Even though the gentleman is nothing close to what Mboya had achieved at his age, efforts to bring him from radical activism to mainstream politics mirror exactly what the colonialist did to Mboya immediately after he returned from his studies in England in 1956
As Mboya (only 25), was midway through his studies in 1956, he was invited to the British Trade Union Congress in London to give a speech on problems facing Kenya. But the speech turned out to be so radical that even his hosts regretted inviting him.
A copy of the speech was sent to the Governor of Kenya in Nairobi who remarked that it was the most radical speech he had ever heard from any African politician. And that it could incite racial tensions in Kenya .
Mboya was not even an elected politician by then, but a trade unionist serving as the Sec-Gen of Kenya Federation of Labour. However, because of his studies in England, he had entrusted Arthur Ochwada to run the federation until his return.
Immediately details of Mboya’s speech reached Kenya, the Minister for Labour summoned Arthur Ochwada and all other senior officials of the Kenya Federation of Labour and told them that he was planning to ban the federation because of Mboya’s speech.
By then the Kenya Federation of Labour was a very important channel for airing African concerns. With the banning of all political parties it was the only channel through which Africans could air their political views. So the plan to ban it triggered great concerns among anti-colonial activists.
Eventually a deal was reached between the Government and the KFL. According to the agreement all members of the KFL were not to mix trade unionism with politics otherwise the federation would be banned.
As Mboya returned to Kenya perhaps unaware of the political upheaval his speech had caused, Government officials were undecided on how to deal with him, whether to arrest him or find another way of handling. The decision to arrest him was finally dropped out of fear that it could make him a hero and a political martyr in the eyes of his supporters.
Instead the British Secretary of State for Colonies, Lain Macleod wrote a confidential letter dated 18 January 1957, to the Governor of Kenya suggesting that an influential person should befriend Mboya with the secret aim of preventing him from “drifting into the outer darkness in which so many upcoming African politicians tend to revolve.”
The Governor responded to the Colonial Secretary in another confidential letter stating, “We have examined your suggestion that somebody should be deputed specially to keep a friendly eye on him and try and influence him along constructive lines and have come to the conclusion that it might be better to do this.”
The Governor went on to reveal that they had started doing so using influential white Kenyan politicians such as Michael Blundell the Minister for Agriculture, Sir Ernest Vassey the Minister for Finance and Sir Walter Coutts the Minister for Education and Labour who later became the Governor of Uganda. The Governor, however, suggested to the Colonial Secretary that they should use a group of people instead of individuals.
The Governor wrote in a long letter to the Secretary of State:
“On the whole I think that the contacts which have been made so far have been successful but as I have said before I think that it would be easier to exert the type of influence which you have mentioned by means of a group of people rather than one person who may after a time become suspect.
“Coutts, who has seen a lot of Mboya and had many discussions with him, feels that a single person like the Minister of Labour, even though he may be able to offer useful advice, is apt to be tarred with the Government brush, if the Government as a whole happens to take a decision which is not acceptable to the trade union movement.
“For these reasons it is proposed that perhaps the influences exerted might come from a wider quarter. It is suggested that on the Labour side those people should be:
“Minister for Labour, Commissioner for Labour, Industrial Relations Officer Mr. Meshack Ndisi (a Jaluo like Mboya) who works in Industrial Relations.
“In addition to these there will be the District Commissioner, Nairobi, who is in a special position vis-a-vis the trade union movement in the City and also because the K.F.L. does not at the moment particularly like the Administration. It has been further agreed that the Minister for Finance, Mr. Vasey, and a Mr. Athayde, an intelligent and thoroughly trustworthy Goan, who was at Oxford at the same time as Mboya, and who has been able in the past to exert some influence on him, should join the team.”
