Trumpet call for Mau Mau prisoner who fought many battles

In 1977, Waruru Kanja, after a series of fierce attacks on the Kenyatta government over the murder of populist politician J M Kariuki two years earlier found himself at the centre of a damaging divorce case involving a fellow MP’s wife.

The then Lang'ata MP, Mwangi Mathai, hauled Mr Kanja to court and named him as the second respondent in the case against his estranged wife Prof Wangari Maathai.

The judge, ruled that Prof Maathai, who later won a Nobel Peace Prize, had an affair with Mr Kanja and dissolved the marriage. Prof Maathai would later be jailed for contempt after she told Salim Lone’s Viva magazine that the judgment was the product of “corruption or incompetence”.

But that was not the only controversial moment during Mr Kanja’s chequered public life.

The former Nyeri Town MP, who passed on Tuesday at PCEA Tumu Tumu Hospital, straddled Nyeri politics in the 1980s like a colossus — initially serving as then President Moi’s point man in an attempt to cut down the overarching influence of Mwai Kibaki in central Kenya politics. 

That was the moment in Kenya’s history when Mr Kanja became a ruthless loyalist in the league of Kariuki Chotara in Nakuru and Sharrif Nassir in Mombasa.

But unlike the two Kanu mandarins, Mr Kanja would in bouts of political anger drift back, like a man on top of a political pendulum, to his character of a radical nationalist.

First elected to Parliament in 1969, Mr Kanja distinguished himself as a fervent debater and a crusader for the compensation and resettlement of Mau Mau war victims who had lost land while in prison.

Himself a Mau Mau fighter, Mr Kanja had been sentenced to death after he was convicted of arms smuggling at the height of the liberation war. It was Kenya’s first African lawyer CMG Argwings-Kodhek who came to his aid by appealing the death sentence.

Mr Kodhek was then the only practising African criminal lawyer, and had taken it upon himself to defend many Mau Mau convicts, helping overturn what looked like hopeless cases.

Mr Kanja’s term was reduced to life sentence before he was released after independence.

Once in Parliament he joined hands with Mau Mau radicals — including Nyandarua North’s JM Kariuki, Nakuru Town’s Mark Mwithaga, and Nakuru East’s Fred Kubai — to demand justice for the landless.

Also in the group of radicals were Starehe’s Charles Rubia and Martin Shikuku (Butere). For that, they all became marked men but it was JM Kariuki who would pay the ultimate price.

When the security intelligence body, the Special Branch started trailing JM, as he was popularly known, he turned to Mr Kanja who gave him a vehicle.

In March 1975, Kariuki was assassinated and it was the Kanja group that would enlist the services of Bungoma East MP Elijah Mwangale to demand, much to the chagrin of the government, a parliamentary select committee probe into JM’s murder and on which Mr Mwangale was named the chairman.

It was at JM’s funeral that Mr Kanja described Kenyatta’s government as that of “killers and thugs.”

Months later, Mr Kanja found himself in court facing the embarrassing Wangari Maathai divorce case against Mr Mathai, the then MP for Lang’ata constituency.

Prof Maathai insisted that the case was political and fought to save her marriage to no avail.

Back in his Nyeri backyard, Mr Kanja had formed Burguret Arimi Limited, a land buying company with 1,370 shareholders and which operated in Laikipia district after failing to get the government to settle the landless.

Mr Kanja had risen to become the only radical political voice in central Kenya, his echoes eclipsing the moderate Mwai Kibaki who had become the Vice-President after Kenyatta’s death.

Having won the 1979 General Election which saw many veterans floored, Mr Kanja continued with his radical agenda.

It was therefore not surprising when on Wednesday, November 13, 1980 he took to the floor of the House and posed a most unexpected question.

“Why are we living in fear and for how long?”

It was the height of Moi’s dictatorship and “anti-Nyayo elements” were being warned to either toe the line or leave politics.

Mr Kanja, then Local Government assistant minister, immediately became a marked man.

That year, after a trip to a UN conference in New York with his minister Katana Ngala, Mr Kanja received some money from Foreign Affairs ministry as part of his per diem.

He came back with $2,000 and did not convert the currency into Kenya shillings within 24 hours as demanded by the law. Police in six vehicles – there were four Land Rovers and two Peugeot 504 saloon cars – arrived at his Nyeri home and sought the dollars he was holding.

He was jailed for three years culminating to the loss of his parliamentary seat.

When he was set free Mr Kanja contested the Nyeri Town seat in 1983 but lost to Mr Nderitu Githua, an ally of Mr Kibaki. He decided to serve his version of justice; cold.

The fall of Charles Njonjo left Vice-President Kibaki as the only standing block in Moi’s desire to reduce the Kikuyu influence on his presidency.

Ironically, he turned to Mr Kanja who immediately started a popularity contest with Mr Kibaki in Nyeri.

Mr Kanja executed the task with vigour that was only rivalled by another Mau Mau gun runner Kariuki Chotara.

Unfortunately, he was unable to wrestle the leadership of Nyeri from Mr Kibaki, who had grassroots support, talked little and was not used to political wrestling — unless pushed.

Mr Moi knew that Mr Kanja was a maverick — in whatever task he took on. 

Before the Kanu party elections in mid-1985 Mr Kanja joined hands with Mr Mwangale, then Foreign Affairs minister, to frustrate Mr Kibaki.

It was during this period that Mr Kibaki said politicians should stop “political tourism” in reference to Mr Mwangale’s political volleys in Nyeri with the support of Mr Kanja and Kirinyaga politician James Njiru.

While that failed, Mr Kibaki suffered humiliation after the 1988 General Election that saw most of his allies rigged out.

He was also demoted to the Ministry of Health while Mr Kanja became his Cabinet equal as Minister for Information and Broadcasting.

That cohabitation was, however, only brief. The murder of the then Foreign Affairs minister Robert Ouko made Mr Kanja cross paths with Mr Moi once again.

“We didn’t fight for independence to kill each other,” he said in Parliament, earning himself a sacking the following day. 

Mr Kanja was thrown out of Kanu and an incensed electorate in Nyeri chose a Kimathi Institute student, 22-year-old named Waihenya Ndirangu as the MP.

While the multiparty politics saw Mr Kanja join the popular Forum for Restoration of Democracy (Ford), he was eclipsed by Mr Kibaki’s Democratic Party.

After the fallout within Ford, he stuck with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s Ford-Kenya and polled a paltry 258 votes against Munene Kairu’s 31,447. The journey to political oblivion had started.

Mr Kanja retreated to his Nyeri home, a red-tiled whitewashed bungalow. He turned to farming as ill health slowed him down till his departure on Tuesday.

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