How many Kenyans have made the cover of Time magazine?

How many Kenyans have made the cover of Time? Least of all in the 1960s. Time cover March 7th 1960. In the background a collapsing mud hut very similar to the one where Tom Mboya was born one evening August 15th 1930. 




Actually there are very few Kenyans who have graced the cover of Time magazine. But it is even more amazing that a Kenyan managed this feat in 1960 (before independence). My point is that there must have been something very special about this man. Below I include the first few paragraphs of that Time story complete with the headline;

Ready or not
March 7th 1960
(See Cover) It was the biggest African political rally in Nairobi's history. Under the hot sun, 20,000 blacks packed into African Stadium, sang and chanted as they waited for the returning hero, just back from London. Then a mighty roar went up, and there came Tom Mboya on the shoulders of his excited supporters. Around his shoulders was a black skin cape. The sleepy eyes danced with pleasure, and a grin split the gleaming, satin-smooth black face. With a wave of his fly switch, Tom brought the throng to sudden silence. "My brothers," he cried, "today is a great day for Kenya....

Had that crowd gotten a glimpse of the Kenya of the future then, there is no doubt that the jubilation would have instantly turned into bitter mourning. But let us see what this son of an illiterate sisal picker did to deserve such attention.

Tom Mboya was born on April 15, 1930 in Kilimambogo on a Sisal Estate near Thika town in what was called the 'White Highlands' of Kenya . His father Leonardus Ndiege was a sisal cutter. His mother, Marcella Awour, named him Odhiambo, as most Luos born in the evening are named. He was baptized Thomas and was later called Joseph at his confirmation as a catholic. He was later to be better known as Tom Mboya.

Born and brought up very far from his Rusinga home and rather close to Nairobi, the question of ethnicity or tribe was always furthest from the mind of Mboya. Throughout his political career he got elected in Nairobi constituencies and received most of his votes from Kikuyus. It is sad that the issue of his tribe never really cropped up until after his death when the Luo community vented their anger in violence on the streets of Nairobi. But you can be sure that there were thousands of other Kenyans of different tribes and even races who felt the same. The truth is that Mboya never belonged to the Luo, he belonged to Kenya as Time magazine so aptly captioned the painting of him on their cover with the words, “Kenya’s Tom Mboya.

There are Kenyans who say that there was less tribalism before independence and it is politicians who have nurtured this monster over the years for their own survival. I tend to believe this view.

What drove him to trade unionism and politics?

Growing up on the sisal plantation, the young Mboya must have seen his father going about his work. Those who are familiar with sisal picking will know that quite often, it leaves the pickers bleeding from scratches and jabs from the thorny-edged leaves. It is possible that young Mboya often felt pity for his father. Is this what drove him into fighting for the rights of workers in Trade Unionism later on in life? Was this what gave him such empathy with the plight and feelings of ordinary Kenyan African workers?

Although Mboya was a mere mortal and was far from being perfect, even with his glaring faults, he is the best political son to come out of the womb of Kenya. Our prayer is that many others will follow in the years to come.

While we are on that subject of the man’s weaknesses let us mention one of the criticisms that forever haunted him. He was accused of being a CIA agent. This writer has found quite some evidence that seems to confirm this fact. We will however look at this more closely in future posts.

Tom was also a man of the ladies. A picture taken in the 50s shows him amongst members of a music dance group. He never knew how to play any musical instrument but he was an accomplished dancer and it is safe to guess that he did it all for the ladies. His biographer David Goldsworthy describes a number of other incidences in his detailed work.

Despite all this, no other Kenyan politician since Mboya has emerged as a leader with no tribal affiliation or base (shame on you Kenyan politicians). Mboya was a cosmoplitan politician brought up mostly amongst the Akamba people in the sisal farms of Kilimambogo and then at Kabaa catholic Mission School, voted in mostly by Kikuyus, fine-tuned his Swahili in Tanzania (he was a very close friend of the late founding father of the Tanzanian nation Mwalimu Julius Nyerere).

Tom Mboya, started school in 1939 at the Kabaa Catholic Mission School in what was then the Ukamba District of Kenya. In 1942 he joined a Catholic Secondary School in Yala, in Nyanza province. In 1946 he went to the Holy Ghost College, Mangu, where he passed well enough to proceed to do his Cambridge School Certificate. In 1948, Mboya joined the Royal Sanitary Institute's Medical Training School for Sanitary Inspectors at Nairobi , qualifying as an inspector in 1950.

Tomorrow we start looking at Mboya's fascinating political career.

Why Mboya Had To Stop A Bullet