Communist label that led to Odinga fall out with leaders

Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. President Uhuru Kenyatta omitted his name from the list of national heroes that he read out during Mashujaa Day on October 20, 2016. PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • But while Mboya’s students were lucky to get passports, those allied to Odinga faced many difficulties.
  • Mr Odinga said he knew he was a victim of witch-hunt — Kenyatta would later promise Odinga that he would hold a bigger position after independence.

As Tom Mboya and the Americans organised an airlift of students to the US, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga decided to counter this initiative with a similar airlift to communist countries — a move that would later haunt him.

But while Mboya’s students were lucky to get passports, those allied to Odinga faced many difficulties.

In 1959, Odinga had organised for three students, Wera Ambitho, Odhiambo Okello and Abdulla Karungo, to study abroad.

But on the day of their departure (Ambitho and Okello were heading to Italy), the government impounded their passports, forcing them to sneak to Uganda and travel to Khartoum where the Sudan government had agreed to open a political office for Kenyans.

But after Prime Minister Abdallah Khalil staged a coup against his own government – and allied himself to the US – the Kenyan students left for Socialist-run Egypt where President Nasser opened the Kenya Office in Cairo complete with a radio station and a newsletter, New Kenya.

Mr Odinga managed to get many scholarships in the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, North Korea, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

Tickets to these countries were only available in Cairo or London offices.

The London office was managed by Burudi Nabwera (ironically, the first Kenyan ambassador to the US and later on Cabinet minister), Othigo Othieno and Ngumbu Njururi, a former Mukurweini MP.

The Cairo office had Odhiambo Okello, Abdulla Kartungo and Wera Ambitho.

As the first Lancaster conference to discuss Kenya’s constitution started in 1960, Mr Odinga had made the mistake of travelling to East Germany during the recess.

The Daily Mail got wind of this tour and carried a picture of Odinga with a story: Kenya Leader in Secret Trip to see the Reds.

Mr Odinga would later write in his autobiography the general opinion was that he was not a Communist “but I had to be watched”.

MISUNDERSTOOD GESTURE
He didn’t know that as he headed back home, the intelligence agency would simply do that — and that his life would not be the same again.

When Kanu and Kadu were asked to form a coalition government in 1962 with both Jomo Kenyatta and Ronald Ngala at the helm, Mr Odinga had been on Kenyatta’s list as minister for Finance.

“The Colonial office vetoed my appointment. The British government refused to give a reason. I have no doubt that Governor (Patrick) Renison persuaded the Colonial office that my visits to Socialist countries made me unfit to take Cabinet office.

"I also know of behind-the-scenes discussions in London in which some Kanu men hinted that I would be unacceptable not only to Kadu but even to some groups in Kanu,” writes Odinga in his book, Not Yet Uhuru.

“When the opposition of the Colonial office was made known to him, Kenyatta removed me from the list. I was neither consulted nor even informed by Jomo … it was Achieng Oneko who came to me, greatly upset, to break the news.”

Mr Odinga said he knew he was a victim of witch-hunt — Kenyatta would later promise Odinga that he would hold a bigger position after independence.

He was appointed minister for Home Affairs but was disappointed that key dockets in that ministry — internal security and police — had been removed from him and taken to the Prime Minister’s office.

It was claimed, according to Mr Odinga, that some senior British police officers had threatened resignation if they were to be placed under Mr Odinga.

“When I confronted Kenyatta with this limitation of my powers, I found, to my surprise, that he was fully aware of this plan and in complete agreement with it with the Governor, Malcolm Macdonald,” Mr Odinga writes.

Odinga says one cause of misunderstanding between him and Kenyatta was over the military training of students in socialist countries.

When they started returning, Odinga says they were slandered as “Odinga Boys and that I would use them against the government… Suddenly, I found myself the so-called evil-genius of a ruthless plot to overthrow the government”.

PUSHED OUT
British newspapers indeed carried reports about Odinga smuggling communist arms into Kenya.

While admitting that arms were found at the basement of his office, Mr Odinga said they had been brought with the knowledge of Kenyatta, and Joe Murumbi (later Kenyatta’s Vice President).

The purpose was to equip the police independently of Britain.

When the arms were “found” they were used to soil Odinga’s image and Kenyatta never came to his defence.

“The removal of the arms from the basement, organised by the ministry of Defence, was leaked to the press and the reporters gathered… I was not even informed of the proposed removal,” he says.

Mboya used this occasion to rubbish Mr Odinga saying: “Soviet aid was not worth getting.”

As a campaign of hate was mounted, Mr Odinga found his position, as Vice President weakened thanks to the suspicions.

Finally, he was pushed out of Kanu and formed his own opposition party, the Kenya People’s Union.