Pinto: Blood on the British governor’s and Kenyan hands
Pio Gama Pinto, Kenya’s Unsung Martyr 1927-1965
Edited by Shiraz Durrani
The long-awaited book on Pio Gama Pinto is finally here. It was launched in
Nairobi on
October 16. It is simply just a word or two short of being colossal. Perhaps,
one flaw is that there is too much repetition.
However, 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 and the reader will get to know virtually everything there is to
know about him. Sometimes the book is taxing to read, other times it races
along. All time Pinto is never too far from the reader’s gaze (if only in the
mind). The entre 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 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. His association 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 Fitz De Souza recalls his talks
on his early days in Goa:
“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. 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 to the assassination and underlines what we
have known for a long time: It was a conspiracy of the British Government,
especially the last Governor of Kenya, Malcolm MacDonald, and Jomo Kenyatta and
his 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, James Gichuru, Mbiyu Koinange 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 of course, the late Joseph Murumbi 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: “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 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: “He had 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: “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 pounds) 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.
“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, celebrate some of the men and women who lived and
died in the cause of freedom and to look anew at life as we know it.
There is an interview with 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 members
of the family.
Naturally, this book is a monument to Pio Gama Pinto and his once socialist
ideals for a Kenya without capitalism. Shiraz Durrani, the book editor, makes
no apology for that.
Cyprian Fernandes is a former Chief Reporter of the Nation and knew Pio Gama
Pinto and most of the people mentioned in this book. He is also the author of
Yesterday in Paradise, and Stars Next Door. You can read more of his stories at
www.headlinesofmylife.today
