Montecarlo
Elder Lister
Mohammad Ali just seconds before Mike fought Larry Holmes, he whispered in his ear 'kill him' and walk off.....Larry aliona moshi
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Fitz de Souza was one of the lawyers who defended Jomo Kenyatta and his five co-defenders in Kapenguria. Along with fellow Goan Pio Gama Pinto, de Souza was among the very few non-African members of the Kenya African Union (KAU). Fitz later became the Deputy Speaker of Kenya’s National Assembly and a reported favorite of Kenya’s first president Jomo Kenyatta. In the book’s Preface, Hillary Ngweno writes that Fitz had a “penchant for socialist rhetoric that seemed to make Parkland Asian businessmen and voters uneasy.” However, his socialist leanings did not prevent him from becoming “the first Kenyan of ‘pure’ Asian descent to get elected to independent Kenya’s first Parliament” as MP for Parklands (pviii)
That another Asian/Indian, alongside Pinto, and Achhroo Ram Kapila were involved in defending Africans fighting for their independence only confirms the assertion made by Shiraz Duranni (Pio Gama Pinto: Kenya’s Unsung Martyr) and Mansood Ladha (Memoirs of a Muhindi) that Asians/Indians were front and center in Kenya’s fight for independence but have not received the recognition.
Forward to Independence: My Memoirs is de Souza’s accounting of his life – one marred by the tragedy of losing two colleagues on the opposite end of the ruling party’s (KANU) ideological divide – Pio Gama Pinto and Tom Mboya – both felled by bullets from assassins reportedly linked to the government led by the very man the barrister successfully represented in court.
As Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Fitzval Remedios Santana Neville de Souza tried mediating the ideological struggle between the left-leaning wing of KANU that included Oginga Odinga and the conservative wing that included Tom Mboya. Making matters worse for Fitz is the fact that his friend Pinto, someone he refers to as an “idealist,” was aligned with Jaramogi on the left.
Leading up to Pinto’s assassination on February 25, 1965, Fitz alluded to the nagging presence around Pio, of “a pleasant well-spoken gentleman whose official role was that of Labour Officer at the American Embassy” who “was not what he appeared.” (p249) According to de Souza, the man who he saw “meeting regularly with Pinto” was “CIA.” The writer thus wondered “what the hell Pio was doing” associating with him. de Souza’s concerns arose from the strong influence US had in Kenya – especially “behind the scene.”
Separate but related, de Souza writes that his friend was “increasingly vexed about the land bought from the Europeans as part of the independence deal.” Echoing a sentiment that is now common knowledge across the country and the continent, “a chosen few, mainly Kikuyu, now seemed to be getting lots of it (land) while so many other Africans remained poor and unemployed.” (p250)
Equally telling is the deliberate attempts at co-option the government of the day indulged in. Shortly after discussing the land issue with Pinto, the Commissioner of Lands, Mr. O’Laughlin approached Fitz with a message that “President Kenyatta says you (Fitz) have to have a farm, that for a thousand pounds, he could get a hundred acres and a gigantic European style house with 10 or 15 rooms and a ballroom with chandeliers.” Fitz argues that “the land issue must have had a lot to do with” bringing together Gama Pinto and Oginga Odinga and chipping away at the “respect” he had for Jomo Kenyatta.
The LSE alum narrates a very chilling exchange he had with Tom Mboya as the seminal Sessional Paper 10 was being debated. Briefly, the paper outlined the newly independent country’s development roadmap; effectively, a mixed economy with state and private sector as a strategy for “sustained economic growth.” (A Review of the Challenges to Political and Socio-Economic Development in Kenya by Sifuna, Daniel N.; Oanda, Ibrahim)
Mboya reportedly pointed out the concern on the conservative wing of KANU: That Pio was seen as “trouble, a left-wing firebrand out to oust Kenyatta.” In Mboya’s words, “certain people” would get rid of Pinto once they realized that the ideals and uhuru they fought for was not the ideals and uhuru that was being delivered by Kenyatta and those around him. Mboya argued that the possibility of Jaramogi replacing Kenyatta – thanks primarily to the organizational and mobilization skills of Pio Gama Pinto – made eliminating him a near fait accompli.
“Take Pinto out and the whole thing (Jaramogi Presidency) collapses like a pack of cards.” (p251) And while Mboya was categorical that he would not “take part in getting rid of him,” he was equally categorical that “there were people who would.”
Ironically, it was Joseph Murumbi who convinced Gama Pinto to return to Nairobi from Mombasa because “he would talk to Kenyatta and sort it all out.” The “it” in this case was the concern the young journalist/organizer had just expressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs: that Jaramogi had driven him to Mombasa – away from Nairobi “because it was believed he was in danger.”
Undeterred, Pinto continued to compile a list of farms and land which he believed had “been stolen from African people by the Government.” The list was part of the information Pio’s group was set to use to counter Mboya’s Sessional Paper 10. This was information that would expose the avarice of Jomo and those around him. Fitz writes that the expectations once this information became public was an “explosive vote of no confidence against Kenyatta.” (p252) Fitz however cautioning the trade unionist of Kenyatta’s “firm belief that the fruits of independence should be his" since he had “sacrificed” and “struggled,” presumably for Kenya's independence.
Kenyatta’s former lawyer then offered an ominous warning to Pinto. He told him that his former client “would fight to the death if he had.” He told his friend that to attack him (Jomo) morally would land him, Pinto, on his, Jomo's, “bad side.”
Shortly after the exchange between the two friends in early February 1965, the two men – Jomo and Pio – eventually confronted each other outside Parliament and exchanged words.
Fitz writes that Pio shouted at Kenyatta that he will “fix” him and Kenyatta, “equally incensed” shouted back. The two men, according to the author “were arguing about the English farms which Pio claimed Kenyatta was grabbing.” In his efforts to calm down and counsel his friend, de Souza cautioned Pinto “not to shout at Kenyatta again, as Kikuyus rarely forgive someone who becomes their enemy.” He offered a perspective, a bleak one, that is consistent with one I have read elsewhere, that Pio, in the eyes of most Africans, was “just a Muhindi, perfectly dispensable.” (p252)
The preceding write-up is excerpted from the chapter titled Assassination of an Idealist. The twenty-paged section is a searing and most valid indictment of Kenya’s first government – in every conceivable way. It is also written in a lawyer’s measured tone and language. If only more people had stood up against the ethos that was taking hold in Kenya then, things may have turned out differently on matters governance and national unity.
Unfortunately, and as now evidenced by the country’s progression since then, the ideals that Africans fought for all but vanished once they took over from the British. The seeds of entitlement, greed, and faux nationalism/patriotism that is now endemic were first planted and nourished back then. It was embodied in the rhetorical and darkly foreboding question Jomo Kenyatta reportedly asked at each meeting:
“If a man plants a tree, who has the right to claim the fruit of that tree when it has grown?” (p253)
Fadhili William was born to Halima Wughanga and Ramadhan Mwamburi in Taita-Taveta District near Mombasa. His father, who died when Fadhili was only seven, was a traditional musician. Like three of his siblings – Ali Harrison Mwataku, Esther John and Mumba Charo – he became a musician.
He started singing while in primary school in Taita. He went on to Government African School, in Pumwani in Nairobi. He then dropped out of Shimo la Tewa Secondary School, where he had joined Form Three, to pursue a musical career.
Fadhili William’s father Ramadhan Mwamburi, who was renowned for his performances of the Taita ‘Mghonda” dance, lived and worked in Mombasa where he was employed by the Railways as a security guard.
Upon Mwamburi’s death from tuberculosis, Halima Wughanga started dealing in clothes. Subsequently, however she moved to Nairobi where she took up residence in Kaloleni where she met and got married to a Mr. Swaleh, from Ukambani.
Swaleh, a night guard, initially worked in the Colonial Service before joining the Railways Corporation in the same capacity. Prior to co-habiting with Swaleh, Halima, apparently, had co-habited with a Mr William, also from Ukambani. Coincidentally, William too was a watchman. Fadhili adopted his name “William”.
It was after her separation from William that Halima co-habited with Swaleh. She was still however living with Swaleh when she passed on in 1967. In later life, upon abandoning the clothes business, she was employed as an Ayah in White homes in the area then known as Mayer Car berry, in the neighborhood of the area formerly occupied by the Kenya School of Law along Valley Road.
Fadhili’s younger sibling Esther John who died and was buried in Congo Kinshasa in 1972, attended Primary School in Nairobi. She got married to Ben Nicholas, a Saxophonist, from luo Nyanza. He was a member of the City Five Band which left for Congo Kinshasa in the late 1950s. By the time Esther joined her husband in the Congo, she had had her first child, Josephine.
Initially, Esther John, an accomplished singer, worked at the Kenya Broadcasting Service, in the days of the veteran broadcaster, the late Stephen Kikumu. While on her broadcasting stint, Esther John would practice her music, simultaneously. She recorded several songs with her siblings, including “Kibingilisho Igome”, with Ali Mwataku on drums. In some of her songs, her husband accompanied her on the saxophone.
While in Congo Kinshasa, Esther was employed at the Kenya Embassy, during the days of Kenya’s Ambassador, Mwabili Kisaka.
Esther John passed on in Kinshasa and is buried there.
Esther John’s husband, died in Mombasa in the 1990s, after returning to Kenya after his wife’s death. Prior to his demise, he had been performing Grill Music at the Diani Reef, Ukunda in the South Coast.
Another sister, Josephine got married to a Zambian Diplomat who worked in Congo, Kinshasa. Josephine also passed away in July 2012, in Lusaka Zambia.
The truth about 'Malaika' is somewhere between him, Grant Charo and Adam Salim. The song is reported to have been adopted from an ancient seafarers song.
Partly written by: Duncan Mwanyumba in 2015 for https://www.voices.co.ke/
He started singing while in primary school in Taita. He went on to Government African School, in Pumwani in Nairobi. He then dropped out of Shimo la Tewa Secondary School, where he had joined Form Three, to pursue a musical career.
Fadhili William’s father Ramadhan Mwamburi, who was renowned for his performances of the Taita ‘Mghonda” dance, lived and worked in Mombasa where he was employed by the Railways as a security guard.
Upon Mwamburi’s death from tuberculosis, Halima Wughanga started dealing in clothes. Subsequently, however she moved to Nairobi where she took up residence in Kaloleni where she met and got married to a Mr. Swaleh, from Ukambani.
Swaleh, a night guard, initially worked in the Colonial Service before joining the Railways Corporation in the same capacity. Prior to co-habiting with Swaleh, Halima, apparently, had co-habited with a Mr William, also from Ukambani. Coincidentally, William too was a watchman. Fadhili adopted his name “William”.
It was after her separation from William that Halima co-habited with Swaleh. She was still however living with Swaleh when she passed on in 1967. In later life, upon abandoning the clothes business, she was employed as an Ayah in White homes in the area then known as Mayer Car berry, in the neighborhood of the area formerly occupied by the Kenya School of Law along Valley Road.
Fadhili’s younger sibling Esther John who died and was buried in Congo Kinshasa in 1972, attended Primary School in Nairobi. She got married to Ben Nicholas, a Saxophonist, from luo Nyanza. He was a member of the City Five Band which left for Congo Kinshasa in the late 1950s. By the time Esther joined her husband in the Congo, she had had her first child, Josephine.
Initially, Esther John, an accomplished singer, worked at the Kenya Broadcasting Service, in the days of the veteran broadcaster, the late Stephen Kikumu. While on her broadcasting stint, Esther John would practice her music, simultaneously. She recorded several songs with her siblings, including “Kibingilisho Igome”, with Ali Mwataku on drums. In some of her songs, her husband accompanied her on the saxophone.
While in Congo Kinshasa, Esther was employed at the Kenya Embassy, during the days of Kenya’s Ambassador, Mwabili Kisaka.
Esther John passed on in Kinshasa and is buried there.
Esther John’s husband, died in Mombasa in the 1990s, after returning to Kenya after his wife’s death. Prior to his demise, he had been performing Grill Music at the Diani Reef, Ukunda in the South Coast.
Another sister, Josephine got married to a Zambian Diplomat who worked in Congo, Kinshasa. Josephine also passed away in July 2012, in Lusaka Zambia.
The truth about 'Malaika' is somewhere between him, Grant Charo and Adam Salim. The song is reported to have been adopted from an ancient seafarers song.
Partly written by: Duncan Mwanyumba in 2015 for https://www.voices.co.ke/
Macmillan’s Castle (the popular name for Juja house at Donyo Sabuk near Thika) was known for its scandals, affairs and wife-swapping parties and nicknamed kilavu (club house) by the locals. It was hosted former (26th) US President Theodore Roosevelt there several times - who once wrote about it in his biography and also there during his famous 1909 safari and other hunting trips. Winston Churchill was also a guest during his 1908 excursion to Uganda and Kenya as a travel writer producing Churchill - My African Journey, the story of his trip. It later became a popular film location.
It ws owned by Sir William Northrup Macmillan. Lord William Northrup McMillan was the first white man to settle here, and everything else that has happened since is largely attributed to him
It was there in 1930, that one of Kenya's most colourful politicians, Tom Mboya, was born and brought up, when his father worked in then sisal farm as a labourer. Though the setting is not in a valley, this circuit comprised a prime chip of the famed Happy Valley set. Tom Mboya attended Kilimambogo Primary School, a Catholic Missionary Sponsored institution, within the larger St. Johns Kilimambogo Teachers College.
McMillan's home, a fort by any definition, sits in splendour. More than three-quarters of the house is under key and lock. A part of it houses the Muka Mukuu Farmer's Co-operative Society, Ltd. a farmer's cooperative. The land around the home is currently used for the production of pineapples.
Covering a ground enough for three basketball pitches, the villagers have spent more than a century wondering why a couple that had no children put up such a huge dwelling place. So large is the building that Lord Macmillan and his wife would spend one year in one wing of the house, then migrate to the other in the second half of the year. The locals are yet to figure out how they can benefit from such an obvious tourist attraction site.
The early notorieties of the ranch captured the imagination of many people during the First World War, when the castle served as a military hospital for British officers. The wild parties held in the castle, where the notorious colonial maverick Colonel Ewart Grogan reputedly led the wine-tossing and supervised wife-sharing orgies, only spiced the sideshows that attracted international media. Hence the castle was baptised "Kilavu" by the locals, meaning Club house in Kamba
It ws owned by Sir William Northrup Macmillan. Lord William Northrup McMillan was the first white man to settle here, and everything else that has happened since is largely attributed to him
It was there in 1930, that one of Kenya's most colourful politicians, Tom Mboya, was born and brought up, when his father worked in then sisal farm as a labourer. Though the setting is not in a valley, this circuit comprised a prime chip of the famed Happy Valley set. Tom Mboya attended Kilimambogo Primary School, a Catholic Missionary Sponsored institution, within the larger St. Johns Kilimambogo Teachers College.
McMillan's home, a fort by any definition, sits in splendour. More than three-quarters of the house is under key and lock. A part of it houses the Muka Mukuu Farmer's Co-operative Society, Ltd. a farmer's cooperative. The land around the home is currently used for the production of pineapples.
Covering a ground enough for three basketball pitches, the villagers have spent more than a century wondering why a couple that had no children put up such a huge dwelling place. So large is the building that Lord Macmillan and his wife would spend one year in one wing of the house, then migrate to the other in the second half of the year. The locals are yet to figure out how they can benefit from such an obvious tourist attraction site.
The early notorieties of the ranch captured the imagination of many people during the First World War, when the castle served as a military hospital for British officers. The wild parties held in the castle, where the notorious colonial maverick Colonel Ewart Grogan reputedly led the wine-tossing and supervised wife-sharing orgies, only spiced the sideshows that attracted international media. Hence the castle was baptised "Kilavu" by the locals, meaning Club house in Kamba
Nairobi-Mombasa road near Mtito Andei early 1950s
Photo shows a typical stretch of the Nairobi-Mombasa main road in the thorn scrub country near Mtito Andei, about 130 miles from Mombasa. Like most of the roads in the more sparsely inhabited areas of East Africa, it consists merely of a track cut through the bush and levelled by mechanical grader. In heavy rains the road frequently becomes impassable whilst in the dry weather the surface "wrinkles" and becomes exactly like a sheet of corrugated iron and, as the corrugations are across the road, smooth travel becomes impossible except at speeds over 35 miles per hour. Added hazards sometimes encountered are ant bear holes anything up to three feet across and three feet deep and occasionally big game such as rhinoceros and elephant.
Date 1 January 1952
Photo shows a typical stretch of the Nairobi-Mombasa main road in the thorn scrub country near Mtito Andei, about 130 miles from Mombasa. Like most of the roads in the more sparsely inhabited areas of East Africa, it consists merely of a track cut through the bush and levelled by mechanical grader. In heavy rains the road frequently becomes impassable whilst in the dry weather the surface "wrinkles" and becomes exactly like a sheet of corrugated iron and, as the corrugations are across the road, smooth travel becomes impossible except at speeds over 35 miles per hour. Added hazards sometimes encountered are ant bear holes anything up to three feet across and three feet deep and occasionally big game such as rhinoceros and elephant.
Date 1 January 1952
King Daudi Chwa on his way to his grandfather’s tomb_Circa 1910
Daudi Chwa II KCMG KBE was Kabaka of the Kingdom of Buganda from 1897 until 1939. He was the 34th Kabaka of Buganda.
He was born on 8 August 1896, at Mengo. He was the fifth son of Kabaka Danieri Basammula-Ekkere Mwanga II Mukasa, Kabaka of Buganda, between 1884 and 1888 and between 1889 and 1897. His mother was Abakyala Evalini Kulabako, of the Ngabi Clan, the fourth of his father's sixteen wives. He ascended to the throne in August 1897 following the deposition of his father by British Forces. At the time of his coronation, he was only one year old. He maintained his capital at Mengo Hill. He was educated at Kings College Budo.
On 8 August 1914, he received an honorary commission as a lieutenant in the British Army, and was appointed an honorary captain on 22 September 1917. He was appointed an honorary Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) in the 1918 New Year Honours, and was promoted to honorary Knight Commander (KCMG) on 16 February 1925. He was further appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1937 Coronation Honours.[5] He was also decorated as a Commander of the Order of the Crown of Belgium in 1918.
He is recorded to have fathered 36 children; 20 sons and 16 daughters.
He died at his palace at Salaama, a suburb of Kampala, on 22 November 1939 at the age of 43 years. He was buried at Kasubi Nabulagala, the third Kabaka to be buried there.
Daudi Chwa II KCMG KBE was Kabaka of the Kingdom of Buganda from 1897 until 1939. He was the 34th Kabaka of Buganda.
He was born on 8 August 1896, at Mengo. He was the fifth son of Kabaka Danieri Basammula-Ekkere Mwanga II Mukasa, Kabaka of Buganda, between 1884 and 1888 and between 1889 and 1897. His mother was Abakyala Evalini Kulabako, of the Ngabi Clan, the fourth of his father's sixteen wives. He ascended to the throne in August 1897 following the deposition of his father by British Forces. At the time of his coronation, he was only one year old. He maintained his capital at Mengo Hill. He was educated at Kings College Budo.
On 8 August 1914, he received an honorary commission as a lieutenant in the British Army, and was appointed an honorary captain on 22 September 1917. He was appointed an honorary Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) in the 1918 New Year Honours, and was promoted to honorary Knight Commander (KCMG) on 16 February 1925. He was further appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1937 Coronation Honours.[5] He was also decorated as a Commander of the Order of the Crown of Belgium in 1918.
He is recorded to have fathered 36 children; 20 sons and 16 daughters.
He died at his palace at Salaama, a suburb of Kampala, on 22 November 1939 at the age of 43 years. He was buried at Kasubi Nabulagala, the third Kabaka to be buried there.
When Lake Naivasha was an airport_
Photo shows last BOAC short solent plane comanded by by Captain Deadman departing for Southampton in September, 1950.
Lake Naivasha was Kenya’s first international airport when planes from mostly European destinations would land at the lake, pick and drop passengers. The flying boats — as the passenger planes were generally known-— ended when advance in aviation technology allowed large planes to land on dry earth and hence the boats could not compete with the new Boeing 707s— at least from 1958.
Previously, those who could not afford the “Flyboat” services — as they were known— could either take the ship from Mombasa and travel by train.
The year 1958 was the turning point for Naivasha. It was when Boeing unveiled their 707 and it was this time that Mau Mau prisoners finished the construction of Embakasi Airport, the predecessor to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
The opening of Embakasi (it is today used by the military) saw Lake Naivasha’s place diminish together with the facilities that had been built to cash in on the flying boat arrivals.
Photo shows last BOAC short solent plane comanded by by Captain Deadman departing for Southampton in September, 1950.
Lake Naivasha was Kenya’s first international airport when planes from mostly European destinations would land at the lake, pick and drop passengers. The flying boats — as the passenger planes were generally known-— ended when advance in aviation technology allowed large planes to land on dry earth and hence the boats could not compete with the new Boeing 707s— at least from 1958.
Previously, those who could not afford the “Flyboat” services — as they were known— could either take the ship from Mombasa and travel by train.
The year 1958 was the turning point for Naivasha. It was when Boeing unveiled their 707 and it was this time that Mau Mau prisoners finished the construction of Embakasi Airport, the predecessor to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
The opening of Embakasi (it is today used by the military) saw Lake Naivasha’s place diminish together with the facilities that had been built to cash in on the flying boat arrivals.
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Elder Lister
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