The quest for liberty that remains urgent 50 years after independence

A few years ago one struggled to get auto/biographies of Kenyan politicians.

Indeed Kenyans still await the auto/biographies of hundreds of men and women who served under presidents Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Moi and Mwai Kibaki.

But there has been a deluge of auto/biographies in the recent past. Some of these books are clearly hagiography but others are educative and entertaining stories of men and women who straddled public life in this country, establishing professions, setting up institutions or leading organisations.

Some of these stories have been long in coming, but where they have been published, biographies such as the one on Dr Gikonyo Kiano, Quest for Liberty, have been pleasant surprises.

To read about Dr Kiano’s life is to encounter the history of Kenya — from its colonial roots to probably its most optimistic and productive years, to its floundering in the 1990s.

IMMENSELY IMPRESSIVE

Dr Kiano’s life, as retold in this biography by Dr Jane Kiano and Mr Irungu Thatiah, is a most illustrious one.

His is a life that many young people in Kenya today need to read and try to emulate. Born on June 1, 1926 of Mr Jonathan Kiano and Mrs Damari Wanjiru wa Jonathan in what is Murang’a County today, he was a first achiever in many fields — history tells us and this biography affirms.

The young man excelled at school and is recorded as the first Kenyan African to earn a Ph.D and the first African to teach at the Royal Technical College, today the University of Nairobi.

From Kagumo Government African School where he “emerged top of his class in 1941” he joined Alliance High School in 1942, passed his examinations and left for Makerere College in 1946.

But when he came back to Kenya for holidays in 1947, he was determined not to go back to Makerere. He had a burning ambition to study overseas.

Eventually he left for New York in 1948.

The rest, as they say, is history. The young man came back to Kenya with a Ph.D in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley.

In its re-creation of the early life of Dr Kiano, his birthplace, Murang’a; his people, the Agikuyu; his education and early career life — this biography is immensely impressive and a significant testimony of the efforts of Africans to adopt and integrate British modernity into their lives.

For instance, the sheer determination of the young man to acquire education beyond Kenya and the commitment of his people, especially the women of his community who enthusiastically contributed money to raise his fare and funds for life in America, are admirable actions.

PHILANTHROPIC SPIRIT

But this biography is also an acknowledgement of the goodness of men and women in far off lands, who helped early African students like Dr Kiano to settle down, study and acquire skills that were urgently needed in decolonising Africa.

Of course it is this philanthropic spirit that informed the student airlifts to America that were pioneered by Gikonyo Kiano, Tom Mboya and their friends and benefactors in America.

However, to read Dr Kiano’s life story is also to read about the politics of post-colonial Kenya. For this man was among the early most educated, most worldly of politicians who wielded immense state power.

Yet, given that what is in Quest for Liberty is what the biographers tell us, it is difficult to contest with the claim of the story.

For here we aren’t listening to the subject of the narrative talking to us; instead we are “hearing” of the person’s life through others who knew him, lived with him, were affected by his actions and so on.

But we can’t hear the inner worries, hopes, dreams or thoughts of the person himself.

Nevertheless, we can still ask some questions about the character’s life, safe in the knowledge that the biographer chose to tell this story and that in any case we aren’t asking these questions so as to be answered but in the hope — just like the biographer — that such queries will provoke a public discussion on the lives of other public figures like Dr Kiano.

It is also worth asking these questions because Dr Kiano was among the men — and yes, they were all men — who set this country on its present course.

These men’s actions still determine public and private life today. In the case of Dr Kiano, three questions emerge from the picture of the man presented in Quest for Liberty.

The first is the so-called Africanisation programme. What exactly was this programme, socially, economically and culturally?

This programme was most implemented in two areas: the economy and education. Economically there was the promotion of African businesses and emphasis on industrialisation to serve Kenyans.

THOUGHTS ON STATECRAFT

The government, therefore, introduced a list of the kinds of businesses that only “locals” could do.

Foreigners were given quit notices for doing business that had been “reserved” for Africans. Would we say that this programme succeeded? I doubt.

The second question that one feels like asking Dr Gikonyo Kiano is: What exactly was the nationalist philosophy that energised the post-colonial political leadership in Kenya?

How is it that a man of his stature didn’t leave behind his distilled thoughts on state formation and statecraft in early Kenya?

Thirdly, Dr Kiano was a very capable minister for Commerce and Industry. Among his Cabinet colleagues was Njoroge Mungai.

Indeed it is said in the “knowing” circles that apart from Mungai and Robert Ouko, Kenya has never had another able diplomat.

Yet as the most influential country in the region we seem just lost in the seas like the rest of our neighbours.

How could a government full of such qualified, intelligent and seemingly serious individuals have failed to inscribe their intelligence onto policy that would have made us a true political and economic master?

In other words, we need to ask difficult questions of the political class that has led us in the past 50 years.

Whereas there are many in this country who would like to tell tales of triumph, to glory over successes that only themselves can see, to talk about what we have done that mzungu hadn’t done by the time he left, it is in the interest of the majority of Kenyans to ask if indeed all Kenyans can feel liberated and to belong to the nation that a proud Dr Julius Gikonyo Kiano came back to from the USA to lead into uhuru.
Nevertheless, Quest for Liberty is worth your literary attention.

The writer teaches literature at the University of Nairobi. [email protected] Carol Njung’e resumes next month