An insider's experience with Jomo's politics

On October 5, 2018, I attended the funeral, in Nyandarua County, of a man who was at the centre of Kenyan politics in the 1960s and 1970s.

His name was Nelson Mwangi Gichohi, the last of the most influential and powerful district commissioners (DC), during the imperial presidency of Jomo Kenyatta.

Mr Gichohi’s life was a classic example of the saying ''old habits die hard''. Although he had been retired for well over three decades, he still dressed up immaculately in his properly pressed suits, oftentimes accompanied with a matching tie.

Until a couple of years before his death, he used to drive himself to Nairobi to attend to his myriad of chores, and while at it, would catch up with old-time friends. Old age had slowed down his movements, but not his mind.

For eight years, from 1970 until Kenyatta’s death in August 1978, he served as the all-powerful Nakuru DC. He was Mzee’s ear in the district and for that, he earned his trust.

TOM MBOYA

In his last years, I had taken to visiting him at his home in an area popularly known as Matches because it had a matchbox factory in the colonial days. He was a great storyteller. And he told me many stories.

He narrated to me the events surrounding Tom Mboya’s death. ''After Mboya was assassinated in Nairobi in 1969, there was tension across the country,'' said Gichohi, who was the DC for Kisii District at the time of Mboya’s murder. ''No sooner had Kenyans learned of Tom Mboya’s death than they pointed an accusing figure at Mzee Kenyatta,'' he said. ''In Kisii and its environs, the anger was palpable. Almost immediately, after Mboya's death was announced, Kikuyu businessmen in Homa Bay were chased away and threatened with death.''

He vividly recalled how Chief Musa Nyandusi, the father of Simeon Nyachae, came to see him in his office in Kisii town over the rising tensions. ''Bwana DC, do you know what the people are saying? 'This is not Gatundu,' they want all the Kikuyus in Kisii town to pack up and leave at once. Please see what you can do.''

Gichohi remembered that the tension was high and the people angry, ''so much so that Chief Nyandusi did not want his Kisii community to learn that he had gone to see the 'Kikuyu' DC.''

For the next couple of days, members of the Kikuyu community who had been evicted from Homa Bay travelled to Kisii town and, with their kinsmen in Kisii, Gichohi saw to it that they were safely accommodated in schools and social halls, and provided with appropriate security until the tension ebbed away.

UTHAMAKI

Meanwhile, as he was ensuring that Kikuyus in the diaspora were unharmed, by the vexed communities of Western Kenya who had already started sniffing the Kikuyu ''arrogance and domination'', Mzee Kenyatta and the Kiambu Mafia were planning the infamous oath taking. ''The planning and the execution of the oaths was so secretive that even high-ranking civil servants like myself were kept in the dark,'' recalls Gichohi.

''The secretive taking of oaths in 1969 was the zenith of Uthamaki consolidation,'' Gichohi told me. The general ideology behind the oaths was to bind and commit the Gikuyu nation to defend and protect their Uthamaki,'' summed up the former powerful DC. It was prevalent in Gatundu division. “Oaths were also taken in Nyandarua District, but I will be lying if I tell you I know the specific locations.''

JM KARIUKI

''I knew JM Kariuki,'' Gichohi ventured to tell me nostalgically. He seemed to remember the heady days like it was just yesterday. ''JM was my friend and he often came to see me in Kisii.'' A charismatic politician, Gichohi told me how, ''JM was such an extremely likeable person. As ambitious as any tactical politician can possibly be, he would hold meetings in Kisii District.'' Then Kisii had seven constituencies. ''After his meetings were over, he would caucus with groups of opinion shapers in the evenings where he would casually drop his hint on his political ambitions.''

''By the way, you know I can also lead this country, eh, what do you think?'' Gichohi recalls JM engaging some of his Kisii caucus friends. 'What JM did not know was that the Special Branch intelligence officers were following him everywhere. ''Back in Nairobi, they would head straight to Mzee Kenyatta and they would tell him: 'Mzee, this is what the young man is telling everyone – that he can also lead the country.'''

Gichohi said that as the intelligence officers were filing their reports, Mbiyu Koinange, the de facto leader of the Kiambu Mafia, would be right there beside Kenyatta, taking notes of what was being reported. On many occasions, the Kiambu Mafia warned JM to stop his ''presidential'' campaigns, but he rebuffed them.

By 1975, the Mafia felt sufficiently threatened by JM's growing likeability and popularity across the country and they decided forthwith to put a stop to his ambitions.

''Furious Nyeri Kikuyus immediately, accused the Kiambu Mafia of killing JM,'' said Gichohi.

KENYATTA MAFIA TACTICS

As Nakuru DC, Gichohi was also the returning officer during the one-party elections. During the 1974 by-election in Nakuru town, Mark Mwithaga, who was the most popular politician in the town and a great friend of JM Kariuki, was arrested on the eve of voting day. The Nakuru Kanu party mandarins, led by Dickson Kihika Kimani, the chairman of GEMA (Gikuyu Embu Meru Association) were against Mwithaga being re-elected and so hoped that by orchestrating his arrest and putting him in police custody, they would dissuade the electorate from voting for him.

Since his name had long been printed in the ballot papers, the people went ahead and voted for him anyway. He retained his seat, to the chagrin of the likes of Kihika and Mburu Gichua, the hawkish town mayor, who was part of the Kiambu Mafia in the diaspora.

Gichohi, whose work as the Returning Officer was to oversee the voting, counting of the votes and to announce the winner, promptly released the results and declared Mwithaga the winner.

Kihika was so miffed that he confronted the DC for declaring a candidate in custody as the winner in the by-elections. ''The people have elected him because his name was on the ballot paper. My duty was to announce the winner, you can do whatever it is that you want with the results,'' Gichohi told Kihika.

I will sorely miss Mzee Gichohi’s many political stories of Kenya, when it was still a fragile nation-state (it still is), narrated from the perspective of an insider of the high-octane politics played in the expansive Rift Valley region, long known as the hotbed of Kenyan politics.

Mr Kahura is a senior writer for 'The Elephant', a Nairobi-based publication. Twitter: @KahuraDauti