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The Nyayo House StoryWe Lived To Tell


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Published b y:

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES)Peponi Road, Peponi Plaza

P.O. Box 14932,

Nairob i, Kenya

Tele fax + 254-2-3748338/9

E-ma il: [email protected]

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung

Citizens for Justice

Design and Layout

Sunburst Communications

P.O. Box 43193 Nairobi

Email:[email protected]

ISBN 9966-957-03-0

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Foreword

Acknowledgements 4

Dedications 5

Prologue 6

Introduction 9

Chapter 1. The colonial Era 14

Chapter 2. Independent Kenya 16

Chapter 3. Following in the footsteps 21

Chapter 4. The Air Force coup attempt 25

Chapter 5. Mwakenya 29

Chapter 6. We lived to tell 35

Chapter 7. In the dungeons - Nyayo House 41

Chapter 8. Life in prison 51

Chapter 9. Exile 57

Chapter 10. The role of women 62

Chapter 11. Picking up the pieces 67

Chapter 12. Aluta Continua 70

Chapter 13. What next 73

Appendix 1 78

Appendix 2 79

Table of Contents

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We lived to Tell is a bo ok by t he Citizens For Just ice, which docum ents experiences of Kenya ns

who w ent throug h the infamo us Nyayo House Torture Chamb ers. They tell harrow ing sto ries ofscary ho unding by security a gents, arrests, tort ure, jail and det ention. Their experiences reveal an

intolerant, oppressive a nd paranoid go vernment tha t could not stand criticism.

Surprisingly, the g overnments flag rant d isrega rd for the law and the b latant violation of t he

survivors and victims human right s happened in t he g lare and wa tchful eyes of the d onor and

internationa l community.

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) suppo rted the development and publica tion of We Lived to Tell.

The Found at ion supports initiat ives tha t promot e democracy a nd t he rule of law. We support t he

promotion of a tolerant culture where dialogue is encourag ed a s one of the w ays of resolving

tho rny issues. We share in the declarat ion of the survivors that w hat they w ent through should

never happen a ga in in Kenya ! How ever, the content s and o pinions expressed in this book are

tho se of t he Citizens For Justice and n ot of FES.

We lived to tell

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Foreword

It is not o ften tha t survivors of torture have t he courage, the foresight and the w herewithal to

record their pa inful experiences in writing in Kenya . In a context where there is no culture ofread ing more than d aily newspapers (due to const raints including povert y, illiteracy and lack of

stat e encouragement ), writing something a s painful and personal a s wha t is contained in this

boo k is more than welcome.

I have w orked directly for many years in huma n rights. Yet, each time I listen to, or read, the

test imonies of survivors, I never fail to g et a surge of em otion. The same q uestions spring to my

mind. For example, what internal mechanisms are needed to survive and tell such horrors? Can

one ever prepare oneself ad equately for these horrors? What entity spares some and not others

even in terms of the degree of ho rrors? What do the p erpetrators think as they commit thesehorrors? How do they insulat e th eir minds from their horrible work? Answers to some of t hese

q uestionsat least from the survivors perspectiveare alluded to in this bo ok.

It is said tha t healing after menta l or physical traumasuch as t he to rture described in this

bo okbegins with telling the story in the survivors ow n words. Kenya t oday is packed w ith

literally thousands o f people wound ed a nd sca rred d irectly by sta te terror. Arguably, virtua llyeveryone in the country has b een affected indirectly by the t rauma associated with sta te terrorfrom colonial rule, and th rough t he Kenyat ta and Moi regimes, due to the institut ionalized na ture

of sta te t error, intimida tion a nd corruption. The lega cy of t his institutiona lized t error andcorruption affect s everyone: From the w ay w e think and act on rout ine issues of da ily life to the

expectations of immediate salvation from t he sta te w hich ha d styled itselfand succeeded in

internalizingthe notion tha t it w as mama na baba(father and mother) on every issue.

But nobod y suffered as much as the people who committed their lives to social chang e and

transforma tion in Kenya and pa id the ultimate price w ith their lives and liberty. And to thesepeople, Kenya ow es a huge d ebt . They wo rked tirelesslysome before their encounter with therepressive state machinery and some afterin exposing and resisting the colonial heritage tha t

is internalized in the post-independent sta te. Some may not ag ree with the metho ds tha t theseag ents of chang e ad opted in their efforts for chang e, but o ne can not help but adm ire their

persistence, resolve and determinat ion, even ag ainst immeasurab le odds.

Every struggle for social chang e has to undergo its own ad apta tion and transformations in

keeping w ith the history, context and go als that it wishes to achieve, and one could a rgue that

the process of coa lition buildingeven w ithout the lessons of coalition sustenancethat led to

the h istoric elections of December 2002, had its roo ts in the work of the a dvoca tes of social

chang e that paid such a high price.

Repaying pa rt of t his deb t ow ed t o the people who suffered is not as ha rd as it may appea r. The

first step is the formal acknow ledgement of the roles played and the t errible suffering tha t

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occurred in Kenya in the d ecades past , by t he highest o ffice in the land. This also has the

advanta ge o f signa ling that t he go vernment of the d ay is determined not to commit similarat rocities in the future an d that it respects those t hat made its rule possible by sustaining a

culture of resistance, even in small wa ys.

Second, it is imperative tha t the President heed the recommend at ions of the Task Force looking

into the esta blishment of a Truth, Justice and Reconciliat ion Commission and establish one as

soon as possible. And it is not enoug h to simply esta blish a Truth, Justice and Reconciliat ion

Commission: It must be esta blished in a manner tha t lead s to its effect iveness, credibility and

legitimacy. This can be d one through co nsultat ion by the go vernment w ith critical stakeholders

who must include survivors of state terrorto ensure tha t the Commissioners appointed are

credible, effective and a ccepta ble, having b een a pa rt of the strug gle for chang e in Kenya in some

form. Only through a systematic way of testifying and highlighting the sufferings and courage o f

survivors and victims can Kenya t ake a solemn vow that these mat ters are behind us and behind

us forever.

Moreover, no sterner or effective message can b e sent to potential perpetrators that these

at rocities will never ag ain be to lerated, tha n throug h the process of a Truth, Justice and

Reconciliat ion Commission. It is a truism tha t impunity bege ts a repea t of history and those w howould rather bury their heads in the sand, or focus on reconciliat ion without truth, are no bet ter

than the perpetrators themselves.

Third, even w ithout w aiting for a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, it is import an t tha t

the g overnment b egin wo rking with survivors to beg in the formal process of healing the mental

trauma tha t comes with this suffering. The age of counseling for human right s violat ions survivors

and w orkers has not ye t ta ken hold fully in Kenya , and there are not many survivors who have

go ne through counseling t o let out the pain, the d iscomfort and the d ifficulties that ca me w ith

their experiences. Yet, without counseling, the journey to what is regarded a s normalcy forsurvivors and their families is prolong ed a nd ma de even mo re tenuous.

Once ag ain, I salute the peo ple who se test imonies should enrich every Kenyanslife as they read

this book. I salute those w ho could not cont ribute to the boo k because they paid the ultimate

price w ith the ir lives. Through you Kenya is a be tter place for the moment, and we will not forget

your w ork. We owe yo u.

November 2003

Maina KiaiChairman, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights

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Acknowledgements

The Citizens for Justice wo uld like to tha nk all the people who participated in this project for

g iving so g enerously of their time and sharing t heir experiences. We w ould pa rticularly like totha nk Wanjiku Matenjwa for compiling the research w ork, Beatrice Kamau for coordinat ing the

project and to the researchers, Wachira Waheire, Tirop Kitur, Kamonye Manje, Onyang o C.A.,

Silvanus Oduor and Gitau Wangut hi

We w ould a lso like to offer our thanks to Professor Edw ard Oyugi, Professor Maina wa Kinyatt i,

Professor Katama Mkangi, Adongo Ogony, Ng ang a Thiong o, Mtumishi Njeru Kat hang u and

Pad dy Onyango for their edito rial input a nd invaluable comments. We also acknow ledge t he

support o f Peo ple Against Torture (PAT) and, Relea se Po litical Prisoners (RPP). Without yo u all,

there would have b een no book to speak of.

All the research and d iscussions w ere shaped, compiled and edited by Mugo Theuri and

Njuguna Muta hi. Finally, we w ould like to thank Wanjiku Mbug ua, FES Programme Manag er

contributed to the moulding of th is bo ok from the beg inning to its conclusion. We tha nk her.

We also acknow ledge w ith grat itude the assistance of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, whose support

by w ay of funding the research and pub lication mad e the w hole project possible.

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The people of this nation are simply demanding their righ ts - right t o a decent living, right to

education, right to proper medical care, right t o housing. In short t he right to be human beings.If that i s sedition so be it . These are the goals for which I have fought and fo r which I am pre-

pared to die.Harris Okongo Arara addressing a Nairobi Court before being sentenced to a five

year jail term on charges of sedition - September 24, 1988.

The Citizens for Justice dedicate this account o f the Kenyan endeavor for democracy and social

justice to the heroic spirit of struggle and resistance so eloquently captured by what Okongo Arara

told that Nairobi court.

We also wish to ho nour the memory of all those brave fighters for democracy a nd huma n rights

who ha ve paid the ultimate price. To a ll those nameless soldiers, the yo ung people of this nation

who w ere often cut dow n by the bullets of the dicta torship, we honour you. To all the more than

two hundred mainly young Kenyans who w ere mowed down by Mois police on that historic July

7, 1990 Kamukunji rally and to so ma ny others whose lives have eq ually been cut short simply for

want ing a better country for all of us. We assure you that although you may b e lying in an un-

marked g rave somewhere in the bow els of our great land, you are always w ith us.

We lived to tell, yes. But we know a nd a lways remember that some of our most brilliant, mostdedicated, most courag eous and most adored heroes and heroines of the Kenyan strugg le never

lived to tell. These a re the Karimis, the JMs, the Pio Ga ma Pintos, the Josephine Nyaw iras a nd the

Titus Adung osis of this world. These are among the heroes and heroines of our long strugg le who

exemplify the brutality of the anti-people forces ranged ag ainst Kenyans. To that endless list of

courag e under fire, all we can say is: You stand a bove us a ll but you are always with us even as we

confront the realities of today.

As we examine ourselves as foot soldiers and look at our heroes and heroines with admiration, we

should never loose sight of the fact that the g reatest violence and abuse that our people face isthe violence o f poverty, the violence o f hung er, the violence o f disease. These a re the scourges that

destroy the largest number of our fellow citizens every day.

Until we as a nation and a people declare wa r on these true enemies instead of being mesmerized

by the petty w ars of the mercenary ruling elite, we trag ically will always be on the loosing end. We

can stop it because w e did not get this far by sitting down. We have to occupy the demo cratic

space we have opened w ith courage and as a right a nd not a favour that w e have been temporar-

ily granted by the mercy of the Narc regime.

Citizens for Justice

Dedication

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Prologue

Shem Ogola stoo d in the middle of the small crowd that had ga thered to w itness the open-

ing of t he ba sement o f perhaps the most w ell know n building in Kenya. And in the glare ofworld television ca meras, he broke dow n in a floo d o f tears. His bod y shook. Choked with

emot ion, he sta rted ta lking to himself.

This sight elicited different emo tions. Some cried, some sa t dow n, some climbed on t ab les,

othe rs just w alked o ut, each lost in their ow n tho ught s.

Throug h Ogo la, a t orture survivor, Nyayo House torture chambers g ained a human face . For

his fellow survivors the scene t ransported them ba ck to their days in th e dungeo ns. Nyayo

House beca me a live ag ain. In different w ays, each relived t he ho rrors they survived. For some

it wa s the bea tings, others the sta rvation, da ys spent in water, humiliation, threats a nd ment al

torture.

For those lucky enoug h to h ave escaped Nyayo House, the event t hrew w ide open the do or

to the closet tha t conta ined the most fearsome symbol of Daniel arap Mois despo tic rule

spanning m ore than 24 years.

The occa sion b ecame a revelation into the pa st, a window through wh ich Kenyans g limpsedinto the ir country s da rk history. For many, the Nyayo House dungeons a nd t he ho rror stories

eman at ing from there were mere fiction until tha t da y.

The nat ion went into sho ck. Kenyans ha d hea rd ab out the to rture and a buse of pro-demo c-

racy act ivists w hich had b ecome a fright ening trad e mark of the Moi regime, but seeing the

inside of the ho rror house itself brought home the g ruesome reality in a w ay no thing else

could.

Eag er Kenyans burst into the basement compartments tha t they either did not know o r didnot be lieve existed . The med ia went into full ac tion. The true character of the defea ted

regime of Moi had been laid b are.

When it smelt electoral defeat, the Moi regime seemed to have tried to obliterate the t ruth of

the Nyayo House basement dung eons by a ttempt ing to demolish them. Howe ver, tha t w as

not possible beca use the cells had been facto red into t he integrity of the superstructure of

the building. Those b ent o n erasing the t ruth we re told th at demo lishing the cells would

undermine the found at ion and the building m ight co llapse. That is how the truth survived.

The pitch-dark dung eons had been ho me to many Kenyans. They included students, tea chers,

university a cadem ics, pea sants, workers, law yers, journalists and civil servants, among others.

ShemOgola in the glare ofworldtelevision cameras,he broke down in a floodoftears. Hisbody shook.Chokedwith emotion, hestartedtalkingto himself.

Shem Ogola

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They ha d a ll been houn ded by enthusiast ic hirelings of Moi, blindfolded , driven to the dungeons,

throw n into the b lack or red cells and tortured for days on end .

Water would be poured into the cell and cold and t hen hot d usty air would be pumped a lter-

nat ely into t he cells through the vent ilat ion ducts. The victims wo uld b e denied foo d a nd for

da ys they would be bruta lly bea ten. Others were shot dea d as they unde rwent interrog ation.

Those w ho survived th is sta ge ended up in prison or det ention aft er kang aroo trials of sedition

or treason. Yet o thers, aft er giving names of th eir friends or relatives, would be allowed to g o

home.

Detention w ithout trial is one of the m ost heinous forms of human righ ts ab uses that o ne can

think of. Veteran politician a nd leg endary Kenyan na tiona list Ramog i Achieng Oneko ha d this to

say ab out d etention without trial:

It nega tes the very funda menta l basis of democracy a nd short of execution, it is the ultimate

form of repression. A nat ion tha t d eta ins its ow n citizens without trial canno t b e a demo cratic

one . Rat her, it is a sa distic one, w hich delights in the pa in and suffering of its people. For det en-

tion w ithout t rial is grotesq ue, it is despicab le.

But for all who w ent through the experience a nd survived to tell it, an indelible mark of physical

and menta l trauma still lingers. For those w ho d ied, a hollow feeling of helplessness and ang uish

haunts families, relat ives and friends.

Historically, the o nly parallels that can be draw n to the t orture chamb ers are British colonial

concentration ca mps during the Mau Mau wa r. The British developed a nd perfected the best-

known torture machinery in the wo rld. This machinery included concentration ca mps where

many Kenyans perished from various forms of torture including mass starvation, neglect, diseaseand gruesome violence

Nyayo torture chambers w ere meticulously planned and built, using pub lic funds o f course,

specifically for purposes of torturing and killing Kenyans w ho w ere deemed to be enemies of the

Kanu regime. The ultimate ob jective wa s to crush the culture and spirit o f resistance to the Moi

dictat orship th at wa s beha ving as if Kenya and its people, as w ell as resources, were private

property o f the ruling elite.

It is obvious tha t t he building of th is heinous facility and many othe rs like it w as planned , fundedand implemented with a pproval from t he highest offices in the land. As every Kenyan h as

not iced, the b uilding wa s appropriat ely named Nyayo House. That na me personifies the chief

Nyayo torture chambers

were meticulouslyplanned and built, usingpublic funds of course,specifically for purposesof torturing and killingKenyans who weredeemed to be enemies ofthe Kanu regime. Theultimate objective was to

crush the culture andspirit of resistance to theMoi dictatorship that wasbehaving as if Kenya andits people, as well asresources, were privateproperty of the rulingelite.

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architect a nd overseer of de cades of the repression Kenyans ha ve endured. Nyayo (footsteps)

wa s the na me president Moi fondly gave h imself when he a ssumed pow er in 1978. It w asmean t to signify his intention to follow the b loody foot steps of his mentor and first president

of Kenya , Mzee Jomo Kenya tt a.

Nyayo torture chambers

were meticulouslyplanned and built, usingpublic funds of course,specifically for purposesof torturing and killingKenyans who weredeemed to be enemies ofthe Kanu regime. Theultimate objective was to

crush the culture andspirit of resistance to theMoi dictatorship that wasbehaving as if Kenya andits people, as well asresources, were privateproperty of the rulingelite.

Koigi Wamwere inside

the dungeons

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Introduction

We Lived to Telldo cuments experiences of so me survivors and families of victims of Nyayo

House torture dung eons. The book tells the ha rrow ing stories of the suffering they und erwentin the ha nds of various stat e agent s and institutions beginning in 1982 through the 1990s.

The ruling KANU clique perceived those they to ok through the d ungeons to be a t hreat t o

their political survival. In a vicious campa ign orchestra ted and o iled b y operatives of the ruling

party KANU, they were port rayed as dissidents, subversives, traitors, terrorists and unpatriotic

peop le whose a im was to destabilise the country. The propa ga nda Machinery of Moi and Kanu

went in top g ear to demonise those who championed human right s and demo cracy as violent

ag ents of foreign powers out to create chaos and mayhem in the country.

On assuming pow er in 1978, Moi declared tha t not hing had cha nged. He wa s to simply follow

in the late Kenyat ta s foo tsteps (nyayo ), hence hisFuata Nyayo (follow the footsteps)clarion ca ll.

Through a populist a pproach, Moi disbanded a nd b ann ed ma ny organisat ions. These included

the Kenya Civil ServantsUnion, Stud ent s Organisat ion of Nairob i University (SONU), and

UniversitiesAcademic Union (UAU), among others.

Soon Moi resumed detentions w ithout trial even though he had received undue credit for

releasing t hose deta ined by his predecessor among them Prof. Ngug i wa Thiong o, AdamMat heng e and Mart in Shikuku.

After banning the UniversitiesAcad emic Staff Union, Moi det ained its leadership who included

Dr. Willy Mutung a, Kamonji Wachira , Prof. Al Amin Mazrui, Prof. Edward Oyug i, Maina wa Kinyatti

and Mukaru Ng ang a. This was meant t o send a messag e to progressive Kenyans, particularly

within the university community, tha t t he new Nyayo era expected everybody to fuata nyayo.

Dissent and independent o pinion a nd views would no t b e to lerated. By immediately resorting

to the extreme method of detention without trial as his first a ction ag ainst perceived dissi-

dents Moi was a lso telling Kenyans to expect t he very wo rst should they ever cross the line.

The hope within the regime wa s that this would silence everybody and nip the budding voices

of opposition before they g rew louder. As history testifies democrat ic Kenyans refused to be

silenced and soon Moi was busy sending m ore patriotic Kenyans into detention under the

Preservation o f Public Security Act, Cap. 57 of the Law s of Kenya , sections o f w hich have since

been repealed to remove de tent ion witho ut trial, and the public Order Act Cap 56 Sect ion 83

of the Constitution. Those deta ined in the second w ave o f arrests of the Moi reg ime included

George Moseti Anyona , Koigi wa Wamwere and John Khaminwa .

These de tent ions followed indications tha t a group o f Kenyans were in the process of forming

a political party to challenge the Kanu g overnment.

Soon Moi resumed

detentions without trialeven though he hadreceived undue credit forreleasing those detainedby his predecessor likeProf. Ngugi wa Thiongo,AdamMathenge andMartin Shikuku

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Fearing tha t a nother g roup of Kenyans ma y come with a n oppo sition party, Kanu soo n intro-

duced a b ill in parliament t o make Kenya a de jure one party sta te. The b ill was rushed throug hparliament and in March 1982 all members of parliament vo ted unanimously to make Kenya a

one pa rty stat e by law. This was proba bly one of t he da rkest da ys in the history of Kenya a s an

independent nation.

On August 1, 1982 a sect ion of the armed forces of Kenya m ad e an a ttempt to overthrow the

Moi g overnment. The Air Force-led coup a ttempt ga ve Moi an excuse to dea l with his per-

ceived enemies with increased ruthlessness and mo re boldly.

Hundreds of civilians - including Otieno MakOnyango and Raila Odinga - were rounded upand charged with everything from celebrating t he coup a nd looting to sed ition, misprision o f

treason a nd treason itself. Among those a rraigned in court for looting cha rges w as the current

director of prosecutions, Philip Murgor.

Kamiti maximum prison was turned into a giant concentration camp where university stu-

dents, soldiers and ot hertreason suspectsw ere tortured w hile being interrogated.

The first g roup of students a rrested aft er the coup at tempt w ere Titus Adung osi (who laterdied in prison), Paddy Onyango, Joseph Hongo, Maurice Adongo Ogony, Onyango C. A., Oginga

Ogego, Francis Kinyua, Onyang o Oloo, Thomas Mutuse, Johnstone Simiyu, Jeff Mwangi, Ongele

Opala, Muga KOlale and Wahinya Bore.

It might be important t o note tha t prior to the coup attemp t the student community under

the SONU lead ership of Adung osi and Ogo ny wa s the only group to p ublicly challenge the

decision by pa rliament to impose a one part y rule by law in Kenya . The stud ents organised

several rallies culminat ing in the presentat ion of a memorandum to president Moi tha t ca lled

for a nat ional referendum to a sk Kenyans to decide on the one pa rty rule.

It wo uld ap pear Moi was bent o n using the coup attempt t o crush the student movement tha t

was fight ing for grea ter democrat ic rights for Kenyans. As far as Moi and his cohorts were

concerned the student movement had become a de factoopposition group at a time when

most p oliticians ha d been subdued into silence. The coup attem pt a s such beca me a go dsend

for Moi to deal a decisive blow to this irrita ting g roup of people.

In tot al hundreds of student s were rounded up. First they started with student leaders then

later widened the net to include as many stud ent activists as possible. They then went for anystudent t hey could smear some mud o n. The Industrial Area remand prison became home to

more than o ne hundred students facing a ll sorts of charges in relation to the coup a ttempt.

It might be important to

note that prior to the coupattempt the studentcommunity under theSONUleadership ofAdungosi and Ogony wasthe only group to publiclychallenge the decision byparliament to impose aone party rule by lawin

Kenya. The studentsorganised several ralliesculminating in thepresentation of a memo-randumto president Moithat called for a nationalreferendumto askKenyans to decide on the

one party rule.

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After more than seven months in custody 68 of the students w ere released by t he then Chief

Justice Alfred Simpson w ho told them they ha d been pardoned by president Moi, even thoug hnone o f them ha d been convicted of any crime. They were ordered to report to t heir chiefs in

their respect ive home a reas.

Things, how ever, were different for the Kenya Air Force officers and soldiers alleg ed to have

ta ken pa rt in the coup a ttempt . The a lleg ed co up ma sterminds were hanged in 1987. Those

hanged included the alleged coup leader Hezekiah Ochuka, Okumu Oteyo and Odera Obuo n.

A tragic tw ist to this sordid episode w as tha t most of those hang ed had actua lly escaped to

Tanza nia a fter the coup a ttempt and ha d b een a ccepted by the UNHCR as political exiles, onlyto b e kidna pped at gunpoint by a joint Kenya/Tanza nia paramilitary tea m from their places of

residence in Tanzania and broug ht b ack to Kenya to be hanged. This, of course, wa s a b latant

breach o f internat ional law regarding the protection o f asylum seekers.

International law as we know has never meant much to Moi and his government and even as

protests swelled from human right s groups demand ing tha t the alleged plotters should not

face the death pena lty, the Moi go vernment simply shrugg ed them off and w ent ahea d to

hang the convicts at Kamiti maximum prison without regard for local and international public

opinion. Curiously this was the last hanging president Moi aut horised until he was kicked o ut

of office in December 2002.

As the trials of alleged coup plotters and court mart ial of soldiers accused of involvement in

the coup w ound up in mid 1980s, a new w ave of repression and a rrests w as just beg inning. In

1986, the g overnment initiated anot her crackdown on a group of people referred to as

Mwakenyaac tivists. The pub lic was told th is was a g roup of very da ngerous individua ls who

were planning to w ag e a g uerrilla w ar ag ainst the Kanu g overnment.

In arather bizarre act o f bravado during one of his national tree planting days, Moi had this tosay in relat ion to the Mwakenyacrackdow n:We are collecting them o ne by one a nd t hose at

large do not sleep comfortably as they expect a knock on th eir doors any time.

As if to emphasize his own fea r of the Mwakenyaphenomenon his government had created,

Moi admonished the crowd: From tod ay you should keep q uiet. I do nt w ant to hea r anything

aga in aboutMwakenya.

Keep q uietMoi repeated. The g overnment will dea l with them one by one. We w ill collectthem so dont mention Mwakenyaag ain. Let s keep q uiet a nd g o o n collecting them . I am

happy tha t we have uncovered them and they are naming the ir fellow collab orato rs. This is

In 1986, the government

initiated anothercrackdown on a group ofpeople referred to asMwakenyaactivists. Thepublic was told this was agroup of very dangerousindividuals who wereplanning to wage aguerrilla war against the

Kanu government.

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very encouraging . If you w ere involved in this thing you should be wo rried. I think you can

hardly sleep b ecause yo u are scared. When you hear a knock on the door, you th ink thosefriends have come.

And the knock tha t Moi was promising did come more and more frequently to Kenyans, a

good number of who ha d never had a nything to do w ith Mwakenya.These terrifying remarks

by the then head o f state under whose office the dreaded w ing of the police dealing w ith

political cases, the Special Branch, and o ther security operatives were run are in themselves

very revealing in terms of the extent to w hich Moi was personally involved and briefed ab out

the deta ils of the crackdow n. Moi seemed to know very well about ho w cooperative those who

had been a rrested w ere in g iving names. It w ould be surprising if he did not know the met h-ods being emp loyed at the Nyayo House to achieve this so-called cooperation.

With terror in the a ir, social life becam e dreary. Uncertainty a nd mistrust reign ed supreme.

Freedom o f expression was curtailed. Kenya b ecame a police sta te. One could be ca lled to

acco unt for virtually anyt hing one sa id. Detect ives and police informers were everywhere.

Spies follow ed suspects round t he clock.

The story of tho se who w ere tortured, imprisoned, deta ined and exiled is capt ured in this book.

They w ere hunted d ow n like rabid d og s, taken to dung eons a t Nyayo House w here they w ould

emerge transformed a s this bo ok reveals. At the d ungeons the despot ic regime perfected

torture skills and a pplied t hem ruthlessly and mercilessly. No one left unscathed in bod y and

soul. Many w ere killed while undergoing interrog at ion and others were ma imed for life.

At t he po litical front, cheering crowds grew in droves. The KANU women, youth and parasta ta l

groups were on hire to sing praises. The judiciary w as recruited into the o rgy and used as a too l

for the defense of the regime. Hundreds of innocent Kenya ns were jailed. Others died in the

streets from police bullets.

The art o f sycophancy w as perfected w ith the KANU ni baba na mama(KANU is fa ther and

mother) tune reaching its crescendo. There wa s systematic social engineering by sta te elite to

marginalise and alienate citizens from participating in government.

Kenyans w ho did not or were perceived not to sing the nyayotune end ed up either in Nyayo

House dungeons, prison, detention or exile.

We Lived to Tellcapt ures the historical experiences of suffering a nd resistance. Most o f theinformation is ob ta ined from talking to some of the survivors who ha ve given invaluab le

insights into the strugg le to democrat ise Kenya . Coming out clearly from the experiences is

The art of sycophancy was

perfected with theKANU nibaba na mama(KANUisfather and mother) tunereaching its crescendo.There was systematicsocial engineering by stateelite to marginalise andalienate citizens fromparticipating in govern-

ment.

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tha t the regimes that have been in pow er have systemat ically and deliberately used torture as

a tool of cont rol and oppression o f its people.

We hope this bo ok will provoke Kenyans to be vigilant in their efforts to root o ut the culture of

repression and in its place build strong democrat ic institutions and st ructures tha t w ill gua ran-

tee that Nyayo House dungeo ns will never happen aga in.

Most of the information is

obtained fromtalking tosome of the survivors whohave given invaluableinsights into the struggleto democratise Kenya.Coming out clearly fromthe experiences is that theregimes that have been inpower have systematically

and deliberately usedtorture as a tool of controland oppression of itspeople.

5 We lived to tell

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Chapter One: The Colonial Era

It is an estab lished socio-historical and po litical reality tha t no country a cts in the interests of any

other. When Europe co lonised Africa, it was solely in its own interest. Frantz Fanon captures thisvery w ell in his book,The Wretched of The Earth. The French were in Algeria, the Po rtug uese in

Guinea Bissau, the British in Kenya and Uganda and the Germans in Tang anyika. All of them used

the same too l, violence, to occupy the African continent.

It must be borne in mind that torture is a ma nifestation of the class struggle. Europeans colonised

Africans not because they were black but a s a process of acq uiring political power to access,

control and distribute resources. Through violence and intimida tion they a lso exercised the

pow er over the lower economic classes in their ow n countries.

Thus, colonialism was a phenomenon of the propertied class of Europe ag ainst the d isinherited

masses in Africa. The same class of the propertied was doing the same to its ow n brothers and

sisters at home. As such, therefore, simply put, it is a class struggle, a war between the haves and the

have-nots (i.e.walala heriand walala hoi). Since the colonial period to date, repression is a know n

phenomenon. Notew orthy is the fact that it has always been met with resistance.

The Nyayo House and o ther torture chambers were not unique to Kenya . In Europe, the Americas,

Asia and Africa, those w ho resisted the dominance of capitalist-imperialist exploitation and oppression

were labelled dissidentsand communistsand were tortured, murdered and/or made to disappear.

The international order was steeped in cold war between communist and ca pitalist ideologies.

This explains why the west looked the other way while the Kenya g overnment continued to

violate human right s with impunity.

Today, there appears to be a co ntinuum with the emergence of terrorist threat s follow ing the

Septemb er 11 attacks in the United States. Throughout the w orld, ant i-terrorism legislations have

been imposed . These leg islations largely trample on citizenscivil liberties and undermine consti-

tutional rights by g iving g overnments wide-rang ing pow ers over the rights of citizens.

The advancement of to rture in Kenya, and the silence of the w estern imperialist g overnments,

wa s therefore just part o f the international reaction to the g rowing challenge to the dehumanis-

ing effects of capitalism. But the trauma o f this torture perpetrated during the co lonial period is

still embedd ed in peoples minds and experiences and is well documented by historians such as

Maina wa Kinyatti.

The brutal treatment of resistance heroes and heroines is well illustrated b y the experiences of

Senior Chief Waiyaki wa Hing a, Koita lel arap Samoei, Muthoni Nyanjiru and Me Katilili wa Menzawho w as captured and exiled in Gusii for lead ing her Giriama people at the Kenyan coast in

resisting British occupation of their land. She escaped a nd w alked back to the coast to continue

It must be borne in mind

that torture is a manifesta-tion of the class struggle.Europeans colonizedAfricans not because theywere black but as a processof acquiring politicalpower to access, controland distribute resources.Through violence and

intimidation they alsoexercised the power overthe lower economic classesin their own countries.

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lead ing the people. The British forces tricked Waiyaki wa Hinga , the leader of the southern Gikuyu,

into attending a meeting to negot iate a peace pact at Kiawariua (now Dagoretti) in Central

Province but w as instead captured and buried alive head first at Kibwezi in Macha kos.

Koitalel arap Samoei, a leader of the Nandi resistance, wa s similarly tricked to a meeting to negoti-

ate a truce bet ween his people and the British forces but was instead shot dead by a man called

Meinertzhag en who commanded the imperialist army. In the infamous Hola massacre, 25 Mau Mauactivists were bludgeoned to death and many more were maimed by the colonial state. In the incident,

which is well documented, torture took a new dimension and a ttracted international attent ion.

During the Mau Mau w ar there were massive aerial bombardments of forests and villag es where

freedom fighters were operating. Death and disease in concentrat ion camps all over the country

became commonplace. Villages in central Kenya and European occupied areas of the Rift Valley

were t ransformed into concentration camps and prisons.

Dedan Kimaathi Waciuri, the Kenya Land and Freedom Army leader, wa s tried and hanged at

Kamiti Maximum Security Prison w here he was b uried in an unma rked g rave.

Duringthe Mau Mau war there

were massive aerialbombardmentsof forestsandvillageswhere freedomfighterswere operating. Deathsanddiseasesin concentration campsall over the country becamecommonplace. Villagesin thecentral Kenya andEuropeanoccupiedareasof the Rift Valley

were transformedintoconcentration campsandprisons.

Mzee Jomo Kenyatta on the

Independence Day 1963

December 12th

7 We lived to tell

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Chapter Two: Independent Kenya:The Kenyatta Era (1963-1978)

With independence in 1963, hopes and expect at ions were high. These, however, were mercilessly

dashed. The song and the rhythm were the same as that of the colonial regime but the choirmas-ter was different.

This means that Kenyat ta inherited the same colonial administrative structures and civil service.

They w ere to form the backbone o f his regime especially in the provincial administrat ion, the

police, the judiciary, the armed forces as w ell as in the political arena. This wa s not much o f a

chang e and so the same political philosophy continued.

It w as a philosophy ba sed on ma ximum benefits and profits to the colonial masters and their

chosen African elites led b y Kenyatta and his cohorts. It w as a philosophy tha t g uaranteed that thepopular aspirations of the ma sses of the Kenyan people to rega in the stolen land, and to get

decent wa ges for their labour would b e sacrificed at the altar of personal greed of the political leaders.

Soon, repression began all over again as manifested in po litically motivated murders, detentions

without trial, imprisonments, disappearances, harassment, gag ging o f the media and political

intimidation. For fifteen years, Kenyattas rule was dominated by institut ionalised repression.

The veterans o f Mau Mau w ar for nationa l independ ence, the ex-political prisoners under the

colonial regime, militan t na tiona lists an d prog ressives like Oginga Odinga, Bilda d Kag g ia,

Markhan Sing h, Achieng Oneko, General Baimung e, General Enock Mwangi, Pio Ga ma Pinto

and many ot her patriots w ere now the ta rgets of a tta ck. State ag ents killed Pinto and

Baimunge. A sense of betrayal, disillusionment and hopelessness hang over the whole

country like a cloud about t o burst.

In his continued campaign to curb dissent to his emerging dicta torship, Kenyatta disbanded

several organisations formed by Mau Mau veterans. The Kenya War Council, the Kenya Ex-Freedom

Fighters Union (Kiama kia muingi) and the WalioletaUhuru(those w ho fought for independence)

Union were banned and condemned as dang erous to the g ood governmentof the country.

In 1966, Odinga a nd Kag gia fell out w ith Kenyatta and w ere hounded out of political mainstream.

In response, they formed the Kenya Peoples Union (KPU). The backlash was swift and brutal. Israel

Otieno Agina, a young man of 19 years, was charged in a Nairobi court with possessing seditious

publications in February 1969. The prosecutor, Mr. John Hobbs, alleged that Agina was a profes-

sional revolutionary. He had been arrested at Odinga s Nairobi offices. Abd ilat iff Abdalla w as also

arrested a t around the same time.

All the prominent leaders of the new party, Odinga , his assistant Ntula, Ramogi AchiengOneko,Wasong a Sijeyo, Ochola MakAnyengo a nd J.D. Kali, were arrested and imprisoned with and

without trial. Consequently, the reactionary parliament dema nded that Odinga be tried for

In hiscontinuedcampaign

to curbdissent to hisemergingdictatorship,Kenyatta disbandedseveral organisationsformedby Mau Mauveterans. The Kenya WarCouncil, the Kenya Ex-FreedomFightersUnion(Kiama kia muingi) andthe

WalioletaUhuru(thosewho fought for independ-ence)Union were bannedandcondemnedasdangerousto the goodgovernment of thecountry.

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Soon after the initial trial

Gideon Mutiso, the thenMP for Yatta in MachakosDistrict of EasternProvince, was brought tocourt and pleaded guiltyafter a one day hearingduring which he wasdescribed by the thendeputy public prosecutor

James Karugu as thepivot around which thewhole conspiracy tooverthrowthe Kenyagovernment revolved.Mutiso was defended bythe then MP for Parklandsand the current Chair ofthe Electoral Commissionof Kenya, Mr. SamwelKivuitu.

treason, which ca rries the death penalty. On Octob er 31, 1969, KPU was banned. This paved the

way for a de factoone party state.

As the suppression of dissent mounted so did the resolve of prog ressive forces intensify. This

culminated in a coup at tempt in 1971. Thirteen men w ere tried a nd co nvicted on cha rges of

conspiring to overthrow the government of Kenya by unlawful means. These included Prof Joseph

Ouma Muga (a former professor at Makerere university), Apollo Abraham Wakiag a Odare (a former

deputy g eneral mana ger with the Kenya Cotton Lint and Seed Marketing Boa rd), Juvenalis

Bened ict Aoko, Joshua Omoth Sylvano Ooko, Eliud Kipserem arap Lang at, Daniel Kipkurui arap

Langat , Joseph Daniel Owino (a former army officer), Sylvanus Christopher Oketch Oduor, Eric

Kimuta i Chepkwony, Elijah Mokaya Sebwe, Jefetha Oyang i and Ahmed Abd i Aden.

They were jailed for a total of ninety-one and a half years by the then a cting senior resident

magistrate S. K. Sachdeva. Soon a fter the initial trial Gideon Mutiso, the then MP for Yat ta in

Machakos District o f Eastern Province, wa s brought to court and pleaded g uilty after a one day

hearing during which he was described by the then d eputy public prosecutor James Karugu as

the pivot around w hich the whole conspiracy to overthrow the Kenya g overnment revolved.

Mutiso wa s defended by the then MP for Parklands and the current cha ir of the Electoral Commis-

sion of Kenya , Mr. Samw el Kivuitu.

The then Chief Justice, Maluki Kitili Mwendwa, and the chief of defence sta ff, Major General J. M.

Ndolo, who w ere mentioned in the conspiracy, were relieved of their jobs.

Sylvanus Oduor was arrested on May 5, 1971. He wa s taken to court a nd cha rged w ith at tempt ing

to overthrow the Kenyatta government. He served the eight years with hard labour at Naivasha

maximum-security prison. The prison cond itions were horrible and food wa s very little and bad.

Each one of us wa s made to crush fifty basins of ballast from large stones daily from six in the

morning to six in the evening. We were using hammers weighing three pounds,Oduor recounts.

The inmates were not a llowed to have individual contact w ith each other.We were each put in

cag es while we worked to ensure we did not communicate. That wa s our life for the eight years in

Naivasha,says Odour who w as later to be caug ht in the Mwakenya dragnet.

With the effective muzzling of dissent, the University of Nairobi became the center of po litical

organisation for prog ressive forces. The po litical activity at the university wa s gravitat ing a round

militant a cademics like Ngugi wa Thiong o, Micere Githa e Mugo, Willy Mutunga, Shad rack Gutto,

AnyangNyongo, Edw ard Oyug i, Maina wa Kinya tt i, Kamonji Wachira, Mukaru Ngang a, KatamaMkangi, Apollo Njonjo, Shiraz Durani, Sultan Somji, Kabiru Kinyanjui and Kimani Gecau.

9 We lived to tell

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Indeed, the g overnment soo n labelled the university as the unofficialopposition pa rty. However,

the politics of Kenya cha nged fundamenta lly in the wa ke of Josiah Mwangi Kariukis murder onMarch 2, 1975 by the Kenyat ta regime. His body w as found abandoned to the hyenas in the

wilderness in Ngo ng Hills. He had been abducted and tortured to dea th. This was the most

gruesome, bestial act o f state b anditry.

Between 1969 and 1975 the Nat ional Assembly was held in thrall by the pa triotic contributions of

JM Kariuki, the Member of Parliament for Nyandarua North const ituency in Central Province. A

former Mau Mau deta inee, JM, as he w as popularly known w as a t one time Kenyat tas private

secretary, but they fell out over the way the KANU regime wa s giving in to w estern interests.

Despite the fact that he w as a relat ively w ealthy member of the aspiring national bourgeoisie, JM

consistently championed the cause of the poor, the landless, the unemployed and the forgot ten

Mau Mau freedom fighters. His famous sta tement,We do not wa nt a Kenya of ten milliona ires

and ten million begg ars, made him a nat ional hero. JMs assassinat ion only emphasised the

limitat ion of populist politics. It further reminded progressives to redouble their efforts in forging

new organised popular strategies of strugg le ag ainst repression in Kenya.

Through consultat ions, a new batch o f Kenyan pa triots sta rted meeting a nd comparing ideologi-cal notes. Oginga Odinga formed a front that ad vocated for immediate and public confronta tion

with the sta te tha t w ould culminate in the formation of a second lega l political party to o ppose

KANU. University aca demics, how ever, preferred underground a nd secretive work within public

platforms to articulate d emocratic demands o f the people.

These activities coalesced into the format ion of several cland estine groups most of w hich ident i-

fied w ith Marxist-Leninist tradition. Such groups as the December Twelve Movement (DTM) and

the March Second Movement (a DTM front in Nairob i) emerged at this time. All these organisa-

tions were rooted a t the universities.

In December 1977, Ngugi wa Thiong o w as deta ined w ithout trial for publishing Petals of Blood

and stag ing a play,Ngahika Ndenda(I will marry when I want), which he co-authored with Ngug i

wa Mirii. These works were deemed dangerous by the establishment, especially when a sat irical

critic of the political system in Kenya saw its expression in one of the Kenyan nat ional languag es,

Gikuyu, and wa s performed not b y University students or professiona l thespians but by and

among the wo rkers and peasants of Kamiriithu Village in Kiambu District of Central Province.

By then o pposition to Kenyatta s dictatorship had g rown so much that it had found expression insome members of the ruling party. In the then single-party parliament, a clique of vocal MPs was

We were each put incages while we worked toensure we did notcommunicate. That wasour life for the eight yearsin Naivasha,says Odour

who was later to be caughtin the Mwakenya dragnet.

Silvanus C. O. Ombuor

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q uestioning the legitimacy of their own government. The then deputy speaker, Jean Marie

Seroney, and the MP for Butere, Martin Shikuku, were arrested in the precincts of pa rliament anddet ained. Shikuku had declared while contribut ing to a motion that Kanu was dead. When another

MP demanded that he substant iates, Seroney, who wa s then in the chair, ruled that there wa s no

need to substantiate the obvious. Shikuku came o ut of detent ion in clutches. MPs Chelagat Mutai,

George Anyona and Koigi wa Wamw ere were also arrested and imprisoned.

At the same time, the most vocal dissent and one tha t took a class perspective wa s waged by the

so-called six bearded sisters comprising George Anyona, Koigi wa Wamwere, Chelag at Muta i,

James Orengo, Dr Chibule wa Tsuma and Law rence Sifuna.

But the most vocal dissent

and one that took a classperspective was waged bythe so-called six beardedsisters comprising GeorgeAnyona, Koigi waWamwere, ChelagatMutai, James Orengo, DrChibule wa Tsuma andLawrence Sifuna.

The Kisumu MassacreThe first major political crisis that the Kenyatta regime faced was in April 1966. There had been a simmering warbetween the reactionery wing of Kanu championed by the then Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Mr.Thomas Joseph Mboya and supported by Kenyattas emerging kitchen cabinet, later to be nicknamed the KiambuMafia, on one hand and the nationalists in Kanu led by the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga who was Kenyattas vicepresident on the other hand. Central to this confrontation were issues like land distribution and the creepingcorruption in Kenyattas government. To stop the tide of criticisms the Kanu leadership came up with a plan toreduce Jaramogis influence and prestige in government. The plan was to have eight vice presidents representing

each province. According to the plan Odinga would just be one of the eight.

On April 14, 1966 Odinga resigned fromthe government and fromKanu. He dismissed the Kenyatta cabinet asconsisting of land grabbers and opportunists who were not interested in the welfare of the ordinary Kenyan. Aweek later twenty seven other members of Parliament including the Minister for Information and Broadcasting,Ramogi Achieng Oneko and fellowMau Mau detainee Bildad Kaggia followed suit.

The group joined a little known political party, Kenya Peoples Union (K.P.U), that had been formed in March by afarmer in Kisii by the name George Okuor Gari. The newteamregistered the K.P.Uwith Jaramogi as the president

and Bildad Kaggia as his deputy. Sensing the danger that more members of parliament may join the newparty,Kanu came up with the strategy of requiring all those who had left Kanu for the opposition to face newelections.

The Little General Electionwas held in June of 1966 and despite allegations of massive rigging particularly afterthe votes were held for a fortnight, Kanu decisively won the battle. Jaramogi retained his Bondo seat and twoother candidates won seats for K.P.Uin Machakos. However, the spirit of opposition politics had set root in Kenyaand there were high hopes that given time to organize itself and sell its agenda to the Kenyan people, K.P.Uwasheaded for a bright future.

Everything changed three years later after the powerful Kanu Secretary General and Minister for Economic

planning TomMboya was assassinated on July 5,1969. Mboyas assassination brought turmoil in the wholecountry, but more so in Nyanza province which was already firmly in the opposition. On October 25, 1969 Presi-dent Jomo Kenyatta visited Kisumu to open NewNyanza General Hospital. An estimated crowd of 5,000 people

11 We lived to tell

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In December 1977, Ngugi wa

Thiongo wasdetainedwithouttrial for publishingPetals ofBloodandstaginga play,Ngahika Ndenda(I will marrywhen I want), which he co-authoredwith Ngugi wa Mirii.These workswere deemeddangerousby the establish-ment, especially when a

satirical criticof the politicalsystemin Kenya sawitsexpression in one of theKenyan national languages,Gikuyu, andwasperformednotby University studentsorprofessional thespiansbut byandamongthe workersandpeasantsof Kamiriithu Village

in Kiambu District of CentralProvince.

met Kenyatta at the hospital. The details of what happened at the hospital are still murky but when dust settledeleven people were dead and many more injured. Local estimates indicate that the number of people dead wasmuch higher than the reported number. There are reports that while Kenyatta was inspecting a guard of honoura section of the crowd were shouting Dume, Dume(the K.P.Uslogan). Alittle later the president was heckled

while making a speech. When the president was leaving there are allegations that part of the crowd threwstones at the motorcade. What is known for sure is that the presidents bodyguards opened fire on the crowdkilling and injuring many people in what has generally been referred to as Kisumu Massacre. Witnesses haveconsistently argued that the presidential bodyguards continued to shoot people who had lined up the streets farfromthe hospital and who had no idea that some confrontation had taken place at the hospital.

The truth about what happened in that fateful day will one day be known, but the aftermath had very far-reaching implications for the country. Using the Kisumu incident as a justification, Kenyatta banned K.P.UonOctober 30, 1966. Soon after key leaders of the party including Odinga, Oneko, Kaggia, Wasonga Sijeyo among

others were detained. This was the first wave of detentions without trial in the history of independent Kenya.Later that year Kanu went to the elections as the only party to field candidates and that was to be the case until1992 when Kenya held the first multi-party elections in twenty six years.

More than ten people were

reported dead and many others

injured during the Kisumu

Massacre

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On June 1, 1982, the police picked up George Anyona just before he a nd Oginga Odinga

announced the formation of the Kenya Socialist Party (KSP). Anyona was deta ined while Odingawa s placed under house arrest.

The putsch widened to o ther progressive elements pushing for democratisation. Koigi wa

Wamw ere, Mukaru Ngang a, Maina wa Kinya tt i, Edw ard Oyug i, Willy Mutunga, Kamonji Wachira

and Al-amin Mazrui were a rrested soon after. Kinyatt i was arrested for being in possession o f an

anti-government newsletter,Mois Divisive Tact ics Exposed,distributed by the DTM underground

press. He was convicted of sedition and jailed for six years. The late Wangondu Kariuki was also

arrested a t this time and jailed for possessing an a llegedly seditious publicat ion,Pambana.

As the a rrests escalated , many progressive academics went to exile to escape t he drag net.

These included Micere Mugo, Shadrak Gutto , Kimani Gecao a nd Ngugi wa Mirii. Ngug i wa

Thiong o, who wa s alread y out of th e country, decided to stay in exile when he learnt he wa s

also being soug ht by the po lice.

The g overnment justified this wave o f arrests on the g rounds that it wa s trying to stop a

conspiracy by Marxist dissidentsbent on destabilisingthe country. The regime stepped up the

volume of its anti-Marxist t irade. Hillary Ngweno, a prominent Moi apo logist, in hisindependent

Weekly Reviewat tacked prog ressive intellectua ls whom he described as a determined sma ll, well-knit g roup of lecturers who wereusingthe University Academic Union (UAU) and SONU to

destabilise the country.

He heaped all the blame on a few radical lecturerssaying tha t the readiness with which these

radical lecturers confront authority has b ecome a fashionab le thing for students to observe and

emulate. He went on to cite the then minister for justice and constitut ional affairs Charles Muga ne

Njonjos allega tion that Marxist lecturers are using students to spread anarchyand called for the

government to get tough on them.

Far from being intimidated and cowed, the student leadership exploded w ith ang er. Prog ressive

student leaders like Onyango C. A., Mwakuduwa Mwachofi, Oduor Ong wen, Just ice Maurice

Adong o Ogony, Paddy Onyango and Mwa ndawiro Mghang a ga lvanised the university

community to demand the release of a ll detainees and a na tional referendum to determine

whether the majority of Kenyans wanted the single-party system legalized.

Kilio Cha Haki, Al-Amin Mazruis play about exploita tion of workers at the Del Monte factory in

Thika, was staged in defiance of threats from the special branch police. In a public rally, PaddyOnyang o saluted the crowd in the name of Pambanawhile Onyango C. A. declared that Kenyan

Marxists, like everyone else, had a right to live and rule in Kenya.

Far frombeingintimidatedandcowed, the studentleadershipexplodedwithanger. Progressive studentleaderslike Onyango C. A.,Mwakuduwa Mwachofi,

Oduor Ongwen, JusticeMaurice Adongo Ogony,Paddy Onyango andMwandawiro Mghangagalvanisedthe universitycommunity to demandtherelease of all detaineesanda national referendumto

determine whether themajority of Kenyanswantedthe single-partysystemlegalized.

Edward Oyugi

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This period has significant lessons for Kenyans. The Kenyat ta era ended rather a bruptly w hen the

man Kenyans had come to deroga tively refer to as Kamaliza(exterminator) passed aw ay in hissleep in Mombasa . Moi was propelled into pow er and, to be honest , he was fa irly popular among

ordinary Kenyans who were simply fed up w ith the arrogant and crass clique known as the

Kiambu Mafia that ran the government w ith Kenyatta as their mascot.

Three years into his rule, Moi wa s jailing and detaining everybody he perceived as his enemy and

the rest of the country except the University community were stand ing by and w atching a

dicta torship take root. The q uestion we must a sk ourselves is how this came to happen. How did a

relat ively popular Moi in 1978 become such a despot in just three short years?

The simple answer is that nothing changed from Kenyat ta to Moi. It is not just that Moi had vow ed

to follow the bloody footsteps of Kenyat ta . The forces that sustained the Kenyatta government,

namely the rich and the powerful families with the socio-economic structures that sustained

them, the neo-colonial industrial complex, the military and security apparatus whose main ta sk

was to protect the leaders and not the people, remained intact . All these a nti-people and anti-

democratic forces were all aligned behind the president and it was inevitable that their watchman Moi

was sooner than later going to get into conflict with the masses of the Kenyan people w ho thought

that Kenyatta s demise would lead to greater freedoms and democracy for the ordinary folks.

The second lesson is that the g reatest crime people can commit ag ainst themselves is to stand by

and wa tch leaders terrorise a section of the population and imagine that it is just a few bad

people being disciplinedand that others who do not cross the line would not be touched. Once

a dictatorship takes root , nobody is safe.

The forcesthat sustained

the Kenyatta government,namely the rich andthepowerful familieswith thesocio-economicstructuresthat sustainedthem, theneo-colonial industrialcomplex, the military andsecurity apparatuswhosemain task wasto protect

the leadersandnot thepeople, remainedintact.

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ChapterFour:TheAirForceCoupAttempt


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Chapter Four:The Air Force Coup Attempt

The chemistry of the politics of the t ime burst on the mo rning of August 1, 1982 when junior

Kenya Air Force servicemen stag ed a coup to t opple the Moi regime. To many the coup w as apredictab le convergence of the discontent and resentment a ga inst the excesses of dictatorship.

The coup leaders such as Hezekia Ochuka, Pancras Oteyo, Ireri Njereman, Patrick Lumumba and

Odira Ojode were young Kenyans who w ere disgusted w ith the corruption and repression of the

Moi dictatorship. Their announcement o n the Voice of Kenya radio w as g reeted with celebrations

around the country. However, the putsch lasted only a short w hile beca use of its spontaneity, poor

organisation and distrust among the plotters. In addition it wa s based on ethnicity.

Moi used the po st-coup tension to launch o ne of the most b rutal crackdowns in Kenyashistory. For the six mont hs follow ing August 1, Kenya was effect ively under the rule of the

army. The Kenya Air Force comma nder, Major General Peter Kariuki, was in custody aw ait ing

trial on coup-related charges w hile thousands of Kenya Air Force soldiers and civilians were

rounded up and arraigned in court on a wide range of crimes.

Both Kamiti and Naivasha Maximum Security Prisons were t ransformed into giant

concent ration camps where university students, acad emics, soldiers, politicians and oth er

treason suspects were tortured w hile being interrog ated .

More aca demics and professionals were picked up as Moi tried to link his left w ing critics to the

military coup plot. Show trials in w hich mutiny and possession of seditious pub licat ions were

the preferred crimes became the order of the day. Law yer John Khaminwa wa s deta ined for

representing former intelligence ch ief, Stephen Mureithi, when he contested in court the

presidents pow er to hire and fire at will.

Among the g roup of 68 students to be a rrested seven, Onyang o Oloo, Jeff Mwangi, Odindo

Opiat a, Wahinya Bore, Titus Adung osi, Mug a KOlale, Ongele Opala and Rateng Oginga Ogego,were tried and convicted o f sedition and handed sentences ranging from five to ten yea rs. The

rest w ere released after the court entered a nol le prosequi.

In September 1982, the courts ma rtial of the Air Force servicemen b egan. Some w ere convicted

and sentenced to death and hanged in 1987. Others were committed to life imprisonment

without pa role and the rest g iven prison terms of betw een ten a nd twenty yea rs. The Kenya Air

Force was disband ed and 82 Air Force formed and commissioned under a new comma nd.

The Nairobi and Kenyatta Universities were closed for one yea r and on reopening w ere dividedinto several faculty administrat ive units. SONU was ba nned a nd stud ent w elfare units formed

under geog raphic/ethnic groupings. Loya list academics were promoted leading to the

...thousands of Kenya AirForce soldiers and civilianswere rounded up andarraigned in court on awide range of crimes.

Both Kamiti and NaivashaMaximumSecurity Prisonswere transformed intogiant concentration campswhere university students,academics, soldiers,politicians and other

treason suspects weretortured while beinginterrogated.

Apiny Adhiambo - Jailed for

life

17 We lived to tell

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emergence of Nyayoprofessors in the university community under what Dr. Casper Odegi

Awuond o d escribed a s the rise of the cheering crow d.

Special branch p olice invaded the university libraries and removed a ll books by or on Vladimir

Illyich Lenin, Karl Marx, Che Gueva ra, Malcom X, Franz Fanon, Ngug i wa Thiongo, Maina wa

Kinyatt i and Fidel Cast ro from the shelves where they lurked in wa it to amb ush young

innocent Kenyan minds w ith their subversive foreign ideolog y.

In its bid to t ighten social-political cont rol, the Moi regime often w ent t o ridiculous extremes.

For instance a fter he expressed displeasure with the keeping of b eards, calling it a co mmunist

fashion, it suddenly beca me almost criminal to be seen with on e. Civil Servants w ho w ant ed tobe seen as Nyayo follow ersand patriotic citizenshad to shave clean and not be seen to wea r

a semblance of the seven bearded sistersor Marxists. This extreme w as illustrated w hen a

former district commissioner for Kiambu in Central province, Fred Mwang o, ordered the public

shaving by policemen and w ithout wa ter of a primary school headmaster who w as seen

sporting a g oatee at a pub lic rally.

Law yer Ngang a Thiong o recalls the ridiculous levels the g overnment w ent t o suppress

dissent and stud ent po litical act ivism during h is days at the university:In Ja nuary 1985, I was

coming from a lecture thea tre at t he Gand hi Wing when I saw a huge crowd at the Great Court.Two young students w ere a top a table ad dressing a meeting. They w ere condemning the

student leadership, StudentsOrganizat ion o f Nairob i University (SONU), for ha ving

compromised the student swelfare to the d ictates of the government.

I cheered loud ly. However, unknow n to me, agent s of the then SONU chairman, P.L.O

Lumumba, were wa tching and t aking dow n our names. I wa s to p ay d early for the cheers.A

few d ays later, I received a letter at midnight t o the effect that I had enga ged myself in

act ivities dang erous to t he go od of the university and t hat consequently my scholarship had

been w ithdraw n and tha t I should vacate the campus.

I rushed to the studentscentre and found ot hers who ha d received a similar letter including

the tw o speakers at the meet ing. These w ere Tirop Kitur and the late Karimi Nduthu.

Mwanda wiro Mghanga had also been expelled. What followed was a sad story. A series of fiery

Kamukunjis (student rallies) which condemned the governments intrusion into the university

were held. It was either academic freedo m or nothing, the students declared.

The chairman and part of the SONU lead ership were now residing a t the ho me of the thenpow erful head of internal security, the late Hezekiah Oyugi who w as a permanent secretary in

the office of the president . A mass was held the following Sunday, February 10, 1985, at the

Civil Servants who wanted

to be seen as Nyayofollowersand patrioticcitizenshad to shaveclean and not be seen towear a semblance of theseven bearded sistersorMarxists. This extremewas illustrated when aformer district

commissioner for Kiambuin Central province, FredMwango, ordered thepublic shaving bypolicemen and withoutwater of a primary schoolheadmaster who was seensporting a goatee at apublic rally.

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ChapterFive:Mwakenya


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Chapter Five:Mwakenya

In March 1986, Kenyans w oke up t o ne wspa per head lines announcing t he a rrests of a veteran

nationalist, PeterYoung

Kihara, a lecturer a t the Kenya Teachers Training College (KTTC), KamonyeManje, and a chief accountant w ith the Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporat ion (KPTC),

Maina Kiongo. The trio wa s no t h eard of ag ain until they w ere dragged before then Nairobi chief

magistrate H. H. Buch and pleaded g uilty to the charge o f being members of an illegal organisation.

This was the first time many Kenyans hea rd of the existence o f a militant underground commu-

nist movement that wa s alleged ly ad vocating t he violent overthrow of the Moi government.

Indeed , 1986 saw the unprecedented arrest and incarceration of a very large number of Ken-

yans w ho were alleged to have been memb ers of the cland estine movement planning tooverthrow th e government in a violent way.

In February t he sa me yea r, Oyang i Mba jah, an aide to former vice-president Og inga Odinga and

The ugly pattern of thesearrestswasthat anewspaper article wouldappear just about everyother day announcingthat

such andsuch a Mwakenyamember hadbeenarrested.

Peter young Kihara

Mwandawiro Mghanga a

Mwakenya suspect beingled away fromcourt

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w ith who m he w as w orking closely in the formation of th e Kenya Peoples Union (KPU) in

w hich he wa s the orga nising secretary, wa s arrested a nd jailed for 30 months. In ea rly March,

Kariuki Gathitu, a lecturer in compute r science, wa s det ained t og ether w ith Ngo tho wa

Kariuki, a lecturer in comm erce a t the University of Nairobi.

The arrests intensified from early April. Former University student leaders Odindo Opiat a,

Mwa ndawiro Mgha nga , Paddy Onyang o, Adong o Ogo ny, Oduor Ongwe n and Onyango C.A.

were picked up and hauled into prison. In May Ng ang a Thiong o a nd Wanderi Muthig ani,

then student s at the Kenya School of Law , were a rrested.

The ugly patt ern of these arrests wa s that a new spaper article wo uld appear just about everyothe r da y announcing th at such and such a Mwa kenya memb er had been a rrested. Some

were picked up from their homes, others from places o f wo rk. Weeks dow n the line new spa-

pers w ould repo rt o f the same peo ple having been imprisoned for so many years after pleading

guilty of sedition ag ainst the lawfully elected governmentof President Daniel Arap Moi.

In the aftermath o f the imprisonment of the first b atch of the Mwa kenya suspects, politicians

and media a pologists of the Moi regime fell over themselves to co ndemn the movement and

to give all manner of descriptions of the movement. While some theo ries abo ut Mwakenya,

especially those g iven by politicians, we re out-rightly ridiculous, a num ber of those a rrestedga ve some revealing information a bo ut the m ovement. However, most o f the informat ion

that came out around this time just compounded the little that wa s known about the movement.

According to the pro-Moi Weekly Reviewo f April 11, 1986 litt le was so fa r known of Mwa kenya

and its cland estine publication,Mpatanishi.Copies of the pub lication, as well as a d ocument

det ailing t he structure, objective and prog ramme of the o rganisation w ere produced in court;

contents were not read o ut but w ere handed over to the ma gistrate to read.

And while sentencing one of the a ccused, then Nairobi Chief Mag istrate H.H. Buch, who

ga ined notoriety for trying the majority of the Mwa kenya cases without q uestioning the

legality of the long periods the suspects were being held in custody, said he had no do ubt

that the documents were intended to b ring into contem pt or excite disaffection ag ainst the

Kenyan go vernment.

From the little tha t ha s come from the co urts, it appea rs tha t Mw akenya wa s hatched as far

ba ck as 1981 but the group d id not beg in recruitment until 1984. Among the central charac-

ters so far mentioned are 33-year old lecturer at the institute of comput er science at theUniversity of Nairobi, Kariuki Gathitu, a chief accountan t w ith Kenya Posts and Telecommuni-

The arrests intensifiedfromearly April. FormerUniversity student leadersOdindo Opiata,Mwandawiro Mghanga,Paddy Onyango, AdongoOgony, Oduor Ongwen andOnyango C.A. were pickedup and hauled into prison.In May Nganga Thiongo

and Wanderi Muthigani,then students at theKenya School of Law, werearrested.

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We lived to tell 22


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cat ions Corporat ion, Geoffrey Maina , a 51-year old farmer in Githunguri, Peter Kihara, and a

man ident ified o nly as Njoroge Wanguthi,reported t he Weekly Review.

The first identificat ion of some of those behind the Mwakenya movement came during the trial of

George Shiteshi Osundwa . He is reported to have told his interroga tors tha t in 1981, he went to

live in Wangige in Kikuyu division of Kiambu District. It is there tha t he met Gathitu, his former

classmate and tog ether with two o thers decided to form Mwa kenya and launchMpatanishi.

Apparently, Osundw a left Nairobi before the launch of the orga nisation but never reported the

matter to the police. Osundw a w as jailed for eighteen months on his own plea of guilty.

Peter Nding o, a technician at the en gineering depa rtment o f the University of Nairob i,confessed and informed the court t hat an o ath of secrecy wa s administered a t t he groups

meetings w hile funds w ere collected at such meetings to finance Mwakenyas act ivities.

According to the late Kariuki Chota ra, a ha w kish former KANU Nakuru district chairman,

Mw akenya w as the brainchild of Ngug i wa Thiong o. Chota ra claimed to ha ve come across

copies of Mpatanishiduring a t our of the United States a nd several other foreign countries.

According to the MwakenyaDraft Minimum Prog ramme entitled Towards a National demo-

cratic Revolut ion issued in September of 1987, the o rganisation w as sta rted in June 1982. Itsact ivities were centred on a few progressive elements coordinate d by a n underground

newspaper, Mpatanishi (the arb iter).

The d raft said: But it w as only aft er operating for days a nd night s under the very difficult

circumstances o f 1982 tha t our central orga n w as finally estab lished. Mpatanishicontinued

to play its role as a n orga niser, ideological lead er and central organ. Popular and progressive

literature like Pambana and Cheche Kenyaa lso cont inued to circulate in the count ry in the

same period. By December 1982, the orga nisat ion had co nsolida ted q uite a go od numb er of

prog ressive forces. Mpatanishi No. 7appea red with a first proposed d raft programme.

The yea r 1983 was devote d to mass a gita tion a nd political exposures of the repressive

character of the regime. We issued several leaflets wh ich deta iled the excesses of the reg ime

and amo ng o ther issues we a lso dema nded the release of political prisoners and removal of

U.S. military b ases a nd a ll other foreign milita ry presence in Kenya .

Meanw hile, the Committee for the Release o f Political Prisoners in Kenya , as w ell as o the r

solidarity committees in various count ries, cont inued to be a ct ive. We conso lida ted our forcesfurther and during the yea r 1984 expand ed o ur netwo rk and estab lished links with va rious

Sourceswithin themovement, although notagreeingon exact dates,also trace the originsofMwakenya to the sameevolution within thedemocraticmovement. Onesource saysthat Mwakenyawasthe name of a unitedfrontwhich came into

existence some time afterJune 1985after a seriesoftalksbetween membersofthe December TwelveMovement (DTM) andothergroupsoperatingin London.

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othe r internal organisat ions. The deb ate over the same a nd formalisation of o ur movement

into a party cont inued.

On February 1, 1985 the name Mwa kenya wa s coined a nd the preparation for a unity confer-

ence start ed. On June 8 and 9 and July 25, 1985 two unity conferences were secretly held in

Nairobi. Various pat riot ic Kenyan political organ isations united and formed Mwa kenya . A

special issue of o ur mass new spaper Mzalendo MwaKenyaw as released on February 6, 1985

supporting the th en protesting student s of th e university of Nairobi and their lecturers.

Even as th e regime was busy arresting and torturing many innocent Kenyans our cad res were

eq ually busy preparing for a cong ress. Representative delegat es from various parts of thecount ry held a three-da y cong ress betw een March 1 and 3, 1986. This was the first Mwa kenya

cong ress. The cong ress elected a nd insta lled Mwakenya leadership, decided the part y line

and the political orienta tion and end orsed the programme of Mw akenya from w hich the draft

minimum programme wa s ba sed.

Sources within the movement, although no t a greeing on exact da tes, also trace the o rigins of

Mwa kenya to the same evolution within the democrat ic movement. One source says tha t

Mwa kenya wa s the name of a united front w hich came into existence some time after June

1985 after a series of ta lks betw een members of the Decemb er Twelve Movement (DTM) and othergroups operating in Londo n. Conseq uently, DTM under the leadership of Prof. Ngug i was Thiongo

organised and funded a congress. The congress mandated DTM with the respo nsibility of preparing a

proper congress and its editorial board w as g iven the t ask of producing the mass organ of this

united front which changed the name o f the organ from Pambana(strugg le) to Mzalendo(patriot).

It is appa rent tha t b etw een 1982 and 1986 Mwa kenya a ctivities centred on the pub licat ion

and distribution of its underground literature calling for the unity of all pat riots to chang e the

oppressive Moi government. How ever, many Kenyans do not distinguish bet ween the under-

ground o rganisations and t he publicat ions tha t the orga nisat ions used in their ag itation for

chang e. Many, for insta nce, think tha t Pambanawa s an organisation.

Pambanawa s started in June 1981 as a mass organ for the educat ion and co nscientisation of

the g eneral public. Its ma in theme w as to expose the regime and mobilise people for action.

On the oth er hand,Mpatanishiw as t he ideolog ical internal organ of th e DTM. It w as a imed at

explaining and exchang ing ta ctics, strateg ies and policies of the mo vement a nd w as restricted

to the disciplined membership only. Other Mwakenya publications included the Kenya Demo-

cratic Plank (1991) and The Mwakenya Stand (1992).

BooksfromProgressPublishersof Moscowwerethen very popular amongprogressive-mindedKenyansandWanyeeBookshop, alongNairobisAga Khan Walk, wasapopular haunt for readersof booksby Vladimir Lenin,Karl Marx andother writers

fromthe Marxist school ofthought.

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Cheche Kenya, a DTM publicat ion whose first issue was distributed aroun d 1982, de ta iled t he

economic, political and social crimes committed by those in the corridors of pow er. It wa s

distribute d w idely among pat riotic and demo cratic-minded Kenyans. Zed Publicat ions of

Londo n later p ublished t he w ell-researched publicat ion, which w as also a medium for expos-

ing the regime, as a bo ok.

In add ition, lead ers of the movements used books with revolutionary orientation a s too ls for

creating aw areness among the lower cadres and sympath isers. Such books as Ngug i wa

Thiong os Detained: A Writers Prison Diary, Maina w a Kinyatt is Thunder from the Mountainand

Kenyas Freedom Struggle, Maxim Gorky s Mother, Franz FanonsWretched of the Earth and Paul

FreiresPedagogy of the Oppressed were widely used to enrich the ideological base o f the strugg le.

Books from Progress Publishers of Moscow were t hen very po pular among progressive-

minded Kenya ns an d Wanye e Bookshop, along Nairobis Aga Khan Walk, was a popular haunt

for read ers of b ooks by Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx and other w riters from t he Marxist scho ol of

thought.

In April 1986, Mwakenya cam e out in a n open challeng e to t he KANU regime by releasing a

pamp hlet proclaiming a guerrilla insurge ncy to the g eneral Kenyan a nd internat ional public.

In its issue num bers 14 and 15,Mpatanishidecreed t hat all Mwa kenya cells should be trans-formed into g uerrilla units which should immediately embark on revolutiona ry sabo tage

ac tivities such as derailing t rains and sab otag ing other communicat ions infrast ructures. This

wa s in a b id to undermine the regimes economic base a nd to att ract t he attention of the rest

of the wo rld o n the internal contrad ictions existing in Kenya.

In the meantime, the interna l leadership group, bo rrowing from Mau Mau experience, an d

without consulting o r discussing with t he Mwakenya external lead ership, started using the

oa th as a w eapo n of mass mobilisat ion. The orga nisation a lso emba rked on a n expansive

recruitment drive to at tract a ll known leftists and individua ls opposed to the Moi regime.

How ever, by adopt ing some strateg ies tha t w ere not easily accepta ble to many Kenyans such

as forced oat hing, the movement s underbelly w as exposed a s it att racted internal dissent. In

ad dition, indiscriminate recruitment ushered in undisciplined members a nd breached its

security by o pening the doo r to infiltrat ion by the special branch police and informers.

With the heightened ac tivities it w as just a mat ter of time before the Moi regime got wind o f

the g oings on. When it did, the regime panicked into a brutal crackdow n of the real andimag ined enemies. Many people - eng ineers, do cto rs, tea chers, musicians, soldiers, w riters, ex-

convicts, workers, pea sant farmers, politicians, business people, unemployed youths, civil

The tragedy of theMwakenya crackdown isthat it provided the Moilackeys with a perfectopportunity to destroy itsgreatest enemy, theorganised leftist move-ment in Kenya. Beyondthat we knowthatMwakenya became an

excuse for Moi and hiscohorts to throwanybodythey hated and anybodywho had as much asuttered the wordsdemocracy or humanrights into the dungeons.

25 We lived to tell

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servants and haw kers - were rounded up, hauled before hastily convened kang aroo courts

an d dispa tched to Kam iti, Naivasha, Shimo la Tew a, Kod iag a, Kingon g o, Manyan i and Kibos

prisons.

The accused w ere brought t o court in dishevelled condition and we re arraigned before the

same ma gistrate and b y the sa me prosecutor in the late evening. In ad dition, the ma jority of

them pleaded guilty t o t he cha rges. The hea vy security presence in the court premises an d

the length of time the suspects had been kept in custody he ld secrets tha t ma ny Kenyans

could only speculate about.

The w hole story of Mwakenya is yet to be written. What is undoub ted is that the mo vementsymbolised the a spirations of millions of Kenyans w ho long ed to get rid o f the Moi-Kanu

dictat orship. It is also ob vious tha t Mwa kenya e merged from the rich tradition of prog ressive

orga nised leftist mo vement in Kenya. The t raged y o f the Mwa kenya crackdow n is tha t it

provided the Moi lackeys with a perfect oppo rtunity to destroy its greate st enemy, the

orga nised leftist movement in Kenya. Beyond tha t w e know tha t Mwa kenya b ecame a n

excuse for Moi and his cohorts to throw a nybody they ha ted a nd a nybody w ho had as much

as utt ered the w ords democracy or human rights into the d ungeo ns. The big success of

Mwa kenya is that it finally exposed the excesses of a pa ranoid despotic regime in a m anner

tha t not hing else could possibly have done.

With the heightenedactivities it was just amatter of time before theMoi regime got wind ofthe goings on. When itdid, the regime panickedinto a brutal crackdown ofthe real and imaginedenemies.

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Chapter Six:The Arrests


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Almost invariably, to rture beg i