes of what Bujra had mentioned earlier about a  déjà vu sense of cultural invasion, in terms eerily reminiscent of passages from Ngugi wa Thiong’o of European colonial settlements in the so called “White Highlands”-complete with the sense of cultural alienation and near annihilation. I was slightly startled at the intensity of the feelings expressed but when one of the participants boldly and baldy foretold a coming conflagration in Lamu over land with overtones of ethnic enmity, I had my eyes wide open, taking furious notes as he went on to warn that if left unchecked what may end up unfolding in Lamu may make the post-election violent skirmishes in the former Rift Valley appear like child play.

When I pressed on, playing devil’s advocate to tease out the details I uncovered that the elephant in Lamu was the huge influx of Gikuyu migrants and settlers making Mpeketoni what some locals considered a second GEMA homeland. As  raw and as uncomfortable and as politically incorrect the conversation unfolded it is clear that there is a lot of seething rage in Lamu today over the unresolved land issues in contemporary Lamu and the continued influx of Kenyans who are considered “outsiders” from up country into the archipelago.

“We Lamu and Coastal people have for centuries welcomed and embraced visitors into our midst. Many people have come to Lamu, Mokowe, Hongwe, Mpeketoni, Manda-you name it. Some have become Muslim; intermarried, made Lamu their home, speak in the Amu dialect- you cannot tell they came from Kirinyaga, Machakos, Meru, Kisumu, Bungoma.  They have become part of us; they are our neighbours our friends. But how do you go to someone’s home; grab their land; kick them out; bring your own family members, recreate and rename the neighbourhoods after your own villages up country. On top of that you come into the local elections and attempt to usurp power! A significant percentage of the  ward representatives of the Lamu County Assembly are from one ethnic group! The Member of the National Assembly is called Ndegwa for crying out loud!  Be more respectful of us! At least give us the courtesy to run the affairs of our own county! Already only two tribes are dominating the national government! Can’t the Lamu people govern Lamu? We fear that this LAPSSET project which requires a population of one million will make us, the indigenous people of Lamu, lose our cultural, religious and ethnic identity forever. We are only 100,000 right now in the whole of Lamu!”

Very sobering thoughts.

Click on the link below for the entire issue of Firimbi # 37 saved in PDF format:

http://www.mazinst.org/files/mazpub/Firimbi%20Bulletin%20No%2037.pdf

Kenyan Left Reconvenes

Veterans of the Marxist-oriented Kenyan Left underground movements from the 1980s reunited at the recent launch of  

Maina wa Kinyatti’s 

latest book.

Reconvening at the Kenya Cultural Centre, located at the National Theatre on the outskirts of the University of Nairobi comrades like Mwandawiro Mghanga, Oduor Ongwen, Prof. Edward Oyugi, Yusuf Hassan (currently representing Kamukunji Constituency in the National Assembly), Zarina Patel, Abdulqadir Nasser, Onyango Oloo, Kang’ethe wa Mungai, Wariuru wa Mungai, Ramadhan Khamis, Muthoni Kamau, Zahid Rajan, Mohammed Abdulahi-to name just a few, 

were on hand at the February 18^th unleashing of Mwakenya: The  Unfinished Revolution written by historian, radical lecturer and activist organizer Maina wa Kinyatti who consciously picked on the 57^th anniversary of the execution of Kenyan independence hero Dedan Kimathi wa Waciuri to make his powerful statement about the role of our socialist comrades in the struggle for freedom, social justice and sustainable development in this country.

For a video recording of the event, visit the following youtube link:

http://youtu.be/HBJyL-5g2WI

The struggle for democracy, equality and social justice in Kenya has unfolded over many decades.  From the early peasant jacquerries and anti-tax revolts at the turn of the 20^th century through the trade union led strikes of the 1930s and 1940s; the Mau Mau armed struggle of the 1950s, the nationalist strivings of the 1960s and the long drawn clamour for multi-party democracy and constitutional reform over the last thirty years, there have been heroes and sheroes celebrated and immortalized in song, in poetry and even statues erected in their honour.

One epoch in that epic story of Kenya’s freedom fight has been almost erased by latter day chroniclers of our history. That is the period of the valiant resistance movement against the KANU one party tyranny from the late 1970s to the early 1990s-the time from the death of Jomo Kenyatta to the twilight years of Daniel arap Moi.

This was the golden age of the Kenyan underground movement when disciplined, militant patriotic comrades were fighting for a new Kenya. They did not just want change in Kenya; they demanded a revolutionary transformation of Kenya, an upheaval in Kenya that would bring the oppressed from their down trodden status to the top where the ordinary women and men of Kenya, the poor and marginalized youth; the exploited villagers in the peasant countryside and the disenfranchised workers in the urban slums would be holding the steering wheel guiding Kenya to a new democratic future. The leaders of the clandestine struggles were revolutionaries committed to a socialist vision.

 

Yet, when in 2010 when Kenyans celebrated the promulgation of the new constitution, hardly anybody mentioned the Kenyan socialist pioneers who demanded multi-party democracy and social justice long before it was popular and conventional to do so. It was as if they the Mwandawiros, the Miceres, the Njeris, the Omondi K'abirs, the John Munuves, the Chitechi Osundwas, the Kamoji Wachiiras, Adongo Ogonys, the Wangui wa Goros, the Wangari Murikukis, the Shadrack Guttos, the Shiraz Durranis, the Alamin Mazruis and Sultan Somjees did not exist, had never lived and breathed, let alone striking a single blow for progressive change. Today many of them are graying and half forgotten on the margins of the periphery.

Luckily for the veterans of the socialist Left underground, for Kenya, for posterity, they have a writer who is determined to make sure that their glorious chapter is not ripped from the history of Kenya- a history written with their blood and tears, their sweat and sacrifices.

We are talking about Maina wa Kinyatti-one of Kenya’s foremost historians; one of Kenya’s prominent organic intellectuals; one of Kenya’s militant scholars. Maina wa Kinyatti was abducted from Kenyatta University, interrogated and humiliated by the former Special Branch before being hauled to a kangaroo court on trumped up charges and later flung to the dungeons of the Kamiti and Naivasha penitentiaries.

If the Moi-KANU dictatorship and its successor regimes imagine it would thus punish him and ultimately silence him, it was in for a rude reckoning.

Maina wa Kinyatti never stopped writing- about Kenya’s anti-imperialist history; never stopped composing militant poetry or some smuggling courageous exposes of human rights violations taking place behind the cold and desolate maximum security walls.

So in 2014, he has consciously chosen the 57^th anniversary of the hanging of Mau Mau hero Dedan Kimathi wa Waciuri to gift us with his latest opus-Mwakenya: The Unfinished Revolution -Selected Documents of the Mwakenya-December Twelve Movement (1974-2002).

The 440 page book is divided into six parts. 

After the preface and introduction, Part One deals with birth of the Kenyan underground movement in the mid 1970s around the time of the brutal and grisly murder of the populist parliamentarian JM Kariuki by assassins widely believed to be working at the behest of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Drawing its inspiration and legacy from the Mau Mau struggle of the 1950s, the December Twelve Movement (DTM) derived its name from the date Kenya achieved flag independence, in actuality the date when the freedom aspirations of Kenyans were betrayed and neo-colonialism ushered in. Maina informs his readers that DTM in turn was the baby of the clandestine Workers’ Party of Kenya whose founding leaders were Maina wa Kinyatti himself, Kamoji Wachiira, Adhu Awiti, Amin Kassam, Koigi wa Wamwere and later, Willy Mutunga (the current Chief Justice) Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Alamin Mazrui, Edward Oyugi, Shiraz Durrani, Sultan Somjee, Ngotho wa Kariuki, the late Ngugi wa Mirii, Kuria Muriimi, Kariuki Kiboi and others. The fledgling underground movement took an anti-imperialist, pro-socialist stance, ideology anchored in Marxism-Leninism Maoist  Thought. 

The movement was to later launch communication organs, newspapers, journals and publications like Mwanguzi, Pambana and Cheche. At the cultural level the author informs us that DTM was the organizing force behind such militant and patriotic plays like Ngaahika Ndeenda and the Trial of Dedan Kimathi. The movement mobilized progressive lecturers and organized well attended public symposia at the campuses on the burning issues of the day. It recruited students and open minded and radical members of the petite bourgeoisie into its secret ranks. 

Before its top leadership was arrested and detained in June 1982, DTM, through its clandestine, type written, cyclostyled photo copied and stapled newspaper Pambana, surreptitiously circulated under the very nose of the secret police, the movement had boldly announced its arrival in the ranks of the opposition at a time when the Moi-KANU one party dictatorship was smugly assuring itself that it had politically throttled all the voices of dissent. Maina wa Kinyatti reveals how even behind prison walls and exile, DTM continued to grow, recruiting within ranks some militant university students jailed on sedition charges. The author states that in 1984, the movement morphed from the founder members of DTM mentioned in the book. 

The rest of Part One is taken up by a detailed narrative as well as a very frank analysis and critique of the later history of the movement when according to the author it was taken over by what he refers to as “opportunists, sectarians and ultra-leftists” who later transformed it into Mwakenya with at first disastrous consequences. Maina wa Kinyatti chronicles the inner party debate, struggle and rectification which later to the expulsion of the “liquidationist Dar clique”. 

It is worth reading and re-reading this section on criticism and self-criticism of the Mwakenya phase of the movement because it appears a distinct departure and a fresh gust of air from Maina wa Kinyatti’s previous public views on Mwakenya-especially his last major work, History of Kenya 1895-2002, where to many comrades and observers outside the movement Maina appeared to endorse some of Mwakenya’s gregarious errors through silence. 

It is curious nevertheless, to note in passing that this 2014 internal critique by Maina wa Kinyatti appears to echo very closely and loudly another trenchant critique by a comrade outside Mwakenya, using the pseudonym Zinduka U Pambane who had penned a very thorough expose titled “Every New Beginning Has an Old Origin” appearing in a semi-covert ideological exile-based journal called Itikadi way back in January 1995.

Part Two which spans 137 pages, showcases the DTM publications from 1974 to 1985, reproducing several copies of Mwanguzi, Pambana, Mpatanishi, occasional anonymous leaflets and other communiqués and pronunciamentoes from the movement.

Part Three provides a selection of Mwakenya documents covering the period from 1987 to 2001 including internal position papers, statements, study group observations and reflections.

Part Four lays bare in the public domain in the first time outside the close circle of Kenyan exiles and activists in Britain and the United States, excerpts from the archives of Ukenya, formed in the UK in the 1980s to confront the Moi dictatorship. Among the UKENYA documents is to be found its 1987 Manifesto; a public address in  London by UKENYA Chairperson Yusuf Hassan (currently the MP for Kamukunji) and a speech delivered by Abdilatif Abdalla (renowned Kenyan poet) at the 7^th Pan African Congress held in Kampala in April 1994.

Part Five, beginning on page 417, is a reproduction of the 2001 Mwakenya Harare Declaration pledging that it was a year dedicated to the movement’s renewal. That document among other things, resolved to ”clarify the name of the party and call it DTM-Mwakenya so as to reflect correctly, the history, continuity and the main streams that have gone into making it”.

Part Six is some kind of appendix  consisting of the DTM-Mwakenya Study Guide broken down to organizational aspects like the concepts of the unity of theory and practice; democratic centralism; criticism and self-criticism; dialectical and historical materialism; classes in history; the National Question; Religion; the Woman Question; On the State; Historical Aspects; Africa and Kenya.

At the book launch there were robust exchanges and interventions by a range of the progressive activists who attended. People like Al Amin Kimathi of the Muslim Human Rights Forum; Cidi Otieno of Bunge la Mwananchi,  Suba Churchill of the National Civil Society Congress and Mwandawiro Mghanga, the Chairperson of the Social Democratic Party of Kenya.

Al Amin Kimathi poignantly observed true activists NEVER retire from the struggle as Boniface Mwangi 

 purported to do a couple of weeks ago.

As the Chief Guest at the launch Hon. Yusuf Hassan observed:

"Maina wa Kinyatti's book is a very welcome and path breaking book, filling a void that has yawned in Kenyan historiography for decades as comrades who were encyclopedias and reservoirs of democratic and anti-imperialist knowledge like Mwakdua wa Mwachofi, Paddy Onyango Sumba, Githirwa wa Muhoro, George Anyona, Kariuki Gathitu and many others died with their stories depicting their role in the clandestine national anti-imperialist struggles from the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. One hopes that Maina’s book will spur others like Prof. Edward Oyugi, Mwandawiro Mghanga, Chitechi Osundwa, Kang'ethe Mungai, Alamin Mazrui, Micere Mugo, Shadrack Gutto,Nish Matenjwa, Wangui wa Goro, Onyango Oloo, Willy Mutunga, Oduor Ongwen, Zahid Rajan, Abdul Qadir Nassir, Adong'o Ogony, Njeri Kabeberi and many others to pen their own stories further enrichening this important part of our history."

 In Nairobi, Mwakenya: The Unfinished Revolution is available at the following bookshops: Prestige Booksellers (Mama Ngina Street (next to 20th Century Cinema); Bookpoint Ltd (Loans House along Moi Avenue) and Bookstop, 2nd floor, Yaya Centre, Argwings Kodhek Road.

Onyango Oloo

Mombasa