Joe Rodrigues
JOE RODRIGUES was
Managing Editor of the Daily Nation but he was told he
could never be Editor-in-Chief because he was not black. He found out quickly
that free press is not always free and that an editor’s life is not without its
perils. But that changed when Daniel arap Moi became President … and Joe became
Editor-in-Chief. Joe quickly found that a free press is not always free and
that an editor’s life in Kenya could be dangerous.
Rodrigues told a
television interviewer in 1978: “I would say without fear of contradiction that
if I was to get up one day and decide I would be writing editorials attacking
the head-of-state I would not last long and neither would the paper. There
would be no purpose in doing that.
“I think those of us
of who have been around since Independence have developed a knack or an extra
sense and we are able to fathom how far we should go not how far we can go. We
can go overboard, and we would be in trouble.
“The principal proprietor,
the principal shareholder, has always said there is no sense in going the whole
hog and criticising the establishment if in the end you are going to be banned
and then you have no platform to say
anything at all. So, it is better on
occasion to pull your punches and not go 100 per cent of the way.
What would the
government do in those circumstances? “There are always the laws of the land
and they have always existed in this country as well as all others, such as
sedition, libel and defamation, things like that. There is a possibility the
government may decide to take to take a newspaper editor to court and charge
him with sedition. In a less democratic atmosphere, editors have simply been
locked up without recourse to courts of law. That can happen in many parts of
Africa. The same legislative machinery also exists even in Kenya.
“President Moi has
said that he is willing to tolerate the Press as long as it does not go beyond
the bounds of reason. We, in newspapers, think the new government would be more
receptive to the criticisms voiced in a newspaper, through the columns of a
newspaper and would be responsive to those criticisms.”
But it was not long
before the “Government unleashed two vitriolic attacks against the Nation and arrested six of its journalists. In early April, the political
firebrand from Nyanza, Oginga Odinga, declared, ‘I clashed with President
Kenyatta because he wanted to grab land and he wanted me to do the same, but I
refused. That is why today I am working with President Moi, because he serves
the wananchi (the people) not himself.’ Being linked to Odinga did not
please the head of state, who responded that anyone who abused Kenyatta was not
likely to appreciate the Nyayo Government, ‘leave alone fit in it’. (Birth
of a Nation).
Odinga was banned from
standing in the Bondo by-election which he certainly would have won. Rodrigues
wrote an editorial which said that the decision was “unconstitutional,
undemocratic and not conducive to the National compromise to which
President Moi has been exhorting Kenyans.”
The government
responded by accusing the Nation of trying to assume the role of an opposition party, a rebellious
attitude and “selecting news on a sectarian and tribally motivated basis. It
warned that the Press “must at all times avoid inciting the public over
decisions that are National and collective.”
Rodrigues was arrested and interrogated. The Nation published an apology of
sorts, assuring the government of its support, but without actually using the
word “apology”.
This was the beginning
of the end for Joe Rodrigues as Editor-in-Chief and his 18-year association
with the Nation.
The instance that
hammered the nail into Rodrigues came with a sub-editor’s addition of the word anonymous
into statement by KANU. A statement by KANU quoted him (Moi) as saying,
‘KANU is the ruling party. It is the government therefore my voice. They also want
to say Moi is anonymous. (From Gerry Loughran’s Birth of a Nation).
Later that day, Joe
Kadhi (Nation Managing Editor),
John Esibi (acting news editor), Joe Rodrigues, Philip Ochieng (Chief
sub-editor, who inserted the word) and reporters Gideon Mulaki and Pius
Nyamora. Rodrigues was released 24 hours later and the others three days later.
The next edition carried an “Apology to President Moi and KANU”.
Then the axe fell: On
January 1, 1981, the Norfolk hotel was destroyed by a terrorist bomb killing 15
people and injuring 85 others. Palestinian terrorists were suspected because
the hotel’s owner was Jewish, and Kenya had provided assistance to Israel during
the Uganda hostage drama.
From “Birth of a Nation”: Joe Kadhi wrote one
of his “Why?” columns, denouncing the Libyan-funded Nairobi newspaper The Voice
of Africa for claiming that the bomb was planted by Israel; he also attacked
the Palestine Liberation Organisation for describing Kenya as “a police station
for US interventionism.” These comments were fair and in line with government
policy, as Rodrigues pointed out in a letter to the board, stating ‘This
country is moving closer to Israel in the intelligence and security fields and
away from the Arab world. The promise of cheaper oil has not materialised and
the machinations of the Voice of
Africa and its Libyan backers, particularly vis-Ã -vis the Norfolk bomb and its
aftermath, have combined to harden the government’s attitude.’ Certainly, the Nation’s attitude chimed with the prevailing political winds, but the Kadhi
column was felt in some circles to have given a negative impression of Arabs
generally and a barrage of complaints was directed to the Aga Khan. Since the Editor-in-Chief
was responsible for all columns and commentaries, he came under fire for
letting this one through.
Rodrigues was forced
to resign. He said he was sacked.
OBITUARY By Brian
Tetley*
JOE RODRIGUES
1931-1987
His dignity and
decency were as immense as his courage and integrity. Joe Rodrigues was a man
among men. Though he never enjoyed the privileges that accrue from the pedigree
of an expensive education and the luxury of working for a glamorous media
stable, through his skills and dedication he became a world leader in the
brotherhood of journalism – admired and respected everywhere that people put
words to communicate news and ideas.
When he presented
himself almost 30 years ago (then) as a diffident but firm young sub-editor to
the Chief Sub Editor of The Nation it was as an unknown quantity in the newspaper world
as Joe himself.
Together they made
themselves names respected wherever newspapers are discussed.
The team of sub-editors
he joined in that rumbustious end of a colonial-era could hardly have been
described as the Gentlemen of the Press – the represented the drinking,
wild-living “cream” of the European elite, many of them ex-Kenya policemen or
settlers.
But there was no
bitterness between them and young men like Joe, the late and much mourned Bob Mothusi
and Joe’s two successors at The Nation George Mbugguss and
Joe Kadhi.
This was the team –
young gifted and well on its way to being all Black – under which the new group
would prosper led eventually by Joe’s shrewd, firm but kind guidance as
Editor-in-Chief while the European element was slowly phased out.
With expatriate
personnel – or most of them – on a biennial whiz through Kenya, Joe soon
established himself and quickly climbed to Managing Editor. It was in that
position that he first shook hands with me when I began work under his
stewardship in April 1968.
He was the best of a
precious few.
It says everything for
his character and humanity that he twice had the task of dismissing me from my
job and it never even jarred the friendship which began that first day.
In the midst of
everything, Joe bestowed a kind of magisterial calm – from the fluttering panic
at the top to the throbbing resistance to conformity at the bottom.
Joe was among the last
of the first of the few at The Nation who made the singular
and sustained contribution to the paper’s phenomenal growth in its first two
decades. Joe had a steadfastness of purpose and unshakable integrity.
Under him, The Nation registered not only
growth but a reputation for accuracy and impartial and unmuzzled reporting, the
reputation of which quickly spread beyond the shores of Africa.
A pre-eminent man in
his profession, Joe endowed his paper with its own pre-eminence.
Perhaps the voice was
too fearless. It was never too loud.
Joe was as much an
institution with The Nation as The Nation was outside.
When he was called up
to resign (Joe told colleagues later that he had been sacked) after 21 years of
devoted services, he kept his distress and grief to himself. But it was plain
to all of his friends and colleagues.
He found comfort in
the expression of sympathy and offers of high editorial appointments from men
like Harold Evans Editor of The Times of London.
By his work and his
extracurricular activities – respected member of the International Press Institute whose world conference he brought to Kenya, Rotarian
and humanitarian – Joe brought distinction and honour not only to The Nation but to Kenya.
Joe was a singular family
man, too. His son Allan John distinguishes the dental profession in England
(now in Western Australia) with the virtues he inherited from his father and
his daughter Joy illuminates Australian society with something of his spirit.
No words will console
his graceful widow Cyrillic. He will be the more the missed because he was so
loved. But because of this, the memories which he leaves behind will endure
longer.
His commitment was
only to serve the truth and it is his measure that with his going Kenya as well
as the cause of African journalism is the loser.
Joe Rodrigues’ death
diminishes all.
*Brian Tetley, a bit
of flawed genius, was one of the finest wordsmiths to have graced The Nation. He created the Mambo
column (I had the honour to succeed him in writing the column). Tetley’s
column which was full humour and everything else, most of it off the planet. In
contrast, my efforts were a pale imitation. I will never forget his interview with
Spike Milligan (of The Goons fame). Milligan, something of a genius
himself, was not an easy man to interview (he never stood or sat still for a
moment, in thought or deed). It was stunning and it was no surprise that the
London Guardian picked it up. Brian was a terrific bloke, very caring
and usually a laugh minute. When it came to writing, he was at his best after
he had his medicinal two pints at the Sans Chique. I spent a lot of time with
him (daylight hours) and Joe Rodrigues had riding “shotgun” on Brian… part of
that was to meet at the pub and bring to the office as soon as he had finished
his second. All considered he was a gem of a bloke.
And then this happened:
November 25, 1996 NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) _
Mohamed Amin, the cameraman who helped alert the world about the 1991 famine in
Ethiopia, died in the crash of a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines plane in the
Comoros Islands, the airline said Sunday. He was 53.
Amin, who photographed and filmed both the
pain and glory of Africa over three decades, was returning to his home in
Nairobi from Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, with colleague Brian Tetley,
who often wrote for Amin’s photo books.
Tetley, 61, a veteran journalist who for many
years wrote an acerbic witty column for The Nation,
also died in the crash.
Amin’s images of victims of the Ethiopian
famine were picked up by an American network and late broadcast worldwide,
resulting an outpouring of attention and food aid. The famine Killed an
estimated 1 million people.
During
the late 1970s and 1980s, Amin did occasional assignments for The Association
Press.
Known to his friends as “Mo,” was chief
executive officer of the London-based Camerapix Publishers International.
Colleagues Andrew Njoroge and Keith Hulse said
Amin and Tetley were a great journalistic team. “Mo would come in with the
pictures, and Brian would do the story,” Njoroge said. “They were good
together.”
Amin lost an arm in 1991 in the explosion of
an ammunitions dump during the Ethiopian civil war, but he continued to film
and take pictures.
He is survived by his wife, Dolly, and son,
Salim.
Tetley is survived by a wife and several
children.
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