Walter Martin, "Friends Visit Jomo Kenyatta at Maralal"

Introduction

On 2 June 1961, a group of British, American, and Kenyan Friends paid a visit to Jomo Kenyatta, the leader of the independence movement in Kenya in the 1950s and early 1960s. At the time, Kenyatta was being detained at the remote town of Maralal by the British colonial authorities, in what is now Samburu district.¹ He subsequently became the first President of the Republic of Kenya. The following account of that visit was written by one of the participants, Walter Martin, the Kenya representative of the Friends Service Council (FSC).

As Martin's report details, the delegation consisted of three Kenyan Friends (Thomas Lung'aho, Hezekiah Ngoya, and Samuel Mwiramu, all representatives of the East Africa Yearly Meeting of Friends), two British Friends (Martin and Allan Bradley, headmaster of Friends School, Kamusinga), and one American (Fred Reeve of the Friends Africa Mission, Kaimosi).

In 2006, Donald Thomas, a Kenyan Friend of British origin, discovered a copy of the report among his personal papers. The report has never been published in full, though a much abbreviated version appeared in The Friend, 14 July 1961. A copy is in the library of Friends House, Euston Road.² Thomas transcribed the report, his copy being in rather poor condition, on foolscap sheets that are difficult to photocopy. Originally confidential, it is here published with the kind permission of Quaker Peace and Social Witness, the successor to FSC. Donald Thomas recalls the following in connection with the events reported in Martin's account:

I have one small memory to add. I think it was towards the end of 1955 when I was stationed near Wote at Makueni as a pasture research officer, I was invited, among others, to a social gathering to meet some visiting officials. In the course of the evening I found myself talking to the head of the Prison Service by the name of Lewis. I asked him what was the future for Kenyatta and I clearly remember his reply. "He'll never see the light of day again!" As events unfolded, Lewis was sacked after the tragic killing of Mau Mau detainees at Hola detention camp and Kenyatta returned to his home at Gatundu on 14 August 1961.³

Transcript of Walter Martin's Report

Jomo Kenyatta was arrested in October 1952 and charged with the management of an unlawful society, Mau Mau.⁴ He was found guilty and sentenced to seven years imprisonment. The magistrate recommended that he should continue to be restricted after the expiration of his prison sentence. In 1959 he left prison and was sent to Lod war in the barren Northern Frontier District of Kenya, some 350 miles to the North of Nairobi, for indefinite restriction.⁵

During the electioneering of January and February 1961, the campaign for the release of Kenyatta was intensified. Africans, in spite of their division into two rival political parties, were united in their demand for Kenyatta's release. Many Asian candidates joined in this demand. In addition, most members of the European New Kenya Party expressed their willingness to work under Kenyatta on his release.

Africans were confident that Kenyatta would then be released, particularly after the holding of very peaceful elections. Many Europeans, too, were reconciled to his returning to normal life at that time. But the Governor in a blunt post-election broadcast announced that Kenyatta, the myth, barred the path to Kenya's progress; that it was necessary to reduce him to human proportions and to discover something of his present attitude and ways of thinking before his complete release. Kenyatta was to be moved to Maralal, 150 miles nearer to Nairobi and to be allowed visitors from the Government, church and press. Deadlock followed with both the major African parties refusing to participate in the Government.

It was at that time that Friends' concern to visit Kenyatta came into being. Firstly, we were deeply concerned about the political impasse and the growing bitterness among Africans at a crucial time in the history of Kenya when, with independence just around the corner, everything...