Grapes of Wrath: How Moi’s repression prompted coup bid

On August 1, 1982, the streets of Nairobi were a study in chaos. An attempt to overthrow President Moi’s government had triggered divisions within the army, turning the capital into a battlefield.

That coup attempt, it is commonly claimed, turned Mr Moi into a tyrant and set the stage for a crackdown that would turn his regime into one of the most repressive on the continent.

That claim misrepresents history, says Salim Lone, one of Kenya’s pioneer journalists who had a front- row view of history as a major player in the liberation movement in those years.

Mr Lone, who is working on a book about Kenya’s recent history, spoke to the Sunday Nation about the dramatic period during which as editor of Viva magazine he was repeatedly the subject of torture and detention and was involved in the efforts by oppositionists to come up with an alternative to Kanu.

He said it was a fortunate twist of history that this week, which marks the 28th anniversary of the coup, is the one in which the nation will choose whether to endorse a constitution that would herald a new dawn for Kenya.

“It is a marvellous coincidence. The fact we are about to get a new constitution is directly linked to the events in the early 1980s, which culminated in the coup. The best thing which happened to the campaign for the draft law is the fact Moi chose to be in the ‘No’ camp. Those of us who lived through that period recognise he has consistently been on the wrong side of history, and it is a relief that he chose to reject this proposed constitution.”

Mr Lone was one of those who initially backed Mr Moi’s ascension to the presidency.

Wrote editorial

“I regret to say that three days after Kenyatta’s death (in August 1978) we rolled out a special edition which we had prepared in advance. It sold 200,000 copies on the first day. On the back page, we wrote an editorial stating Moi, (then the Vice-President) should be installed as president. At the time he faced great resistance from the change-the-constitution group composed of some members of the elite who possessed large amounts of wealth and wanted to subvert the constitution. They did not even want Moi to serve for the 90 days stipulated in law.”

Mr Lone says one of the best features of the movement resisting the largely Kikuyu elite planning to manage the Kenyatta succession for their own ends was the fact that this resistance was spearheaded by Kikuyus and was not based on ethnicity.

Intellectuals such as Micere Mugo, Mirugi Kariuki and Ngugi wa Thiong’o refused to support the change-the-constitution group.

But the most formidable opponent of the anti-Moi team was Charles Njonjo a “political genius” who Mr Lone says disorganised the Moi opponents in a fast-moving chain of events that left everyone stunned. Mr Moi started his term well and gradually developed national support.

“He had the common touch, went around planting trees and building gabions and said all the right things. A famous speech where he said it was ‘better to eat sukuma wiki and have security than eat fried meat and live in fear’ went down very well.”

But Mr Lone says the early optimism began to fade when it became clear that Mr Moi was unable to manage state affairs properly.

“Kenyatta was a master politician. He knew how to exercise repression without losing credibility. There was grand corruption under his watch, but the economy did not collapse. After less than a year of Moi’s time in office, it became clear he was not able to govern adequately. Salaries of the civil service, the police force, even the armed forces began to get delayed or not be paid at all. When you don’t pay people it becomes apparent you are out of your depth. There was clearly anger and tension in the air.”

Challenge Moi

Noting the rising discontent among the citizenry, a number of reform-minded individuals began planning to form a political party to challenge Mr Moi.

The President reacted by tightening the screws on the lecturers, lawyers, politicians and others who were perceived as trying to form an opposition movement between 1980 and 1982.

Despite being under constant surveillance by the notorious secret police, the Special Branch, Mr Lone and others such as Wachira Kamonji, Raila Odinga, George Anyona, Maina wa Kinyatti, Paddy Onyango and Atieno Odhiambo continued to meet in secret to plan the formation of the Kenya African Socialist Alliance.

It was to be led by nationalist figures Jaramogi Odinga and Bildad Kaggia and was seen as having the potential to present the electorate with an alternative to Kanu.

Those suspected of supporting the plan, Mr Lone says, lived in fear. He had fallen afoul of Mr Moi’s government early in his presidency due to consistently critical editorials in Viva magazine at a time when the press was largely controlled.

In 1980, he was arrested and charged after he published an edition reflecting public anger at the case of American sailor Frank Sundstrom, who had confessed to killing a woman in Mombasa but was released after being fined only Sh500.

He and Prof Wangari Maathai were later charged with contempt after Viva published her statement that the courts were corrupt.

The political environment grew more dangerous in the early months of 1982 as the anti-Moi crusaders drafted a constitution for the proposed party.

“We met regularly at my house in Kileleshwa to draft the party’s constitution. Everyone would park their cars very far away and walk over so that we did not give the appearance that there was a meeting taking place. Those were very tense days; every time a car pulled up near the house, you would think, ‘have they come to arrest me?’”

With the tension mounting amid rumours of an impending coup, Mr Lone was summoned by Jaramogi Odinga in March 1982. The elder Odinga said he had written a letter to Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere outlining the deteriorating situation in the country.

Mr Odinga knew that everyone’s bags were searched at the airport, but he wondered whether Mr Lone would agree to take the letter to Mwalimu Nyerere, because they thought his bags would not be thoroughly searched.

The editor agreed but decided to travel by road through Namanga and take a flight from Arusha to Dar es Salaam, a route he thought would carry a lower risk of detection.

“Moi often justified his crackdowns in the 1980s on the grounds that there were people trying to use unlawful means to oust him, and he was entitled to respond. What Kenyans do not know is that the very reason the coup happened was because of the repression in the early years of the Moi regime. This did not filter down due to the fact the media was highly controlled, and the official line was that Moi was this great leader facing opponents who were using extra-judicial tactics.

“There was unrest long before the coup. Lecturers were already being detained for teaching what the Special Branch people said was Marxist ideology. Lawyers suspected of not backing the state would be detained without good reason. George Anyona was arrested well before the coup. The political environment was poisonous long before the coup.”

The decision to force through amendments to make Kenya a single-party state by law worsened matters as did the continuing detention and torture of reformers.

Six weeks before the August 1 attempt, Mr Lone was visited by a secretary from the Ministry of Internal Security who told him he faced arrest.

“At first I dismissed her. But she gave me so many details from my file that I realised it was not a hoax. Still, I decided I would not flee. James Orengo had already left the country, and I did not want to be known as the second man to have fled.”

Mr Lone was forced to change his mind by his wife.

“She pleaded that we had to leave because she needed me, and the children would suffer in my absence. We were not wealthy but depended on my salary. I eventually had to burn all my precious papers before departing because anything you had could be painted as subversive.”

Foreign currency restrictions and a desire to control movement of citizens meant that one had to notify the Central Bank of Kenya before travelling abroad.

Fortunately for Mr Lone, two airlines, KLM and Iberia, were advertisers in Viva magazine and sometimes offered tickets which did not have to be cleared with CBK. He took advantage of those and flew with his family to London.

“I did not expect I would be in London for very long. Ngugi wa Thiong’o was there on a book tour, and I linked up with him. We went to the Kenyan high commission to seek assurances on whether we could return and eventually the call came that we were cleared to go back home. But then we received a call from Nairobi from a friend, Damon Ngugi. He told us he had been informed instructions had been issued that we were to be locked up on arrival at the airport. We had to change our travel plans.

“We stayed on in London, and on August 1 1982, I received a call from Wanjiru Kihoro. She informed me there had been a coup in Kenya. My first thought was ‘great, now I can go home.’ But, of course, we later learnt what had happened and again travel plans had to change.”
Mr Lone says there is a world of difference between Kenya 28 years ago today and the nation that is poised to vote on a new constitution on Wednesday.

“The most striking thing is how major decisions in today’s Kenya are taken in a democratic fashion. Kenya is now one of the most democratic countries, not just in Africa but in the world. There is a free press, probably even freer than in places such as the US where there is still a culture of deference to authority. Of course we have problems – there is inequality, insecurity and other challenges.

But the democratic way in which the proposed constitution has been formulated is a source of pride.

“On Wednesday, Kenyans will choose a new constitutional order, and it will be a triumph over the Moi years when major decisions were taken with the aid of torture, detention without trial and even executions.”

Next week: In the second and final instalment of this special report, read about Mr Lone’s near-death experience at the Nyayo House torture chambers and his ill-fated decision to return to the country after a Cabinet minister assured him he would be safe.