It is quite hard being the good guy in a world that abhors the good people while treating the enemy hiding in a veneer with a lot of trepidation. If we were to judge the world history and how it has treated the good guy in development of our societies, its always the enemy flourishing. History has taught us that it’s the Martin Luther Kings, the Dedan Kimathis, the Amilcar Cabral, the Thomas Sankaras and the Patrice Lumumbas who end up on the receiving end of the oppressor’s barrel or sword while the Mobutu Sessekos, the Kenyattas and the Blaise Compaore continue to live happy lives after their clandestine, blood gushing dealings and engagements to keep power at all cost and acquire illicit wealth at the expense of poor majority. It is quite a contradiction and ironical in most of the scenarios where the people being fought for have in most instances helped the imperialists crucify and nail the same people helping them while in other cases watched as imperialist turned their arsenal on the good guys.

Life must be lived forward, nonetheless, it is the past that informs the decisions we make for the future.

Pio Gama Pinto: Kenya’s Unsung Martyr tries to paint a very vivid picture on the life of one of Kenya’s first post-independence martyr and his works, dreams and aspirations when the country was at crossroads on whether to take the capitalist route or the socialist path.

Reflections

The nexus between the Asian and Africans

At the age of eight years, Pinto was taken to India where he continued with his studies until he was seventeen. After that he acquired a job where he made good relation with the people of his origin. Coming back to Kenya helped him relate the problem Kenyans were facing with those of the Goan people back in India. From there, he drew conclusion that in order for the war on imperialists to be worn, the oppressed had to unite despite their different races, creed, nationalities and political affiliations just as the oppressors. The divide and rule method of colonialists had worked perfectly well in Kenya as the Asian communities had some privileges which made them to be on different social class with Africans. Rallying these two communities on a common goal was thus a problem. Pio was Asian and at the same time his DNA was screaming of the African he was deep down. Working on both sides with Africans and Asian on one side brought the two communities together and the war was finally between the oppressed and their oppressors. This would have not been the case as these two communities would have been turned against each other. Pinto was the silver cord of Indo-African relations.

An epitome of a true socialist

Pio Gama Pinto died trying to help people, he died a pauper as he spent his resources helping the vulnerable. He lived his daily life on his socialist maxim of equity and equality. He was the truest example of a socialist our nation has ever had. He had contextualised the African communities and the Kenyan to be specific. He believed that it was through socialism that our nascent nation would have achieved economic freedom and empowerment from the imperialists. Even in his detention in Manda Island, he never accepted any preferential treatment different from that of other Mau Mau detainees.

The strategist and tactician

A war is never won on one battlefront. Pio was alive to this fact and in his capacity he tried to wage his war on all possible fronts. From the publications on the broadsheets and other avenues as a journalist, to supporting financially and supplying food and guns to the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA) in the Aberdares and in the Mt. Kenya forest, to his links with trade unionists such as Makhan Singh and Fred Kubai and to mobilizing for pro-bono lawyers in courts to defend the Mau Mau fighters. He ran the cog to ensure all battlefronts were on high gear. As a newly-wed young man, he even lacked time for his family as he had put the liberation struggle as a personal priority. He made sure that the international community was informed on what was going on in Kenya through his contact persons in UK and other countries. This helped build pressure on the Britain Government from their parliament. All these factors of being a good tactician and strategist made him become an easy target for both the colonialist government and their successor post –independence government.

When things were tough for Joseph Murumbi, he organised for him to seek asylum in the UK as things cooled down. He kept him informed on the matters going on in the country.^[1]

He was also regarded as the brain behind the works of the first Vice President of Kenya,  Oginga Odinga.

The unambitious politician

With the current crop of politicians in Kenya, this might be baffling. Our politics are characterised by self-seeking, ambitious and selfish clout of politicians who put their interests first before their constituents. Pio worked seamlessly behind the curtains to ensure everything was done in time and in a professional way. He had no intentions of being in the lime light for any self-seeking ambitions. It was always the people first. His life was very political yet he had no any personal political ambitions. He even had to be forced to consider the elections to the Central Legislation Assembly slots in Parliament.

Pio: The Urban Guerrilla

Even though Pio was never in the forest with the KLFA, he was the urban field marshal juggling from one department to another all in ensuring that those in the forest had food and fire arms and that the families of freedom fighters were fine and that the detainees had lawyers to defend them. His own house would harbour people of all kinds, some in transit, while others seeking asylum and others strategizing on how to wage anti-colonial war in their own countries. He was always meeting people to strategize in his house over dinner and luncheons.

The Kenyan in Asian Skin

Pio was more Kenyan than many black Kenyans in the country at the time. While others were betraying their mother country and others giving the liberation war a lukewarm and a tentative approach, Pinto plunged head-first in the epicentre of all this even after being released from detention and restriction. His understanding of the Kenyan problems and commitment was unrivalled. Mau Mau was a very covert army and very closely knit and shrouded in secrecy. The oaths taken were to ensure that secrets never went out and that outsiders would not know the operation of this group. Despite the mistrust between the fighters and the home guards and the possible infiltrations by colonial sympathizers, Pio was very much trusted despite his skin pigmentation which would have otherwise disadvantaged him.

A Bud Nipped Before Blossom

February 24, 1965 shall forever be permanently embedded in the hearts and minds of every true African historian and any politically conscious citizen of Kenya. On the morning of this day, a bud was nipped before its blossom into one of the most beautiful flowers and the fruits that we shall never get to taste from this flower. His star rose steadily due to the dedication and commitment he had to the struggle of this country. The neocolonialists saw his dedication and commitment to the African course as a threat to their freedom to exploit other Africans. The colonialists saw his socialist ambitions as a threat to their imperialist hegemony and so it was to the best of both of their nefarious ambitions to nip the bud before it blossomed and diffused its fragrance to the whole nation and Africa as a whole. This would have rattled and challenged the status quo and probably tilting our nation to the socialist path. His dreams, aspirations and visions of a country free from exploitation with equity and justice were cut short at a very early stage. Nevertheless, the quality of life is not measured by the number of years one lives but the impact one makes. His political life was short spanning about 17 years yet was very impactful and we continue to enjoy some of his fruits till this day.

May his undying spirit be rekindled in us and may the ink of his indelible mark never dry or fade in us and the next generations to come.