I know it is Mashujaa Day and I was thinking about my mother, Alice Ogalo Odhiambo Adongo as my greatest Mashujaa ever because she used to visit me at Kamiti Prison when Moi put us there as students from Nairobi University protesting his murderous regime.
She always told me to keep fighting, but I did not know that we have a new Shujaa in Jamhuri, who is the DP Rigathi Gachagua escaping two murder attempts from President William Ruto’s security officials assigned to protect (kill) him.
One time my mother came to see me at Kamiti and the day before the prison guards broke my ankle so I could not be able to stand up and go see her at the front meeting place. My comrade Njuguna Mutahi who was in jail with me as well as his elder brother the famous Wahome Mutahi, came to me and told me he will carry me to the front and hold me to talk to my mother and I should tell her everything is okay.
In a few minutes my mother noticed something was wrong with me and she asked me if I was able to stand up. Moms are very sharp when they see something wrong. Njuguna confessed to her that “mguu ime vunjika kidogo” he told her. My shujaa mother just told me to be strong. I assured her that one of my legs work and I can stand on it and then just lie down and survive.
But here is the story of our new Shujaa Rigathi. He says that “on August 30, in Kisumu, undercover security agents entered my room and bugged it and one of them tried to poison my food, but we detected it and were able to escape the scheme. I was supposed to be killed by food poisoning. “
“On September 3, another team from the National Intelligence Service came to Nyeri and tried to poison food that was meant for me and the Kikuyu council of elders.
“I did report this matter to the NIS and asked the officers assigned to my office to leave because I felt I was not safe. After the two assassination attempts failed, it is when this impeachment motion was hatched,”
“Do whatever you want to do, but please, Mr. President, I beg you, don’t kill us, don’t kill my children. Allow me to live to take care of my children. You have caused me enough pain for the past year; please leave me alone. God will take care of me, I don’t have to have security, please allow me to have my peace if nothing else and remember I was there for you when you needed a man to be there for you,” Gachagua said.
Statue of Mekatilili wa Menza,
Well, well, well now one of Kenya’s biggest heroines for our country, Mekatilili wa Menza has good company and that is none other than Rigathi Gachagua fighting to liberate the country from the new killers running the government. Brave man isn’t he?
In her days as a fighter for her country Mekatilili wa Menza knew no tribe. From the Coast where she was fighting the British in 1914 as the colonialists were systematically taking over Kenya as their colony Mekatilili and the Giriama people had a big fight with the British as they were building their railway from Mombasa.
Mekatilili was then jailed by the British in Kissii. After getting out of Prison Mekatilili with his co prisoner walked 700 miles from Kissii back to the Coast. That is guts and tough. I wonder how long Gachagua is going to walk to reach that unless he walks to Uganda from Nyeri to escape from William Ruto.
In the 1990s myself and a bunch of student exiles from Kenyan prisons formed the Mekatilili Revolutionary Movement (MEKAREMO) to join other movements fighting against the Moi dictatorship at that time. Now wait until we form the Rigathi Gachagua Revolutionary Movement (GACHAREMO) to take care of those who are trying to kill him and kill the country in the process.
One big thing out of all these is that Public Participation on issues critical to the governance of the country is now fully authorized and legalized by the courts complete with a process that it has to be done at the constituency level.
If Kenyans had the kind of parliament they had when they were fighting the Moi dictatorship there would be a motion now in parliament specifying how Public Participations will be done starting with one on the Adani Scam with JKIA and on the next Finance Bill.
The second big issue emerging is that delusions that Ruto will just disasspear because of demonstrations are not going to work. If elections were held today William Ruto would win with a landslide. Why? Because more that 90% of the young Kenyans who want to get rid of him do not have voting cards and in fact do not even have ID cards. Kenya has 3-4 million voters out there who want a new country but they can’t vote now and we do not even have the IEBC to register voters.
Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka and the Azimio la Umoja brigade address a press briefing at Karen Hospital where they had visisted embattled Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Stupidly enough some of the opposition leaders like Kalonzo Musyoka who are hugging Gachagua from toe to head are the ones opposed to having a new IEBC to register voters.
Gachagua only has one vote and nothing else. Can Kenyan opposition leaders see the big picture and push President William Ruto to help institute the IEBC and have voter registration going on for the next three years.
Kalonzo Musyoka: Gen Zs are my Mashujaa
Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka has said Gen Zs are his heroes and heroines as the country marked Mashujaa Day.
Speaking at AIC Mwingi Town-Kasina on Sunday, Kalonzo celebrated Gen Zs and Millennials as the country celebrated all those who contributed towards the struggle for independence or positively contributed in post-independence Kenya.
“My heroes and heroines today are Kenyan Gen Zs and Millennials,” he said.
“Your showed bravery in the face of police brutality because you dared to exercise your constitutionally guaranteed rights will be remembered as one of the most significant milestones and watershed moments in our 61-year history,” he added.
Those people cannot vote for you at all, Mr. Kalonzo, because they have no voting cards and even if they could vote, they will not vote for you because you have no idea where the country needs to go.
That is why the country and people like you stopping IEBC formation are doing a great service to Ruto and he would be very happy if there is no voter registration at all before the next election. Without new voter registration William Ruto will win the next presidential elections.
All those people who want to register to vote want to remove Ruto from power and they are in millions of numbers.
Many Kenyans probably don’t know that Mashujaa day used to be Jomo Kenyatta day to mark his release from colonial jail.
How did it become Mashujaa Day.
It was after we wrestled Moi to the floor and beat his ass and the fighters for that second revolution said the heroes must include those who have fought to liberate Kenya from the Kenyatta and Moi dictatorships.
One of my great friends and comrade Harris Okong’o Arara with whom we lived and worked at Chianda High School says a lot about what things means for the mashujaas in Kenya:
Harris Okong’o Arara went to Chianda High School in Uyoma (Siaya County), the same school I attended. He was an exceptional footballer and hockey player the school ever produced, who upon completing his studies joined the Kenya Air force. In his 20s, Arara became an activist for change and courageously led the fight to end one-party dictatorship in Kenya.
What he told a Nairobi court about to sentence him to jail for sedition on September 24, 1988, expressed the values he stood for and the vision he had for Kenya. He declined to plead for leniency or mercy. With confidence, he dismissed the courts’ right to judge him. Arara questioned why he should seek personal mercy while millions of Kenyans lived in misery. He was proud in joining the company of those he called apostles, who attempted to rescue justice but found themselves in detention, prison or exile. He said:
The people of this nation are simply demanding their fundamental rights and freedoms. They are simply demanding their rights to a decent living, right to education, right to proper medical care, right to housing. In short, the right to be human beings. If that is sedition, so be it. These are the goals for which I have always fought, and for which I am prepared to die.
Arara was sentenced to a five-year jail term. This was his second stint in jail, having been in detention without trial for six years following the 1982 coup attempt. Arara had only been free for eight months by the time of this sentencing. He was wading into the troubled waters of the Nyayo era.
Kibaki had no choice but to accept that reality.
That is why now we can talk about Mekatilili wa Menza like Raila did at the Mashujaa day. Just great.
In 2002 after Kenyans threw Dictator Moi out of State House, the country formed Truth Justice and National Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) and the reports covered decades of oppression and injustice in Kenya and was handed over to President Uhuru Kenyatta who put it in has garbage bag at State House. Kenyans are going to deal with that sooner than our political leaders think or want.
In reality our country has faced horrific political assassinations.
And yes indeed. Where would our country be without these brave soldiers of the nation an its peoples.
Mothers of political prisoners in Kenya in 1992
Yes Indeed We Lived To Tell The Truth.
