There is no absence of ideology in our history. There is only its suppression and attempted erasure.
— Pheroze Nowrojee, in Pio Gama Pinto: Kenya’s Unsung Martyr 1927-1965.

February 24, 2021 marked the 56th anniversary of the assassination of Pio Gama Pinto, a revolutionary socialist and an advocate of social justice and equality. To honor the memory and the ideals  that Pio Gama Pinto stood for, two activities were held in Nairobi to reflect on the contributions of Pio Gama Pinto in the Kenyan struggle. One event took place at the Pio Gama Pinto memorial grave at City Park on February 25, 2021, where young people including activists and community organizers held a reflection session on his contributions to the struggle for social justice and socialism in Kenya. The other activity has been ongoing and is the Pio Gama Pinto podcast now on its fourth episode produced by April Zhu and Stone face Bomba, it is done in Sheng, a language that easily resonates with young people. The podcast has become a popular source of history by providing clarity on the rather obscure struggles of Pio Gama Pinto. The podcast crew also organized another event at Cheche bookshop on February 28, 2021 where attendants were given a chance to hear the first episode in honor of Pio Gama Pinto.

Pinto Memorial Grave

The memory of Pio Gama Pinto has been kept alive through young people in Kenya agitated by massive corruption through subsequent governments since independence. Mass unemployment, international debts running into trillions, inequality and privatization of key sectors such as health and education has greatly affected the livelihoods of Kenyans. Kenya finds itself in a complete crisis with growing hopelessness among its citizens. These post-colonial challenges are rooted in the transition politics of independence by African elite who betrayed the people of Kenya that fought for political and economic freedom for their country. The capitalist crisis today was forewarned by Pio Gama Pinto in 1963 when he said;

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. (1963)

Pio Gama Pinto envisioned such a society and worked tirelessly for it to become a reality. Certainly, we would have had a different society if his ideas were embraced and laid the foundation for independent Kenya. But, enemies of equality and justice decided to put an end to his vision through an assassin bullet in 1965. The life of Pio Gama Pinto makes a solid case for socialism in Kenya. Those who believed and fought for an alternative system to capitalism. The life and times of Pio Gama Pinto is that of a selfless, courageous and visionary individual.

 Kenya as a country has never recovered from this betrayal. After the death of Pio Gama Pinto capitalism was presented as a natural system to the masses with no alternative to it. The imperialists through the independence government hoodwinked the people of Kenya through a CIA inspired document known as African Socialism published in 1965 to calm the growing agitation against capitalism and imperialism. This was not a socialist document but a capitalist blueprint in disguise designed to counter the real socialists and progressives in Kenya. The Wananchi declaration: The Programme of the Kenya People’s Union. published in 1965 is what Pinto was part of, exposed the trickery of the ‘African Socialism’ document, in its scientific analysis it asserts;

Under the cloak of something called ‘African Socialism’, Kenya is moving towards one of the more orthodox forms of capitalism to be in the world today. Why does the KANU government call its policy socialism, and not dare admit that it follows the capitalist road? Because it knows well that capitalism is utterly wrong and unsuited to the needs and the aspirations of the people of Kenya

Capitalism was reborn and manifested itself on African ‘elite’ leaders. Kenya was moving towards being a neocolonial state. The likes of Pio Gama Pinto saw the danger of this and exposed the power of imperialism and capitalism beyond color. The white capitalist was ‘leaving’ and was being replaced with a black capitalist who would serve us a puppet to the interest of imperialism. Walter Rodney best describes this in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa:

… but a black man ruling a dependent State within the imperialist system has no power. He is simply an agent of the whites in the metropolis, with an army and a police force designed to maintain the imperialist way of things in that particular colonial area.

Proponents of socialism like Pio Gama Pinto had gone beyond Pan Africanism and nationalism which was the wave in Africa at the time and dominated post-colonial politics. He applied scientific class analysis on the society and exposed the class nature/composition in Kenya. As Shiraz, puts it: ‘He exposed colonialism, imperialism and capitalism’.

This analysis was important because it was the politics of nationalism that elevated Jomo Kenyatta and other elites. They were able to use Pan Africanism as an ideology towards achieving their interests and solidify capitalism system in Kenya. Self-African rule under capitalism did not mean that every Kenyan was going to benefit from the fruits of independence in terms of getting their land back, jobs, health care and education or control of their economy, capitalism actually does the opposite and Pinto understood that, and for that they killed him.

Although they killed him, they could not kill his ideas and neither could they kill the efforts of those who were inspired by his struggles and tirelessly researched and wrote on Pio Gama Pinto. This book that we are reflecting on Pio Gama Pinto: Kenya Unsung Martyr 1927-1965 compiled by Shiraz Durrani, is the sweat and effort for over the last thirty years. Capitalism and imperialism thrive in any society by erasing the memory and history of those who are critical of it. Our Neo-liberal education model defined its own heroes while demeaning or removing all together revolutionaries and those who fought for this country. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o writes in Never Be Silent: Publishing & Imperialism in Kenya 1884-1963 by Shiraz Durrani.

Information is power in war and peace. But information, particularly in the struggle between the dominated and the dominating, is never neutral. The dominating try to control the sources, agents and contents of information.

In an article written by Wainaina Wambui on the standard paper on October 14, 2018, while reflecting on this book; further highlights how Pinto was reduced to a footnote in our schools:

Any product of the Kenyan school system will remember the striking image of a handsome man of Indian origin as they flipped through their history books. But beyond curriculum duty, past newspaper, magazine and scattered online articles, one is hard-pressed to find writings, ideas and a detailed record of the life of Pio Gama Pinto, the charismatic person who became independent Kenya’s first political martyr. — Nicholas Mwangi and Shiraz Durrani, 2018

As we remember Pio Gama Pinto, the revolutionary hero embedded in the people struggles, we also celebrate and acknowledge Shiraz Durrani for this magnificent work. This book will continue to teach and expose generation after generation of young people to the fine politics, ideas and beliefs of Pio Gama Pinto whom the government of Kenya has long wished to erase from our memories. Shiraz first wrote on Pio Gama Pinto in 1984 on The Standard newspaper. After the publication of the article, the special branch police begun monitoring him and Shiraz had to relocate to London for safety. However, this did not deter him from continuing to gather material on Pio Gama Pinto and thirty-four years later after the first article in 1984, Pio Gama Pinto book; Kenya unsung Martyr 1927-1965 was published in 2018.