Harambee! From rallying cry for divided nation to political vanity

There have been several versions as to the origin and meaning of the word “Harambee”. But I will go with one told to me by the leader of the British white settlers in Kenya at the dawn of independence, Sir Michael Blundell.

He said the word first came about at a meeting he had with Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Joseph Murumbi at Mzee’s Gatundu home a few days after Kanu had narrowly won independence elections against rival Kadu. Mzee Kenyatta was about to be sworn in as prime minister as Kenya attained internal self-rule on June 1, 1963.

EXPECTATIONS

Blundell told me Mzee Kenyatta was at a loss as to how to unite the greatly divided nation. On the one hand was Kadu, bitter about losing the election and threatening secession if Kanu dared abolish the Majimbo (federal) constitution agreed at the Lancaster talks, but which Kanu had vowed to shoot down if it came to power. Another big headache for the incoming PM was the minority white settlers, who had deep mistrust for him and were looking for any opportunity to put him off the rails. Not least of the challenges for the old man also were great expectations among Kanu supporters that life would change for the better overnight the moment he took charge of the country.

“I have no illusions about the rocky path ahead. However, I am sure we can all be winners if we pull together. I will reach out to all the different groups and tell them as much,” Mzee Kenyatta told his two guests, acording to Blundell.

PULLING TOGETHER

Mzee Kenyatta’s idea of asking the new nation to pull together inspired a brainwave in Murumbi, who said: “Mzee, I suggest you have a homegrown word for ‘pulling together’. The word is ‘Harambee’ and it is used by our dockworkers when coming together to lift a heavy load.”

“You got it”, an excited Kenyatta replied. “That’s the word we’re going to use to make a rallying call for uniting the new nation and working together!”

And so it became. In his inauguration speech as prime minister on the first Madaraka Day, Mzee Kenyatta unveiled “Harambee” as a clarion call for unity of purpose and development of the new Kenya.

In the spirit of the new clarion call, two months later in August 1963, Blundell arranged a meeting between Mzee Kenyatta and the hostile white settler community in Nakuru town, where Kenyatta gave the famous “We must forgive-and-forget-the past” speech.

20-MONTH TODDLER

Mzee Kenyatta went ahead to insist that people of all races must harmoniously coexist in the new Kenya because all had one common main interest, which was to ensure “their children are well fed, well clothed, and well educated.”

Blundell told me that immediately after Kenyatta left Nakuru County Hall, the venue of the meeting, three distrusting settlers cornered him (Blundell) and asked: “What guarantee do you have that the old man is sincere about what he has just told us?”

Blundell replied: “Because, although aged 73 years, the old man (Kenyatta) has a 20-month toddler who he wants to grow up in a peaceful and prosperous country!”

The 20-month-old toddler Blundell was referring to is today the President of the Republic of Kenya!

THE EXCHEQUER

After, in the spirit of “Harambee”, Mzee Kenyatta had convinced the white settlers they wouldn’t be harmed in independent Kenya, and also talked the opposition Kadu into dissolving and joining Kanu, he gave new dimension to the word “Harambee”.

Aware the government wouldn’t have enough money at the Exchequer to provide all amenities for the citizens, he said the latter should chip in by mobilising resources by themselves in the spirit of “Harambee” and supplement what the government was doing with the statutory tax collections.

People happily accepted the President’s call and “Harambees” (grassroots fundraisers) became a way of life in Kenya. To lead by example, Mzee Kenyatta initiated a project to build a hospital in his home constituency that was called Gatundu Self-Help Hospital.

Raising a mere thousand bob in a “Harambee” was a great achievement in the village. Moreover, folks voluntarily gave whatever they could afford in whichever form. At church “Harambees”, I remember congregants donating eggs, maize, or beans, which were auctioned to raise the cash needed.

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Desecration of the spirit of “Harambee” came when politicians converted it into a tool to buy leadership posts, and through that, open doors wider to corruption and theft of public money. As long as the politician showed up at a “Harambee” with loads of money, nobody bothered to ask where the money came from in the first place! That’s when the trend came where known adulterers, conmen and even murderers were exalted in the church as long as they came with a fat cheque!

Big “Harambee” money first came to our village town, Elburgon, in the 1970s. It was presided over by then Nakuru West MP Evanson Njau Kariuki (brother of Bishop Mark Kariuki). The guest of honour was his Nakuru North counterpart, the bombastic and loose-tongued Kihika Kimani (father of Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika). The local MP, Kariuki, donated Sh1,000. Kihika brought Sh4,000, Sh1,000 of which he said had come from Mzee Kenyatta. Never mind, then as now, the President most likely will not have given the money but the politician giving it invokes the President’s name to earn brownie (bonga) points! The Elburgon event raised just about Sh10,000, meaning the two MPs donated half the total! The two fellows would later be implicated in the “disappearance” of money belonging to a once giant Rift Valley land-buying company called Ng’wataniro-Mutukanio.

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But what the two MPs donated in Elburgon would in the late 1980s sound like child’s play with the entry into the “Harambee” circuit by one Kuria Kanyingi.

By then, President Daniel arap Moi had made “Harambees” a million-shillings affair, and government administrators would forcibly demand money and confiscate chickens and livestock from citizens to hit the million target.

Kuria Kanyingi took Moi-era “Harambees” to new heights when he appeared with a kiondo full of bundles of crisp bank notes. He would donate in excess of one million, hitherto a reserve of the President. Before he stole the limelight, Kanyingi was a junior mechanic working for the government and living in anonymity. Nobody questioned the source of his newfound wealthy, and nobody ever got to know which business he ran and where.

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An interesting aspect in the evolution of “Harambee” can also be gleaned from attitudes each of the four Kenyan Presidents had for the concept. Though he came up with the idea, Mzee Kenyatta never believed in the ostentatious side of “Harambees”. The highest donation he ever made in his lifetime was Sh3,000, which he pulled from his wallet after firmly declining to take Sh100,000 his nephew, Mr Ngengi Muigai, wanted him to present at a fundraiser to construct what is today Jomo Kenyata University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).

To the contrary, President Moi was a great believer in “Harambees” and held them all over the country, giving generously. President Mwai Kibaki never believed in “Harambees”, and the political aspect of it became extinct during his administration, with the introduction of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

BRIEFCASES

He never carried any money with him, a fact captured on camera during the burial of politician Jeremiah Nyagah when the basket was passed around and the President looked the other way. Those who have closely interacted with him say he never carried a wallet or a chequebook.

When Kibaki took President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy William Ruto around State House on his exit, Mr Ruto jokingly asked him where the briefcases of money said to be found at State House during Moi’s time were. Kibaki replied: “I never found any. Mr Moi carried them away with him!”

Neither has there been much evidence that President Uhuru is a great fun of “Harambees”. He rarely makes donations in public. As for his deputy, apparently he’d replace Nyayo briefcases with rucksacks if he were to be resident at State House.

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