Mwakenya Movement
The Mwakenya Movement was an underground movement in Kenya in the 1980s formed by a community opposed to president Moi's rule.
Background
When Daniel arap Moi became president of Kenya in 1978, many prominent politicians and academics accused him of corruption, nepotism and embezzlement of public funds. After the failed coup d'état of 1982, Moi seized the opportunity to make Kenya a de jure one party state. The country had been a de facto one party state since 1969.This move was met by opposition and university campuses, especially the University of Nairobi, became hotbeds of political activities advocating for the repeal of section 2A of the constitution which had made Kenya a de jure single party state.
Initially, Mwakenya was not a clandestine organization. Its members advocated for the opening up of democratic space in Kenya through public lectures and issuing of leaflets including Mpatanishi and Mzalendo. These lectures and leaflets served the purpose of explaining what they felt was wrong in the country's political sphere. However, after the government began cracking down on its members, the organization went underground.
Prof. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o was the movement's spokesman.
In the mid 1970s, underground movements started cropping up with publications, such as Chache Group's Independent Kenya, being their main tool. This led to the eventual uprising of the December 12th Movement and its Pambana publication. It is from the December 12th Movement that Mwakenya rose.
Arrests
Soon after the coup, the Moi regime, through the Special Branch, launched a hunt for all people it considered traitors and who it believed had had a hand in the attempted coup. Most of these were university lecturers. Some of the first people to be arrested include Maina wa Kinyatti, Prof. Katama Mkangi, Wanyiri Kihoro and Paddy Onyango.Plain clothes police officers and even university students were recruited by the government to monitor what was taught in classrooms. The main focus was on university lecturers who taught Marxist-Lenninist theories - a subject the government believed was being advocated by Mwakenya's members. Those arrested were tortured and subjected to various human rights violations until they accepted that they were Mwakenya members and gave information to the authorities on other members. This was corroborated by Moi when, at a student gathering in London in 1989, said, "We only torture detained members of the disruptive dissident group, Mwakenya. Otherwise how are we going to get important information from them? They are out to destroy everything we value in our society" Most of this torture took place at Nyayo House and Nyati House in Nairobi.
Bernard Chunga, the then Deputy Public Prosecutor, prosecuted most of the Mwakenya cases. Some suspects were arrested, charged and convicted within one day. Most were not allowed to have legal representation. Chunga would tell the presiding judges that the suspects had devised various ways to overthrow the government through an underground organization called Mwakenya. H. H. Buch, who was the Nairobi chief magistrate then, heard a majority of the cases.
Moi told the public that Mwakenya members were not ordinary Kenyans but rather bearded intellectuals who were keen on serving their foreign masters at the expense of the common citizen. He said that they all had passports and would flee Kenya the moment the country was plunged into turmoil, a luxury not many Kenyans had.
Prominent Detainees
The following are some of the notable people who were detained on charges of being affiliated with the Mwakenya Movement:- Wanyiri Kihoro
- Kiongo Maina
- Mwandawiro Mghanga
- Katama Mkangi
- Wahome Mutahi
- Lumumba Odenda
- Oduor Ong'wen
- Karimi Nduthu
- Tirop Kitur
- Kan'ngethe Wa Mungai