James Muigai: Alliance School's first student, Jomo's brother

Alliance High School on March 5, 2017. James Muigai s/o Johnstone was the first student in the school register. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • His mother Wambui died not long after he was born, leaving him to be brought up by his elder brother Kamau wa Muigai, now called Kamau wa Ngengi.
  • Mzee Muigai didn’t need favours from Jomo Kenyatta because the environment was conducive to allow ordinary people to invest.

The school was founded on March 1926. The aim was to train pioneer African teachers who, in turn, would train their kinsfolk to embrace the modern world.

Besides formal education, great emphasis was placed on the virtues of orderliness, punctuality, cleanliness, obedience to authorities, and honest living.

James Muigai s/o Johnstone, the first student in the school register, was a true embodiment of the spirit of the school’s founders and could drive one crazy with demands for perfection.

One of my most memorable assignments as a young journalist in the 1990s was interviewing mzee James Muigai, who was Student No. I when Alliance High School opened its gates on March 1, 1926.

At the time, he was 89 and one of the only five students alive out of 27 in the pioneer class.

Today all the five have since left, I suppose, to be with the angels since they were all good men.

THE INTERVIEW
When I telephoned him, Mzee Muigai agreed to a Saturday two o’clock appointment at his coffee farm house in Gatundu, Kiambu County.

My photographer and I were at his gate by 2.20 pm.

We were ushered in and taken to the patio where he was waiting for us.

Though a Saturday afternoon, he was in a crisp three-piece suit, a matching tie and shirt.

In contrast, we were in casuals, my photographer the “worst” dressed in slacks and sports shoes.

The old man warmly welcomed us and asked us to serve ourselves with tea or coffee already on the table.

LATENESS

We did so as we got out our tools ready for the job only for him to stop us in our tracks.

“Sorry, young men, I am afraid I won’t give you the interview today. Why? You didn’t keep time.

"We agreed you’d be here at two. Now it’s 23 minutes past. You have already wasted almost half of my time for siesta. You’ll just finish your tea and book another appointment if you still want to talk to me.”

We asked whether he could meet us on Monday the following week, to which he asked for his diary to check.

“Yes, I can. Be here on Monday at 11.”

TOO EARLY
Come Monday, we we’re at his gate half an hour to the appointed time.

We had also taken the precaution of dressing formally – in a tie and jacket though we were going to a coffee farm!

At the gate, the guard told us he couldn’t let us in because our appointment was at 11, not half past 10.

“We won’t mind waiting in the compound”, we told him. “No, Mzee doesn’t like people waiting at his gate or in the compound. Just take a stroll but be back here at exactly 11.” We did as instructed.

Come 11 we found the old man seated at exactly the same place and dressed in the same attire as on Saturday.

It was like he’d not left the place since the last time we were together!

“Now I am happy you can keep time,” he said.

“But next time don’t also come before the appointed time like you did today. I never like to keep people waiting.”

Wow, the old man didn’t entertain lateness but he also didn’t want you too early – just be on time!

SIBLINGS
We got down to business. “You said you wanted my story of Alliance; it is a long one where do you want us to begin?” he asked.

“Tell us how you happened to be the Student No. I in the register and why the name James Muigai s/o Johnstone?”

Here is his story. He was born in a family of three other brothers. The elder Kung’u had died at infancy.

The second-born Kamau wa Muigai survived, while the third disappeared without trace during the World War 1.

The first three sons were born to Wambui and her husband Muigai.

CHRISTIANITY

When Muigai died, Wambui was inherited by Muigai’s brother, Ngengi, in accordance with old customs of the Kikuyu community.

With Ngengi, Wambui gave birth to a son who they named Muigai in memory of her dead husband.

It is the latter who grew up to be student No. I at Alliance.

His mother Wambui died not long after he was born, leaving him to be brought up by his elder brother Kamau wa Muigai, now called Kamau wa Ngengi.

The latter was among the first converts to Christianity when missionaries from Scotland set camp at Kikuyu area in Kiambu, and where he was baptised Johnstone.

He also took his kid-brother for the ritual where he was baptised James.

JOMO KENYATTA
Later when Alliance High School opened at Kikuyu, Johnstone Kamau was the first to show up seeking admission for his kid brother.

Being his guardian, the student was entered in the register as James Muigai s/o Johnstone.

Not long after, Johnstone Kamau fully immersed himself into politics and changed his name to Jomo Kenyatta who became independent Kenya’s first President.

Mzee Muigai proceeded to tell us of their first day at Alliance.

“It was like we’d just been dropped in the middle of nowhere. All around the school were thick bushes and we feared wild animals would make a feast of us come darkness.”

Incidentally, to date Alliance High School alumni refer to their school as “Bush” and themselves as “Busherians”.

FOREST
Founding headmaster G.A. Grieve was to record in his diary about that first day at Alliance:

“The school comprised two wooden structures tucked in the middle of thick bushes. At daybreak, I walked round the school through the grass.

"There were no paths to the school as an indigenous forest of wild olives hid the compound from the main muddy road of red Kikuyu soil, which became impassable during the rains.”

The pioneer head teacher’s main worry that day was whether the admitted students would find their way to the school.

He, with his only helper, the school carpenter, had cut a two kilometre path through the bush and undergrowth and kept their fingers crossed that new students would somehow find their way to the bush school.

Luckily they did. The head teacher was delighted to see them and wrote in his diary:

“I got out of the house and took a deep breath. The boys had arrived. They were sitting barefeet besides their wooden boxes, which contained their worldly possessions. They looked very big and very old.”

GROOMING
Mzee Muigai told us that in the class of 27, the youngest “boy”, Eliud s/o Mathu, was 20 years, and the oldest, Magugu s/o Waweru, was 27.

At his admission, the latter had been a headmaster to a junior primary school at the coast where he had been posted after “graduating” from upper primary and qualified as a teacher.

Mzee Muigai told us that at Alliance of their days, academic excellence came second to discipline.

“We were taught that excelling in algebra and speaking good English were only useful if we were, first and foremost, orderly people who knew what best to do, how to do it, and when to do it.”

Personal hygiene and dressing for the occasion were also part of the mandatory requirements at the Alliance of those days, the old man told us.

BIG BROTHER
After Alliance, Mzee Muigai, like almost every other Alliance High student those days, ended up a primary school teacher and rose through the ranks to be Inspector of Schools at the time of his retirement.

He told us: “In those days, teachers and African school inspectors wore shorts and long stockings. Not even for a single day did I fail to be in my uniform.”

Indeed, to date Mzee Muigai, who passed away 23 years ago, is still remembered as “Mr Gitoki” (Mr Stockings), which was his nick-name in his long career as a teacher and inspector of schools.

Did he seek favours from his big brother President Jomo Kenyatta after independence? We asked him.

“What for?”, he replied a bit offended. He explained: “By the time my brother came out of colonial detention, I was already a top civil servant with a good salary.

"Actually I am the one who lent him money to buy his first set of suits just before he became President!”

INDEPENDENCE

Even in the latter years of their life, Mzee Muigai told us he didn’t need favours from his brother because the environment was conducive to allow ordinary people to invest without cutting shortcuts.

“I could go to a bank and take a loan to buy a coffee farm and use proceeds from the same farm to service the loan.

"So why bother my brother just because he sat at State House? Certainly that is not the discipline we were taught at Alliance!”