Thomas Joseph Mboya was the most ambitious politician of his time before his life was untimely taken by a gun man on the morning of July 5th 1969.
The alleged killer a certain Nahashon Njenga Njoroge was hastily hanged at Kamiti Prisons bringing the investigations to an end without answers to the most important questions. Before he died, Njenga said “Why don’t you go after the big man?”
So who was the big man who put a hit on Tom Mboya? Thanks to Lee Njiru, a former Press Secretary to both Kenyatta and Moi, we now have some fresh details about Mboya’s relationship with Mzee Kenyatta.
According to Njiru, Mzee Kenyatta liked Tom Mboya because he was a workhorse and an intellectual, but Kikuyus did not like him because he was too clever. People did not like the idea that the young man from Luo Nyanza was going to succeed Kenyatta.
But Mboya had irked a few Kikuyu Mafias during a conference in Canada a few years before Kenyatta’s release:
“Before Kenyatta left detention, one time Mboya had gone to Canada, and when asked: “Who will be Kenya’s President?” He said: “Kenyans will decide.” The Kikuyus noted that. They did not want any grey area, the answer should be, “It is Kenyatta.” People thought Mboya would succeed”
Lee Njiru also says that tribalism was ripe in post independence Kenya and people from Mt. Kenya had been brainwashed and told that there was no way leadership would go to Western Kenya.
“You know there was that divide that leadership must stay within Mt Kenya region. So as young people, you know, we had been brainwashed that a Luo should not lead this country. And you know there is that narrative even up to now.”