BOOK REVIEW
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Pinto: Blood on Western and Kenyan hands
Review by Cyprian Fernandes
Pio Gama Pinto,
Kenya’s Unsung Martyr 1927-1965
Edited by Shiraz Durrani
[Vita Books,
Kenya, 2018, 392 pp. Pbk, £30, ISBN
978-9966-1890-0-4; distributed worldwide by African Books Collective, www.africanbookscollective.com]
Less
than two years after independence from the British, on 24 February 1965, the
Kenyan nationalist Pio Gama Pinto was gunned down in the driveway of his
Nairobi home. His young daughter watched
helplessly in the back seat of the family car. Pinto, a Member of Parliament at the time, was
Kenya’s first political martyr. One man
was wrongly accused of his death, served several years in prison and was later
released and compensated. Since then no
one has been charged with the murder.
Now
the long-awaited book on Pio Gama Pinto is finally here, launched in
Nairobi on 16 October 2018. Edited by ultra-librarian
Shiraz Durrani, this tome brings together every known scrap of written or
anecdotal evidence about the man, his life, and his assassination. It is simply just a word or two
short of being colossal. Perhaps one
flaw is that there is too much repetition.
Yet I
found myself thinking about a gigantic banquet.
Your tour guide is the book’s editor and
he takes you on an almost never-ending safari to the events, the people,
milestones, and most of all the history … with Pinto in the starring role. Sometimes the book is taxing to read, at other
times it races along. At all times Pinto
is never too far from the reader’s gaze (if only in the mind).
The entrée to the banquet is about one of
the key figures of the Kenyan struggle for freedom: Senior Chief Koinange. Appointed by the colonial government, he
surprised them by choosing to fight for freedom. He was also a man that Pinto looked up to.
The
other two big influences in Pio’s life were India and Goa. He spent five years in the latter, agitating
against the Portuguese colonialists. His
association with India was far longer because India chose to support the
Kenyans’ fight for freedom and played an important role throughout the
emancipation period.
But
Goa was never too far from Pinto’s mind, as in talks on his early days there,
recalled by Kenyan lawyer and former MP Fitz De Souza:
“One day during our discussions, Pio suggested that we should do
something in East Africa to assist the liberation of Goa. I was a little surprised and told him that
while I was very sympathetic to the liberation of Goa, and indeed the rest of
the world, I thought as we were East Africans we should confine our activities
to East Africa. We might dissipate our
slender resources and there was also the risk of being misunderstood, even by
our friends. He explained that as a
student and a young man in India he had taken part in the struggle for the
liberation of Goa. He had actively
assisted in the formation of the Goa National Congress and escaped from Goa
only when police were searching for him with a warrant to arrest and deport him
to an island of West Africa. It was our
duty, he suggested, as socialists to assist all liberation fronts. Even if we did not consider ourselves Goans we
had names such as De Souza, Pinto, etc. Portuguese
colonialism was as bad as any other.”
The main course, naturally, is Pio Gama
Pinto. Discussing whether he was in Mau
Mau, Durrani notes that Pinto was arrested and detained in April 1954, the grounds including that:
·
he had knowledge of illegal arms traffic;
·
he had assisted Mau Mau in drafting documents and arranged for the
printing of membership cards of the ‘African Liberation Army’; and
·
he had given assistance to the non-militant wing of the Mau Mau in
planning its subversive campaign.
There is no actual evidence
of Pinto having taken the oath of loyalty to the cause of the Mau Mau, but
Durrani argues that there is consummate anecdotal evidence that he worked with
the Mau Mau Central Committee and therefore was an intrinsic part of the
organisation.
“Pio Pinto was largely responsible for having prevented the wrath
of the Mau Mau from being vented on the Indian community. Had he not been able to enter the secret
conclaves of the freedom fighters unnoticed, and had he not won the trust of
leaders such as Stanley Mathenge, Jomo Kenyatta, Senior Chief Koinange and Tom
Mboya for his sound and clear advice, thousands of Indians may well have been
murdered and their property looted.”
Quoting
the claim of one former activist that he and Pinto were in the same Mau Mau
cell, Durrani says that the facts do indicate that Pinto was an active supporter of the movement. He could not have been involved in the
formation of the Mau Mau War Council in Nairobi nor in the procurement of arms
had he not been part of the central leadership of Mau Mau. His involvement ranged from supplying weapons and
other necessities to the fighters, to providing medical and other care to
fighters and their families, to organising legal aid to those condemned by the
colonial system to jail terms, to researching and writing documents, letters
for the struggle, as well as gathering international support for the liberation
struggle. Pinto in particular
established contacts with the illegal South Asian gun-traders who secretly sold
firearms and ammunition to the Mau Mau military wing, the Kenya
Freedom Land Army.
“Pio’s work under the Central Committee of Mau Mau was especially
important during the Emergency. The
Committee needed money, food and arms for the fighters. Most of the leaders
were in prison …. Despite these
difficult conditions, money was collected from supporters …. These were carefully collected in sacks and
taken to certain trusted persons. Pio
was one of these. He would then take the
money to wherever he was directed by the Central Committee.
“Pio’s work in support of the freedom fighters grew as the
struggle became more intense. The Emergency meant that for many Kenyans, there
was military rule in the country …. Pio
now had to help the freedom fighters in the forests of Mount Kenya and the
Aberdares.”
“Pinto became an important person in the struggle not only because
of his clear ideological grasp of the situation and his total commitment to the
liberation struggle but also because he linked different aspects of the
struggle and ensured that all worked together to strengthen the overall
anti-imperialist struggle.”
Durrani
does not solve the mystery of Pio’s assassination, but through the words of the
various players he takes the reader on a guided tour of the assassination and
underlines what we have known for a long time: that it was a conspiracy of the
British Government, especially the last Governor of Kenya, Malcolm MacDonald,
and Jomo Kenyatta and his Kenya African National Union (KANU) moderates in
power. We will never know exactly who
ordered the assassination or who pulled the trigger. That is the other tragedy that will claw at
the heart of anyone who can remember the assassinations in Kenya, because
without closure, no-one can rest in peace either or earth or in the afterlife. Perhaps, there are one or two people who could
offer Kenya the sacrament of closure or will they too take it to their graves? Just as Njoroge Mungai,[1]
James Gichuru,[2] Mbiyu Koinange[3]
and others may have done?
“…the
engineers of the neo-colonial Kenya feared him even more than the colonial
authorities did and they had him assassinated.”
There
are many voices in this book but few are the so-called KANU moderates, except
the late Joseph Murumbi[4]
and the former Deputy Speaker of the House, Fitz De Souza. But then, they were Pinto’s personal friends.
Pinto
was driven by a single ideal: Kenya’s Uhuru must not be transformed into
freedom to exploit, or freedom to be hungry and live in ignorance. Uhuru must be Uhuru for the masses – Uhuru
from exploitation, from ignorance, disease and poverty. The sacrifices of the hundreds of thousands of
Kenya’s freedom fighters must be honoured by the effective implementation of
KANU’s policy – a democratic, African, socialist state in which the people have
the rights, in the words of the KANU manifesto: “to be free from economic
exploitation and social inequality”.
So
there we have it: moderates on one side and Oginga Odinga and his socialist supporters
on the other. Pio chose the socialists
and in doing that probably signed his death warrant because the moderates
feared his organisational and strategic skills would lead to revolutionary
changes in Kenya unless he was stopped.
Malcolm
MacDonald wrote:
“I thought if the moderates … came to power in independent Kenya they
would not only be moderate in their national policies, in economic and social
and political affairs, but on the side of moderation in international affairs,
and for example not go communist and not come under the influence of any other communist
anti-British, anti-Western power.”
The
imperialist manipulation of Kenya’s politics provided the momentum that
ultimately led to the assassination of Pio Gama Pinto, according to the book. It was in the corridors of Parliament where
Pinto’s fate was sealed:
“It was around Sessional Paper No 10
of 1965, African Socialism and its implications for Planning in Kenya, that
the polarisation between Pio and KANU erupted, exacerbated by revelations of
misappropriation of funds by the Kenyatta regime.
“The paper, written by an American, Edgar O Edwards, despite its claims
of socialism, was a perfect articulation of how subservient capitalism would be
developed in the post-independence period. It was in opposition to this text that Pio
wrote a counter-proposal which, had he not been assassinated, could very well
have led, some believe, to the removal of Kenyatta as president through a vote
of confidence and the emergence of Odinga as the new president.”
Fitz
De Souza said:
“He had a falling out with the Powers that Be and he got into a shouting
match with Kenyatta over what was perceived as land-grabbing by those in power.
He refused to participate in such things
as he was all for equality.”
There
was also the issue about missing money which was given to Government. Pheroze Nowrojee[5]
said:
“This money was not distributed to these ex-freedom fighters and
ex-detainees for whom it was intended. Instead a few powerful persons pocketed it. Pio vehemently opposed this. He spoke out against this betrayal of the
freedom struggle. He said he would raise
the matter in Parliament to ensure the sums be paid over to the ex-freedom
fighters and ex-detainees. The powerful
persons saw such an exposure as a threat to their wealth and their positions. They decided to get rid of Pio.”
The
money in question was “grants and loans for development, land settlement, compensation
for overseas officers and administration (£12,400,000) from Britain.”
In
the final analysis, according to Durrani,
“The imperialist manipulation of Kenya’s politics provided the momentum
that ultimately led to the assassination of Pio Gama Pinto. Thus, the responsibility for this death lies
not only with the Government of Kenya but also with the British Government
whose policy and actions supported the Western-oriented Government. It is doubtful if the moderates would ever have
come to power without the Western support. While Britain was actively engaged in the
internal politics of Kenya before and after independence, as shown in the
MacDonald Papers, the US government and CIA supported moderate leaders like Tom
Mboya, who were used to create a pro-Western trade union movement to replace
the militant one set up and supported by Makhan Singh,[6]
Fred Kubai, Bildad Kaggia, Pio Gama Pinto and others.
…
The assassination was part of the overall imperialist plot to ensure
Kenya remained in the capitalist camp managed by the key imperialist powers USA
and Britain.”
As I
said, this is a huge banquet of Kenya’s emergent history. I hope every man, woman and child gets to read
this some time in their lives. There are
some important lessons to ponder, celebrating some of the men and women who
lived and died in the cause of freedom and looking anew at life as we know it.
There
is an interview with Pio’s widow Emma Gama Pinto by Frederick Noronha, and
another by Benegal Pereira. Pio’s late
brother Rosario’s memoir is also featured, as are the memories of Angelo Faria.
There are also several contributions by other
members of the family.
Naturally,
this book is a monument to Pio Gama Pinto and his socialist ideals for a Kenya
without capitalism. Shiraz Durrani, the
book editor, makes no apology for that.
n Cyprian Fernandes is a former Chief Reporter of The
Nation in Kenya, and knew Pio Gama Pinto
and most of the people mentioned in the book.
He had to
flee Kenya and now lives in Sydney, Australia.
A shorter version of this review was previously published in the Goa Herald on 20 October 2018.
(Excerpts from the book)
Pio’s detention on Manda Island:
Pio told later
that he built a small shelter against the scorching sun and a simple bed. The land was destitute of vegetation and there
were no facilities when he got there. A
daily ration of food was barely enough to suffice for one meal. He went on a hunger strike, but after nine
days realised that it would hurt the prisoners, nothing more. They would die like dogs for the all the
authorities cared. The prisoners were
sullen and dejected. Pio met some of his
old friends there … Achieng Oneko and others and they set about improving the
morale of the 9000 men on the island prison. They organised games and tried to catch fish,
turtles and the like to supplement their impoverished diet. After pleading with the authorities, I was
allowed to write to my husband once a month but the letter would be censored. His reply would be censored. I received permission to send Pio literature. He asked for the works of Shakespeare and
(George Bernard) Shaw. Later Pio said
the books kept him from committing suicide. Everything he had, he shared with his friends,
even my letters.
Our home:
We had little
finances. Pio sadly confessed that the
money given by my father had been used as part-payment for a printing press
which he wanted to operate as the voice of the people. The press was lost as soon as Pio was
arrested. On his release from
restriction in 1960, Pio asked Oginga Odinga (head of the Kenya People’s Union
and arch-opponent of Jomo Kenyatta) to help him buy a house. It was more like a hotel – we had people
coming and going and dropping in for a meal at all hours. Pio would have political refugees from Angola
and South Africa spend a night or two and listen to their accounts of their
situation.
No African who came to the house was
turned away – if they needed school fees for their children, advice or just a
letter written to a relative or government official, Pio lent a hand. They were his brothers, and I mean brothers. He knew the weaknesses of some of them but
felt they would see reason enough if temporarily they did not put their country
first. From the start of his interest in
Kenya politics, Pio understood clearly that the African cause must be carried
by Africans. He identified with the Africans completely and secretly suffered
anguish that he was not born an African. He preferred to work behind the scenes,
but he did not work in isolation. He
consulted with lawyers, economists and politicians before planning his
work. He chose his non-African friends
carefully for what they could contribute to the cause.
Despite the fact that Pio vehemently worked against
those opposed to the African freedom movement, he did not harbour rancour
against any individual. I never once
heard him raise his voice in anger or swear at anyone, he called them blind or
stupid in their policies. He was once
given a pistol for protection … he promptly buried it in the garden. Later when he heard that one of his friends
was in danger, he dug the weapon up and gave it to his friend for protection.
On the Goans in Kenya:
Pio
and I had attended a few social functions after his release from detention and
even though several men came forward to hear about his “detention” there was
little evidence of their sympathy for the detainees.
When the Portuguese anthem was played at
the end of an occasion, Pio could guess where their allegiance lay. He had painted a sketch of Kenya’s road in the
struggle for freedom and left it to them to pursue a course. Mr J. M Nazareth QC and a few others were
already on the road.
Later we did not attend Goan functions, so
I was not aware of the view they had of Pio.
Even after Pio’s assassination I did not feel that I belonged to the Goan
community. I do not fault the
community – it is just that we had other interests and concerns. I was happy with an Asian who understood and
helped Pio’s work.
Goa:
Pio
and a small group of Kenya politicians including Tom Mboya and Joe Murumbi flew
to India around 1961 and met with Pandit Nehru. The agenda included the liberation of Goa as
well as funds for a printing press in Kenya (to provide the African political
viewpoint). Funds were granted, and Pio
went on to set up the Pan African Press. Subsequently, Pio and Fitz De Souza attended
Goa’s liberation celebrations. There are
some Goans who applaud Pio’s small contribution for Goa.
Notes and References
[1] Njoroge Mungai (1926-2014) was a Kenyan Cabinet
Minister, Member of Parliament, doctor, businessman, farmer, politician,
nationalist and one of the founding fathers of the Republic of Kenya.
[2] James Gichuru (1914-1982) was a Kenyan politician,
government minister and close associate of Jomo Kenyatta.
[3] Mbiyu Koinange (1907-1981) was a Kenyan politician who
served in Kenyatta’s cabinet for 16 years.
[4] Joseph Murumbi
(1911-1990) was Kenyan Foreign Minister from 1964 to 1966, and second
Vice-President between May and December 1966.
[5] Pherozee Nowrojee is a
Kenyan writer, human rights and constitutional lawyer, and poet.
[6] See S Durrani, Reflections on the Revolutionary Legacy of
Makhan Singh in Kenya, in CR73,
Autumn 2014, pp 10-17.
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