‘Ugali’ incident that cast Shikuku as a traitor

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PHOTO | FILE Mr Joseph Martin Shikuku.  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By EMMAN OMARI eommari@gmail.com
Posted  Saturday, August 25  2012 at  23:53

IN SUMMARY

• Some opposition colleagues believed a meeting he had with Moi in 1992 indicated he was a Kanu spy
• Mr John Keen, a contemporary of Mr Shikuku’s, maintains that suspicions around the State House meeting were misplaced
• Mr Moi, a self-proclaimed professor of politics, had scored a vital goal against the opposition. Mr Shikuku’s State House visit just seven months to the elections created deep suspicions within an already divided opposition

Throughout his career, Mr Joseph Martin Shikuku, who died on Wednesday, was seen as a perennial oppositionist and rebel. But on May 20, 1992, his loyalties were called into question, and he had to defend his character.

News had spread that Mr Shikuku and Shinyalu MP Japheth Shamalla — both then allied to Mr Kenneth Matiba’s Ford-Asili — had gone to State House, Nairobi, to meet President Daniel arap Moi.

There was a hue and cry from within opposition ranks, and Mr Shikuku was labelled a Kanu mole. To calm the fears of those who felt he had betrayed them, he went public about the meeting.

“I always meet Moi, so what is wrong with him inviting me to State House to eat ugali?” he asked.

However, Mr Moi, a self-proclaimed professor of politics, had scored a vital goal against the opposition. Mr Shikuku’s State House visit just seven months to the elections created deep suspicions within an already divided opposition.

It is widely believed that this divided and weakened opposition contributed significantly to Mr Moi’s eventual victory in the return to multiparty elections in 1992.

However, Mr John Keen, a contemporary of Mr Shikuku’s, maintains that suspicions around the State House meeting were misplaced.

“I cannot see him as having been a mole planted in the opposition,” said Mr Keen. “Shikuku was an honest man, a fiery politician from his Kadu days, a model of democratic ideals and an accomplished debater.”

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• ‘Ugali’ incident that cast Shikuku as a traitor

While Mr Keen was in Kanu during the struggle for independence, Mr Shikuku was in Kadu. Mr Keen was later secretary-general in Mr Mwai Kibaki’s Democratic Party during the agitation for multiparty democracy while Mr Shikuku held the same post in Ford-Asili. Mr Moi and Mr Shikuku were compatriots in Kadu before independence.

“I was there throughout his political career. Those of us who accused him of being a mole failed to realise that in life, friendship never dies even if friends differ in opinion,” said Mr Keen.

Mr Shikuku was an opposition stalwart. He was the last politician to cross the floor in Parliament in 1964 after his opposition party Kadu dissolved to merge with Kanu.

He also warned politicians who were attempting to silence the opposition that they would suffer the fate of biblical sacrificial lambs.

And on July 5, 1969, Mr Tom Mboya, who was among top Kanu politicians pushing for the merger of the two parties, was assassinated on Moi Avenue, Nairobi. And, unlike Mr Shamalla who defected to Kanu after the 1992 elections, Mr Shikuku stood by Mr Matiba in Ford-Asili.

He campaigned around the country for Mr Matiba, who came second in the presidential race.

He went on to become the party’s presidential candidate in 1997 but lost. He also lost his Butere parliamentary seat. However, Mr Shikuku’s political career remained eventful.

His knack for accurately reading events and his fight on behalf of the public earned him the tag “People’s Watchman”.

Mr Shikuku maintained a fiercely independent outlook even in his social dealings.

He disliked harambees and never believed in giving out money even for funerals.

He did not care what people thought about him even when he was criticised for digging his own grave eight years ago, which went against cultural norms.