James Beuttah, the freedom fighter that Kenyans forgot

At 103 years, Mzee Henry Rohara Beuttah's health is robust and his eyesight strong. In fact, on a normal day, he spends his time reading newspapers and books. The two large book cases in the elegantly-furnished living room in his Lang’ata home are testament to his love for literature. And it betrays his partiality for history books and political biographies.

Although his memory is failing him, one thing is still vivid in his mind: His father, James Beuttah, played a central role in the fight for Kenya’s freedom from colonialism.

“My father was born James Mbutu in the 1800s in Murang’a. He was among the few well-educated Kenyans and could speak very good English,” recalls, Rohara, who was born and bred in Mazeras, Mombasa, in the 1930s. “He worked as a post office manager. He also worked in Uganda in the same capacity for about five years in the 1940s”.

Because his father had a decent income as a government officer, he paid for Rohara - the eldest of his eight children - to attend college for four years in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.

FIGHT FOR FREEDOM

According to him, the elder Beuttah was a senior member of the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA). His education and proximity to government affairs stood James Beuttah in good stead to coordinate KCA’s socio-political affairs, and to push its agenda.

“My father retired from public service at around 1945, and actively engaged in lobbying for land rights within KCA.”

Rohara, however, laments that his father’s role in the struggle for independence and his subsequent detention have scarcely been mentioned, yet some of his comrades in the quest for independence are widely recognised as national heroes.

Literature obtained by the Saturday Nation shows that James Beuttah was among the leaders held at various detention camps across the country for agitating for freedom.

British historian Caroline Elkins narrates in her book, Imperial Reckoning: The Un-told Story of British's Gulag in Kenya, that Bildad Kaggia and Paul Ngei, alongside Kenyatta, were found guilty of organising the Mau Mau society.

“…others such as the Koinange brothers and James Beuttah, who were arguably as involved in the Mau Mau movement, if not more than those who had been convicted, were detained without trial under the GDO (Governor’s Detention Orders),” she writes.

According to Pio Gama Pinto’s book, Glimpses of Kenya’s Nationalist Struggle, James Beuttah was an astute mobiliser.

He writes that on the day of his arrest, Beuttah was “…organising the collection of funds to be used to purchase an aeroplane as a contribution of the Fort Hall District (modern day Murang’a) to the war”.

Rohara says that his father was incarcerated for 11 years at various locations, including in North Eastern Kenya.

POLITICS

When KCA petitioned the British government in 1929 after colonial settlers had taken nearly all the best land in Mt Kenya region, Mzee Beuttah was selected to travel to London for the talks. He, however, declined the role, and instead fronted Jomo Kenyatta for the trip.

“My siblings and I were very young at the time; father could not leave us. He was also still working with the government at the time,” Rohara recounts.

Kenyatta, who was 32 at the time, was not only younger than Beuttah but also more energetic. Beuttah proposed his name for the assignment. It is this decision that would put Kenyatta firmly on the path to take the country’s leadership upon independence in 1963.

Upon his return from the UK, Jomo Kenyatta and his wife Grace Wahu visited Mombasa, where the Beuttahs hosted them.

Fast forward to 1960, and a damper was put on Kenyatta and Beuttah’s many decades of comradeship when Mzee Beuttah stuck to his guns to have his name on the ballot against Kenyatta’s preferred choice of Dr Julius Gikonyo Kiano – Kenya’s first ever PhD holder – as the parliamentary representative of Murang’a.

This pitted Beuttah against the State campaign machinery, led by Kenyatta him-self. That Beuttah was married to a non-local also dented his image among the voters. Little wonder that he suffered a devastating blow from his political nemesis, bringing his stint in politics to an end.

“The President frequently sent his emissaries to my father, but the two never met again in person,” Rohara recalls.

Despite the political fall-out, Kenyatta’s government returned Beuttah’s land and other property that had been seized by the colonial government for his involvement in the push for freedom. He, thereafter, led a quiet life at his Maragua home until his death in 1985, aged more than 100 years.

“Vice President Mwai Kibaki and other high-ranking government officials attended my father’s burial ceremony in Murang’a,” recalls Rohara.

This remains the most prominent acknowledgement the leader has received from the state to date.

“It is only fair that the current government recognises my father’s role in the fight for the country’ freedom,” Rohara appeals.

BEUTTAH MENTORED MZEE JOMO KENYATTA

 James Beuttah and Joseph Kang’ethe led Kikuyu Central Association

 Beuttah mentored Jomo Kenyatta into politics and even recommended him to take over as the secretary of KCA when he moved to Uganda between 1925 and 1926;

 He also fronted Kenyatta to represent KCA in a petition against the British government in London in 1929;

 James Beuttah once served as the vice president of KAU (Kenya African Union);

 His push for freedom is arguably the longest from the 1920s till independence and

 He was among the first Kenyans to be arrested and detained for pushing for Africans’ rights.