The MauMau freedom fighters are the parents who raised us. They had so many odds stacked against them, yet they overcame. We are the generation that was born into a free country. We were raised, trained and guided by those heroes who overcame so much in their lifetimes, yet they were not bitter. They fought off the colonists so we did not have to. They wanted us to grow up in a free country where we could work freely and prosper without a ruthless master exploiting us and limiting our opportunities. That was their dream for us. They hoped we will build a prosperous nation, working together towards a common goal. Most of all, they hoped we would never experience bloodshed like they witnessed in that dark era where the colonists hunted natives like game and shot them at will.
I still remember the attempted coup of August 1982. In our teenage years, we did not fully grasp what was happening but we knew there was great tension and uncertainty all over the country. Adults spoke in hushed tones, fear etched in their concerned faces. I have lived long enough to know there is always fierce opposition and criticism of every existing leadership anywhere in the world. Ambitious people on the outside always feel they can lead better and make better decisions than the current office holders, until they get their opportunity to occupy the same office and realize it is actually harder than they thought. Like the sports cliche: spectators play a better game from the stands than the athletes in the field who are actually playing the game.
My parents never voiced any strong political views except the generalized comments that all citizens make. “Bururi uthukite muno. Thogora wa indo ciothe uhaichite ndiui andu megwika atia” translation: “The country is not doing well at all. Prices of everything have increased so much I don’t know how we are going to survive”. We were the family that listened to news every day to hear what was happening in our country and around the world.
We had the map of Kenya hanging on the wall with the pictures of our cabinet in it. That was a familiar picture in many public places back in the day. We knew all the ministries and who was the Minister in charge. Those were the days when the cabinet stayed the same for so many years, we got to associate the ministries with the Minister in charge of it. When we heard Ministry of Finance, we saw Mwai Kibaki. We could not picture anybody else holding the famous briefcase that contained the annual budget that was read to the nation every July, when the prices of alcohol and tobacco products were guaranteed to go up. We knew cabinet names like Paul Ngei, Charles Njonjo, Robert Matano, Mbiyu Koinange, Julius Gikonyo Kiano, Taita Towett, Munyua Waiyaki, Njoroge Mungai and other names we could mention from the top of our heads.
We knew the heads of countries around the world: American presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, Nyerere of Tanzania, Idi Amin of Uganda, Margaret Thatcher of Britain, Kaunda of Zambia, Indira Gandhi of India, Gaddafi of Libya and almost every nation in the world. We knew the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kurt Waldheim and his successor Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. We may not have been able to pronounce some of the names correctly, but we were well informed on our civic, national and international matters but we were never political.
