Exiled Ngugi wa Thiong’o was subject of talks

On  January 11, 1985, President Daniel arap Moi held a two-hour meeting with Sir Geoffrey Howe, the British Secretary of State for Foreign and commonwealth Affairs who had called on him in Nairobi. 

Several issues were discussed during the meeting, among them trade and diplomatic relations.

But it was the President’s concern over the activities of Kenyan academic and writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who was living in exile in London, that dominated the meeting.

Declassified British government documents seen by the Nation show that Moi accused Ngugi — now a professor  based in the United States — of conducting propaganda among Kenyan students in the UK and planning to start a communist party.

President Moi also wondered why Britain had allowed Ngugi to live and work freely yet when the President’s son Gideon — now Baringo senator and Kanu chairman — visited London he needed a visa to stay even for a day.

REJECT VISA EXTENSION

The President’s demand was clear: Britain should reject any visa extension application by the Kenyan academic and force him to relocate to another country.

But, according to the declassified documents, the Secretary of State told Moi that it was impossible for the British government to take any action against Ngugi unless he committed a criminal offence.

The British official also suggested that ignoring Ngugi was a better strategy to avoid giving him publicity. 

The renowned author had been detained for a year in 1977 by the Jomo Kenyatta government after his Gikuyu play Ngaahika Ndeenda (I will Marry When I want), written with Ngugi wa Mirii, was performed in an open air theatre in Limuru.

After his release, Moi, who took over in 1978, blacklisted him and no university wanted to employ him. In 1982, after the launch of his book, Devil on the Cross, in Britain, Ngugi feared for his life and did not return to Kenya. He would remain in exile in the UK until 1989 when he moved to America.

EXPRESSING CONCERN
Moi’s meeting was not the first time Kenya was expressing concern about Ngugi’s stay in Britain. 

Another declassified document marked “confidential” shows the matter had been raised on November 12, 1984 by the Kenyan High Commissioner to London Benjamin Kipkulei when he called on the British secretary of state. Kipkulei reportedly said Ngugi was receiving more attention than he deserved. 

The British High Commission in Nairobi was not spared either. In one meeting to indicate Moi’s planned tour of Britain, Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Bethuel Kiplagat told High Commissioner Leonard Allinson that Kenya was aware Ngugi had been employed by the Islington Council in London and was not happy about it.

This is captured in a letter Sir Allinson wrote to JR Johnson, a senior official at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.

He said in the letter: “Kiplagat told me the only thing on the President’s mind that hurts our image is the presence and activities of Ngugi.

CONFIDENTIAL LETTER

Kenyans think he is now being employed by Islington Council or the GLC (Greater London Council). If the Secretary of State comes out here he will need to say a mollifying word on this subject.”
Johnson responded with a letter dated December 31, 1984.

“There is no truth in Kiplagat’s allegations that Ngugi is now being employed by the GLC or Islington Council.

This probably arises from a confusion over the sponsorship of his play by these two bodies.”

Johnson would later visit Kenya in August 1986 for official engagement and Moi summoned him to State House, Nakuru, where the issue of Ngugi was again given prominence.

It was his first substantive meeting with Moi, according to a confidential letter he sent to London after the meeting.

Also on the agenda was the President’s deep suspicion of the relationship between Britain and the Central Kenya political elite among them one-time powerful Attorney General and former Cabinet minister Charles Njonjo and “lies” propagated by the British press, particularly the BBC, about Moi’s wealth. The President also expressed suspicions about his Vice-President Mwai Kibaki.

POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

In the meeting, Moi narrated his political contributions to Kenya since the 1950s, including how the British Secretary of State for Colonies and Commonwealth Relations Lord Duncan Sandys convinced him to work with Jomo Kenyatta ahead of Independence to help hold the country together “through difficult times”.

The two then talked about aid to Kenya with Moi expressing his dissatisfaction with the way the British government was dragging its feet on some construction projects. Johnson responded by pinpointing the projects his government had undertaken.

They further they delved into the discussions, the more Moi appeared to reveal his discomfort and fear of the Central Kenya elite at that stage of his presidency, according to the declassified documents.

In his report, Johnson alleged that Moi blamed the group for being behind the instability in the Rift Valley, particularly on land issues. Moi, however, expressed confidence that the younger generation in Central Kenya and the “common man” largely supported him.

The discussion then turned to Ngugi. Since Kenya had no grounds to ask for extradition, Moi wanted the British to make life so uncomfortable for the author that he would have to relocate to another country.

But the British official repeated the line that Ngugi had not committed any crime hence there was no ground to extradite him.

Ngugi lived in Britain until 1989 when he moved to the USA.

The writer is a researcher and journalist based in London