Mau Mau guerilla adviser ... NOT

 

Someone is pulling our legs!

 

                      The Guardian

ON May 23, 2023, the Daily Mail published the above story. Indian media all over the globe rushed to print as well. The only problem was, I could not find a shred of evidence to prove that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s grandfather had anything to do with the Mau May, let alone coaching them in guerrilla warfare.

 

By CYPRIAN FERNANDES

 

The first Kenya history specialist I consulted was the much-respected John Lonsdale. Emeritus Professor at Trinity College, Cambridge. He is perhaps the greatest student of Kenyan political history and has been so for more than 50 years. His response: “Thanks Cyprian, and good to hear from you.  I had not thought to ask about subversive Sunaks: seems rather unlikely to judge from the present generation!  Which of course is no way to do history.  I think an older, pre-East African Sunak generation was not far removed from the Amritsar massacre.” 

 

I am not sure of the motives for the publication of this story. Was it done to embarrass British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak?

 

 

Pheroze Nowrojee is a writer, human rights and constitutional lawyer and a poet. He is the author of 'A Kenyan Journey'. I have always considered him the great human rights gladiator Kenya was ever blessed with. PN is sometimes the truth’s lone gladiator in the war against abuses of humans by humans, assassination and murder. He is the lone lit candle in the darkness of the silent collective consciousness of communities who have to button up their lips for fear of political reprisals or even physical abuse. In the company of the brilliant journalist Zarina Patel and others of like minds, he kept alive the memories of assassinated heroes Pio Gama Pinto, Robert Ouko, Tom Mboya, J M Kariuki and others who have had their lives cut short on the altar of political assassination. Anyone who has had the privilege of spending five minutes with him can be considered blessed. He has also been a godfather of sorts to the Asians who remained in Kenya after independence and the new arrivals as well. I wrote to him asking if he knew of Ramdas Sunak, the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s later grandfather who is alleged to have trained the Mau Mau in guerrilla warfare.

 

He wrote: “ I did not know the person you refer to or any person by that name. Nor have I come across in my considerable reading of the writing on the Mau Mau, and in those years, any reference to a 'Ramdas Sunak'. I would have noted it as I have, like you, paid particular attention to any reference to any Asian presence in the Mau Mau events. Similarly, I have not come across such a person in my also considerable reading of the legal proceedings and literature on the Mau Mau. 

 

“But that does not mean that there was no such person or that he did not train the Mau Mau guerrillas. Secondly, the Colonial Government was always keen to keep Asian involvement in the Mau Mau off the newspapers. Firstly, because it would show that the two racial groups shared political goals and were aiding each other; secondly, because they were looking to recruit volunteers for the Police Force from the community, to show that the Asians were behind the Government in the war. The result was that when cases of Asian support for the Mau Mau were detected, the Government would not prosecute, with the resultant publicity in the media, but would quietly deport such persons to India or Pakistan, under threat of future prosecution and imprisonment. Pio Gama Pinto was an exception because of his very deep roots in the cause, and the certainty that he would not stop even from outside Kenya. 

 

“I do not know what evidence the Daily Mail has set out to verify their story. So, I cannot come to a conclusion on its veracity. But I would start out with some scepticism:  Where did he 'train' Mau Mau soldiers? With what financial support in weapons did he do so? Why has he (or those now making the claim) not made the claim before, whether from Kenya or from the UK, over the past 70 years? The 1968 Exodus, and the 1973 Uganda Expulsion, might have been times likely to have brought the matter to public knowledge. Why wait to surface until a Prime Minister with the same surname comes into prominence and claims historical credit? Sounds more opportunistic. No true hero would seek to bask in the glory of the Prime Minister of the very Colonizing Power against which he, an anti-colonial, even anti-imperialist, 'hero' had acted so decisively.  If he was a trainer, he would have had combat experience earlier somewhere and would have been in his mid-twenties at a minimum in 1952. This would place the person as born, roughly, in 1927. Not the best age to recall verifiably now.

 

I can confirm to you that the father of Rishi Sunak was in secondary school in Nairobi, at, I think, Highway Secondary School. I will get you whatever is known about that. Whether he had any brother or other relation named 'Ramdas' I do not know but will also ask.

 

The Daily Mail did make a minor effort to fact-check the story. They correctly contacted one of the leading lights of Kenyan journalism, the brilliant and much-decorated Zarina Patel, who would know probably more than most people what there is to know about Asians in Kenya.  

 

Zarina wrote to me: Re the Reporter from the Daily Mail newspaper in London, UK

 

“This person called me about 10 days ago at a rather a late hour ascertaining if I was the biographer of Makhan Singh. He then went on to ask if I had come across the name of Ramdas Sunak who he alleged was a close associate of Makhan Singh and had helped the Mau Mau in its uprising. I assured him that in all my research I had never heard of anyone bearing that name either in connection with Makhan Singh or Kenya’s War of Liberation. After probing further, he asked if I could give him another contact for Makhan Singh – I gave him Hindpal’s phone number. He called again the next day saying Hindpal did not have the information he was looking for, that it was connected to Rishi Sunak, the UK Prime Minister and had I been able to do some further research?

 

“This reporter seems to have been desperate to tweak history to suit his narrative and reached out to all of us and no doubt others. UK history is not our concern here, but it is important that Kenyan History should not be misrepresented. We know for a fact that several South Asians did help the Mau Mau freedom fighters but to date at any rate, the name of Ramdas Sunak has not been mentioned anywhere.

 

“I was at all times aware of the sensation-seeking trends of the Daily Mail and therefore the unlikely possibility of any serious academic research or narration. The reporter must disclose his source of information if at all it can be believed as factual.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

FROM my own knowledge of the Mau Mau, having grown up with the Nairobi chapter in Eastleigh, Nairobi, I find that the claim that Ramdas Sunak taught the Mau Mau guerrilla tactics to be highly unlikely, bordering on fantasy.

 

1.      The Mau Mau was a secret society and they would not let just anyone into their jungle hideouts. To let a virtual stranger into a forest hideout would put a particular Mau Mau group at risk. Maintaining the secrecy of the hideouts was not negotiable, their lives depended on it.

2.      If the Mau Mau adopted a foreigner (which was unheard of except in the case of Pio Gama Pinto), he or she would have had to undergone initiation and take one or several oaths, including one, I was told, that entailed giving up one’s life rather than putting a Mau Mau member or unit at risk.

3.      Hence, it is almost impossible that Ramdas Sunak was allowed into the Aberdares Forest Mau Mau hideouts. So where did he coach them in guerrilla tactics, they would only come out of the forest to kill?

4.      The Mau Mau generally restricted their language to AGikuyu (the Kikuyu mother tongue) and Swahili when necessary. If I remember correctly, their oaths were administered in AGikuyu and not Swahili.

5.      I doubt that Ramdas Sunak was proficient in AGikuyu.

6.      In any case, if he had even got anywhere near the Mau Mau hierarchy, I am sure the British secret service, the Kenya Police spies and other British “eyes” in the colony would have made sure that Sunak was collared quickly, placed in detention or bundled out of the country or even found dead somewhere or not at all.

7.      A long time ago, A Sikh friend told me that “Home-made guns were made and supplied to the Mau Mau by the nationalist rebel Jaswant Singh, who went on to train the Mau Mau fighters on how to make and use the weapons. Jaswant Singh was eventually captured by the colonialists and sentenced to four years in detention.” (I don’t know how authentic this is.)

 

8.       After Josiah Mwangi Kariuki took his oath, he started working as Mau Mau liaison officer between Eldoret and Kisumu. He also helped in soliciting money, boots and housing for Mau Mau. This led to his arrest in his hotel, which was working as a front to his political work. He was then detained in various camps (including Kowop and Langata) from 1953 until his release, seven years later in 1960.

9.      After his release, he managed to secure Kenyatta's approval in starting Nyeri's Kenya African National Union (KANU) branch by visiting him in detention. When Kenya became independent, Kariuki worked as Kenyatta's private secretary between 1963 and 1969. He fell out with Kenyatta and the Kenya government was assassinated by a person/persons unknown. Before that, I spoke to JMK quite regularly, often about his Mau Mau past, and his then war against institutional corruption. In all that time, he mentioned Pio Gama Pinto as an organisational and strategic genius. He spoke of Jomo Kenyatta’s great respect for trade unionist Makhan Singh and lawyer Fitz de Souza who had much to do with the Kenya African Nation Union, as Kenyatta’s personal lawyer and friend and he did mention that Mau Mau did get some help kind from the Indian shop owners in various towns. He never mentioned the name Ramdas Sunak.

10.  Ramdas worked as an accountant before becoming an administrative officer with the colonial government in Kenya. So, when did he study guerrilla warfare? He must have lived in Nairobi and the nearest Mau Mau was 10 miles away in Eastleigh and the only Indians allowed into the Mathare Valley where they lived were Pio Gama Pinto and me.

 

Before the Mau Mau were transported to Mathare Valley, that was where lots of young Goan and Indian boys played. On the southern side of the valley was the Mathare Mental Hospital and there were a couple of unused quarries full of water and pretty good swimming pools for the brave. Two brothers, Remus and Romulus, died there and their parents built and named a house after them just opposite the St Teresa’s Catholic Church. I befriend a Kikuyu family and I used to play with their children. In fact, I used to teach a bunch of totos English and Maths. I was not much older than them. I used to bring some of my mother’s spices and I showed their mother how to cook an Indian curry. Their only requirement was that I had to leave the valley before 5 pm. On April 24, 1954, The British Military, Kenya Police, the Home Guard and African askaris, carried out a major sweep of Mathare Valley, netting every single man and one Indian toto me.  We were kicked, pushed, beaten with the butts of guns and made to squat in rows opposite shops on Eastleigh Road. I tried to tell them I was an Indian/Goan but the white soldier just kicked me like a football. It was not until a Kikuyu mzee spoke to one of the askaris that I was dropped off at the Pangani Police station where I set in a cell until my father came to get me.

 

I reckon the trade union leader Makhan Singh was among the first Indians to encourage the Mau Mau on their mission. Pio Gama Pinto begged the Mau Mau to keep the Asians safe. And they did.

 

 

 

 

The suggestion that Ramdas Sunak came to know the Mau Mau through his good friend, the trade unionist Kenyan icon Makan Singh does not hold water: “It was after Singh was detained for the last time by the colonial government in 1950 that the Mau Mau uprising broke out. He was freed in 1961 after the British lifted the state of emergency imposed in response to the anticolonial revolt. Once released, Singh, predictably and publicly, reaffirmed his Communist beliefs and resolved to continue his politics and trade unionism. Moreover, he aired his support for Jomo Kenyatta, who would go on to become independent Kenya’s first head of government. Before freedom arrived in 1963, Singh joined Kenyatta’s Kenya African National Union once membership became open to all races. Shortly after, he was granted permanent residency in the country.” (Arko Dasgupta Scroll.In)

 

I can confirm that in my earlier research that there were two groups of Asians who were part of the Kenya Police Reserves, but their role was short-lived.

 

 

 

Asians Entrenched in Kenya’s Freedom Struggle (courtesy of Historia ya Kenya)

 

In Operation Anvil one one of the first places to be raided was the Indian High Commission in Nairobi. Accusing the embassy of assisting Mau Mau and for providing “terrorists” with material support, British military officers roughed up staff members and bundled Africans working at the High Commission into trucks outside.

 

Of course, the Indian Government sent out a strongly worded protest letter to London, complaining about “diplomatic impunity” on the part of the British administration in Nairobi.  In his defence, sent to the War Office in London, Kenya’s Governor, Evelyn Baring, explained that the action was justified as it was “backed by intelligence”.

 

And although the British government thereafter sent a meek apology, stating that “unfortunate words” were used during the operation, three further raids to the High Commission were authorized between June and November of 1954.

 

In the run-up to the raid, it had become clear to the British that the support that Asians in Kenya were rendering the independence struggle was significant. Asians may not have entered the forests to actively fight alongside Mau Mau, but stories abound of cases in which members of their community provided material and moral support to the freedom struggle.

 

We will start off with a tale of two Jaswant Singhs. One was a Punjabi Sikh born in Lakhpur, Punjab, in 1935. He was the son of an engineer who had come to Kenya in 1914 to work on the railway. In 1947, Jaswant returned to India for his education but did not stay for long. He returned to Kenya in 1947 to serve in the Kenya Police Reserves as part of the mandatory Asian call-up.

 

During the emergency, he became sympathetic to the Mau Mau cause. For a period of at least five months, he not only manufactured arms and ammunition but also secretly taught freedom fighters in his area on how to use and service guns.

In May of 1954, Jaswant was arrested for his involvement in Mau Mau and detained, alongside other “most wanted” Indian prisoners, for a total of four and a half years at Takwa, in faraway Lamu.

 

Then there was another Jaswant Singh who suffered a worse fate. Based in Molo, and typical of Kalasingas’ engineering mien, he was a carpenter, mason, plumber, electrician, tractor driver, builder, radio and motor mechanic, lorry driver, welder and gun maker all rolled into one.

 

Singh was arrested in September of 1954 for being in possession of two rounds of .32 ammunition that he intended to supply Mau Mau.

 

Prior to his arrest, a gîkûyû woman had offered to take him to a forest near Molo to meet with Mau Mau fighters. The Mau Mau fighters turned out to be the Kikuyu Home Guard, who arrested and handed him over to the colonial authorities. The Kalasinga was later sentenced to death.

 

Thakorbai Mangaldas Patel, a professional photographer, was another Asian who was incarcerated for his contribution to the freedom struggle. For weeks, he helped members of the Agîkûyû community forge their history-of-employment cards during the emergency.

 

When he was caught, aged only 25, he was put on a charge of “consorting with terrorist(s)”. He was however acquitted of that charge and instead jailed for five years with hard labour on the charge of document forgery.

 

In 1948, Dedan Kimathi was employed briefly at Keith Sawmills in Kiganjo, Nyeri. Its owner was Kundanlal Wason, who purchased two additional sawmills in Meru. At the height of the emergency, freedom fighters would send him appeals for food through his cook, who had taken “muuma” (oath).

 

 So, Kundanlal would occasionally leave some food for the fighters at a cave near one of his sawmills. He also discreetly supplied piping for use in making guns.

 

Acting on a tip off, and having no concrete evidence with which to convict Kundanlal, the colonial police shut down one of his Meru sawmills. When interviewed in the 1980s, Kundanlal said he became sympathetic to the freedom struggle when he saw truckloads of Mau Mau, some of whom were dead, emerging from the forests. The Mau Mau freedom struggle also reminded him of the agitation that had led to India gaining independence, he added.

 

Yet another Asian who owned a sawmill near Karatina was Khwaja Abdul Qayyum Dar. He had left Lahore (Pakistan) in 1947 to join his cousin in Kenya, and later immersed himself in the timber business. In October of 1952, which is the very month the colonial government declared a state of emergency in Kenya, a freedom fighter called Mukunga reportedly called on his premises to administer muuma to sawmill employees.

 

Dar agreed to take the oath, pledging his loyalty to Mau Mau. The oathing ritual required him to take a bite of meat and also drink blood. And as he revealed later in 2006, whilst he took a bite of the meat, he politely declined to drink blood, explaining to Mukunga that his religion (Islam) barred him from doing so.

 

From then on, freedom fighters would secretly collect food, clothing, medicine and newspapers, from a spot near his house at night. But one day, a faction of Mau Mau fighters confronted him and threatened to kill him “as his skin is different”.

 

It took the intervention of his oathed workers and Warûhiu Itote (General China) to save him. The Mau Mau fighters were told that Dar was “one of us”. They spared him but took his gun. As he was a licensed gun owner, Dar was forced to report the “theft”. The police authorities did not quite believe him and put him under surveillance. They weren’t quite convinced that the Mau Mau fighters spared him without inflicting any physical harm.

 

Weeks later, an Italian mechanic who lived near Dar’s house reported him to the police. The Italian had stumbled on the hideout within the saw miller’s residence from which Mau Mau fighters collected supplies at night. Dar was out in his sawmill when the police came over to investigate the hideout.

 

When he returned home that night, his gîkûyû maid sent him out to town on the pretext that food supplies had run out. Some Mau Mau fighters had told her that they would return in the night to kill the mechanic. She feared the attack would happen while her boss was at home.

 

It wasn’t long before Dar was arrested, however. He gave himself away when he climbed a tree at his house and whistled to fighters in the forest to come over and collect supplies. Armed European police officers lurking nearby immediately placed him under arrest. Besides banning him from ever setting foot in GEMA country, police threatened to deport him either to Manyani, where his sawmill workers were sent, or to Pakistan, his native country.

He pleaded with them to send him to Kakamega, where he ran another sawmill. To this request, the police agreed but made it mandatory for him to be reporting to the nearest police station on a weekly basis (sounds familiar?). This Dar did until the end of the emergency.

 

In those days (of emergency), members of the Agîkûyû community were not allowed to shuttle between the farm regions and towns. That is partly why they had the kipande; to not only help identify them but also restrict their movements.

 

Karatina trader, Hassanali Manji, who was also fluent in the gîkûyû language, would deliver salaries of town workers to their families in the rural areas. He also secretly supplied food to forest fighters.

 

Then there is another interesting story among others cited in the book, “Indians In Kenya: The Politics Of Diaspora, by Sana Aiyar. It is the story of an Asian lady, Malvi Keharchand Kent, who would refuse police on patrol and search duties to enter her house on the plea that it was prayer time. As her farm workers hid under the bed, she would sit on it, holding her prayer beads in mock prayer.

 

As the freedom struggle in Kenya raged, authorities in London commissioned a special probe on the Mau Mau. The probe was led by F.D. Corfield, a former Governor of Khartoum.

 

The Corfield Report cited testimonies from captured Mau Mau fighters, who reportedly confessed that some of their illicit guns came from India. Following this report, the colonial government made tactical changes in their fight against Mau Mau. A number of Asians were deported on suspicion that they provided support to freedom fighters.

 

Yet, in spite of the deportations, more Asians continued to support the freedom struggle. J.M. Desai, whose house hosted many meetings of KAU leaders, supported independent schools in Kiambu and was among Asians who stealthily offered support to the independence struggle. He carried out research on these independent schools and started a photographic collection of them. According to author Sana, the colonial government viewed Desai as a “communist agitator”.

 

Then there is the Patel family of Ambu and Lila Patel, who housed Margaret Kenyatta while her dad was in detention at Maralal.

 

There are far more Asians who played a prominent role in the freedom struggle in various ways. If it wasn’t in the rural townships near the forests, it was on other platforms such as the colonial regime’s courts, where they defended leading lights in the independence struggle.

 

Among Kenyans irrespective of race fiery trade union leader Makhan Singh was a great supporter of the freedom struggle. (Historia Ya Kenya)

Last word on Ramdas Sunak

Discrimination began with the British Empire

In 1835, Ramdas Sunak (Rishi Sunak’s paternal grandfather) left India to work as a clerk in Nairobi. He was one of a small number of Indians who migrated after the implementation of England’s 1833 Slavery Abolition Act forced the British colonial regime to use poor indentured Indian labourers to service plantations across the British Empire.

 

Ramdas Sunak wasn’t an indentured labourer — he and other educated emigrants helped manage overseas Indian labourers, exports and employer needs. In my research, I found that these emigrants experienced heavy racism. But unlike poor Indian emigrants, educated emigrants typically had some initial capital, and were not trapped by a government-sanctioned bonded labour contract. In the colonial regime’s official terminology, emigrants like Ramdas Sunak were “respectable temporary sojourners” who could move freely back and forth even though many opted not to return to India. After immigrating, they typically kept themselves apart from their poorer fellow Indian immigrants.

(Rina Agarwala, Washington Post)