Murumbi: The only man who defied Kenyatta

What you need to know:

  • The story of Joe and Sheila Murumbi is the story of two people whose love for politics, books, arts, antiques and postage stamps remains unparalleled.
  • Kenyatta loved evening dances – and former President Moi in his own memoirs says that Kenyatta would call him at night and waste the entire evening watching traditional dancers alone while Kenyatta remained inside the State House, Nakuru.
  • He thinks he was made vice-president or to use his own words “kicked upstairs” because the Americans and the British did not like his handling of foreign policy.

It was at a dance in Mbiyu Koinange’s house in London that Joseph Murumbi, the man who would later become Kenya’s vice-president, met Sheila.

As the dance continued – and perhaps in between drinks – Murumbi inquired who the girl was and he was told that she was a librarian.

An avid book collector and a librarian too, Murumbi asked her if she could help catalogue his books and he invited her to his house. As he would later say, Sheila volunteered to do it.

“It may be a question of the spider saying to the fly, ‘come to my parlour’ but anyway she catalogued my library (600 books) and we developed a very keen friendship,” Murumbi is quoted saying in a new book, A Path not Taken: The Story of Joseph Murumbi.

The story of Joe and Sheila Murumbi is the story of two people whose love for politics, books, arts, antiques and postage stamps remains unparalleled.

But the book is not about the two. It has some few inside snippets on the political literati.

Murumbi was the man who resigned his seat as vice-president in 1966 after a few months allowing Kenyatta to appoint Daniel arap Moi.

Compiled from hitherto unpublished interviews, diaries and memoirs, Murumbi sheds more light on the Jomo Kenyatta presidency and how he could not cope with the gangsterism that was taking place.

But one interesting aspect is about Kenyatta’s fading memory in the last years of his reign and his loneliness.

He says: “I remember when I was a minister, I would come home in the afternoon for lunch and I would get a call from him. ‘Joe’, Kenyatta would say: ‘I have got something to discuss with you. What are you doing?”

Kenyatta would ask Murumbi to abandon his lunch. “Come and have lunch at State House.”

“So I would go up to State House, have lunch with him, and he would tell me, ‘Now Joe, sit down here, order any drinks you want, coffee, tea, whiskey, anything you like. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

LOVE FOR EVENING DANCES
Kenyatta would then disappear and Murumbi would be left sitting there for hours and then he’d suddenly appear.

“Oh, Joe, I forgot about you… wait a minute. I’ll see you in a few minutes”.

According to Murumbi, this would continue until half past four, the time Kenyatta would leave for his Gatundu home.

“He’d get into his car and he’d go away,” Murumbi is quoted recalling.

And this was a norm. Murumbi had come to understand Kenyatta and his fears. He was a man who wanted to have people around him.

“He (didn’t) want to discuss anything with me, but he wants you to be around. He cannot be lonely. You know he has been in, kept under solitary confinement …and the effect of that (is) he cannot bear to be alone. He must have somebody around him. And I think that is the psychology behind these dances, people with him all the time,” Murumbi explains in the newly published memoirs.

Kenyatta loved evening dances – and former President Moi in his own memoirs says that Kenyatta would call him at night and waste the entire evening watching traditional dancers alone while Kenyatta remained inside the State House, Nakuru.

At one point Murumbi says he asked Kenyatta whether he knew about corruption in his cabinet and civil service.

“Well Joe” Kenyatta said, “I know all about that… but you know, I am in a difficult position that ministers no longer tell me the truth.”

According to Murumbi, people exploited Kenyatta’s age and took advantage of him.

“The Royal Family take more advantage of him, than he realises that, but he can’t do anything.”

Murumbi also sheds some light on whether Kenyatta threatened to beat his ministers by recounting his own experience.

“He threatened to beat me one day. But I walked out of his office and banged the door and disagreed with him. And I went to my office and was just waiting for a call: ‘Joe, you are sacked.’
But it never happened, perhaps showing another side of Kenyatta. After that episode, Murumbi met Kenyatta that evening at the Parliament buildings and apologised. Kenyatta once again picked his walking stick and said: “If you do that again, I will beat you… I appreciate your coming and apologising.”

The late Joseph Murumbi (left). Murumbi was perhaps the only person who would defy Kenyatta, tell him so and get away with it. PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

DEFIANT POLITICIAN
Murumbi was perhaps the only person who would defy Kenyatta, tell him so and get away with it.

He thinks he was made vice-president or to use his own words “kicked upstairs” because the Americans and the British did not like his handling of foreign policy.

Murumbi was more of a socialist – or so he was thought.

“This is what I just surmise, I have no clear proof of that, but pressures were put on the President to get me out (of Foreign Affairs),” he says.

At one time, he defied Kenyatta’s order when he was Foreign Affairs minister.

Apparently, Kenyatta had asked him to attend a Commonwealth prime ministers conference in Lagos but when he learnt that the delegation was to be led by Finance minister James Gichuru, he refused to go. Murumbi told Kenyatta: “I am afraid I won’t go to Lagos… I never attend economic conferences, or lead the delegations to an economic conference, which I know nothing about and Gichuru knows nothing about foreign affairs.”

On the day that he was supposed to leave for Lagos, Kenyatta called Murumbi again and asked: “Joe, what time are you leaving this evening?”

He said: “Well, I told you, I’m not going.”

Kenyatta stayed quiet, according to Murumbi, and he didn’t say anything. Murumbi told Kenyatta with finality: “I am definitely not going to Lagos.”

According to him, “Gichuru went and made a mess of it, because the question of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was discussed there… and he made a statement that the Africans in Rhodesia were not ready for independence. And he denied it of course when he came back.”

Murumbi was after the Lagos episode appointed vice-president and the Foreign Affairs portfolio was taken by Kenyatta for several months until he appointed Dr Njoroge Mungai.

“Of course he (Dr Mungai) didn’t really play his part,” says Murumbi.

A HEAVY DRINKER
According to the book, Kenyatta used to drink quite heavily in 1960s and used to get worked up.

When Murumbi was asked whether some people could have taken advantage of him (the President) to ask him for permission to “finish (somebody) off” he says:

“That’s what I think really happened. I mean, in that mood, you see, after all, you must realise that people who are holding power want to hold on to power… people who are threats are eliminated, thrown out of the job, thrown into prison, tortured or killed.”

Murumbi thought that Mboya and Pio Gama Pinto may have been killed by “people who have their own interests (in the Presidency).

He also says that Mboya was receiving CIA money from a man called Irving Brown. To get even, Odinga decided to source money from Communists.

“They gave him (Odinga) all the money he wanted. I remember in London he came to us after Mzee was released and said, “Look here, Mzee, I’ve got 10,000 pounds, you must have some of it because you’ve got no money. He gave the old man about 2,000 or 3,000 pounds… nobody sneered at him because it was Communist money.”

On JM Kariuki, the murdered Nyandarua North MP, Murumbi blames his death on being a big mouth: “You see, people develop policies and tactics which put them into trouble, and Kariuki was too big-mouthed. He used to say all sorts of things, little realising that he’d upset a lot of people.

Murumbi says that even before the Limuru Conference of 1966, which brought down Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, and he was named vice-president to replace him, he had already made up his mind to leave.

While he was appointed in May, he had by July put his resignation letter.

Pinto’s murder and the deportation of Kisumu lawyer Pranlal Seth annoyed him.

“I was having lunch at State House with the President, and all the ministers were gloating over this thing that they had deported Pranlal. I said, “No, I don’t agree with any of you people.” They said: ‘He is a Communist…” I said “I don’t agree with anybody...”

An art display in the National Archives Gallery depicting African culture. It was Murumbi who started the National Archives when he was vice-president after the only archive, then secretariat, burnt down in 1930s, erasing most of Kenya’s history. PHOTO | EMMA NZIOKA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

LEGITIMATE COMPLAINTS
Then he turned to Kenyatta and asked him point blank: “Could you tell me the real reason why Pranlal was deported.”

The answer, according to Murumbi, came six months later when Kenyatta told him: “Joe, the reason we deported Pranlal was because he was the brains behind the formation of KPU (Odinga’s Kenya People’s Union).”

Murumbi was not satisfied.

“Mzee, do you realise that there are people in this country who have legitimate grievances against the government, people like Odinga and Achieng Oneko, and the people of KPU?... Whoever has given you that information, they have been wrong, the people have got a genuine grievance.”

It was Murumbi who started the National Archives when he was vice-president after the only archive, then secretariat, burnt down in 1930s, erasing most of Kenya’s history.

Murumbi had put all his money in collecting books, rare arts, papers and pictures.

He wanted to have Murumbi African Studies Centre set up in his Muthaiga House, which was purchased by the government.

It also purchased all his collection and the former VP was happy to bequeath his works to posterity.

He put some money into African Heritage, which used to sell African artifacts. It burnt down (twice).

In 1977, Joe moved to Transmara, where he built a big farmhouse.

He had hoped that one day this house too would become a research centre.

MURUMBI PARALYZED

He donated 50 acres to International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE).

During his 70th birthday, Joe said his last political words: My job as a politician was to serve Kenya and serve the people and I hope that history will respect me because I was an honest man.”

When Murumbi was paralysed — in pain with the slightest touch — Sheila never tired giving him tender care.

At that time his Muthaiga house was being grabbed and his dream of a Murumbi Centre was being destroyed. His house in Transmara has since been vandalized and is in ruins.

Murumbi died in 1990 and Sheila followed him 10 years later in 2000.

So much for a man who loved heritage.