Passion for journalism defined ex-Nation editor Mutonya

When he got hold of his beloved typewriter — an old Italian Olivetti S.P.A. — which he bought in the 80s, he typed with a furious intensity and passion that came from deep down his heart.

Mr Njuguna Mutonya, who died on Sunday, could not have become anything else but a writer, for he was beholden to the world of newspapers, magazines and books.

A natural extrovert who was comfortable in any crowd or grouping, Mr Mutonya loved telling stories — often tinged with a writer’s exaggerations and hyperbole — and often relished seeing his listeners laugh uproariously at his mordant wit and contagious enthusiasm.

WRITING CAREER
When I met him in the mid 1990s when I worked as a literature teacher at Allidina Visram High School in Mombasa, he was already an established journalist who seemed to know everyone by name around the city.

I was introduced to him by another veteran journalist, Patrick Mayoyo, and we immediately struck a deal in which I would be using my spare time to write stories for the Daily Nation, in the evenings after school and during weekends.

He would lend me his typewriter, teach me how to craft news stories and how to interview news sources.

PROFESSIONAL

If I had a natural liking for newspapers, Mr Mutonya, Mr Mayoyo and the then Mombasa bureau chief Catherine Gicheru came in to crank it up and give it release.

I doubt I would have become a journalist if I hadn’t met Mr Mutonya.

Anybody who met Mr Mutonya in his heyday as a journalist can attest to his singular devotion to the profession.

Whether he was “banging” copy (as writing a news story was then called) on his beloved Ollivetti, or interviewing then Mvita MP Shariff Nassir, District Commissioner Ali Korane or Provincial Commissioner Francis Baya, he did this with zeal and commitment, in the process gaining countless friends.

SOCIAL
A devoted family man who was exceptionally proud of his wife, Susan, and whom he loved introducing to his friends as “my sweetheart and the greatest cook I have ever known”, Mr Mutonya was nocturnal and gregarious and perhaps Stephen King might have had him in mind in his famous Shawshank Redemption quote: “Some birds are not meant to be caged. That’s all.”

Mr Mutonya was defined by his brisk walking style, his eternal smile, firm handshake and a hardwired ability to start off or carry on a conversation on virtually any conceivable topic.

He could chat endlessly about sports, history, movies, women, theatre (he was a regular at the Little Theatre Club in Mombasa) and had also taken to golfing.

MOMBASA

He once took me for a walk around Mombasa pointing out the oldest pubs, hotels and parks in the city and some of the oldest Swahili houses in Kisauni, Barisheba, Mla Leo, Bamburi and countless other hamlets that dot the city.

Although he was born in Gatura, Murang’a County, and spent most of his youth in Nairobi as a university student, Mr Mutonya’s love was Mombasa and it isn’t a wonder he will be buried there on Saturday and not at his ancestral home.

If Mr Mutonya hit the bottle a bit too hard in his last few years, in the process gaining a lot of weight – which he often made fun of – it is because he loved being with people and his glad-handing character lent itself to conviviality and jamboree.

MOI ERA
He was a party animal and I shudder what it might have meant to him when he was taken ill just a few years ago and could no longer go to the places he loved or stay as long as he might have wanted.

In his book, Crackdown!, which he penned in 2010, he tells his personal story during the Moi era in which he was arrested, tortured and jailed on suspicion of belonging to the Mwakenya group, an anti-government underground movement in the 1970s.

In his death, Mombasa has lost a king, his family a loving angel and journalism a legend.

But heaven will be richer, welcoming a congenial, kindly and generous soul in its stable.

May his soul rest in peace.

Mr Waihenya is Associate Editor, Daily Nation