Publisher: Franciscan Kolbe Press
Reviewer: Odhiambo Orlale
The life and times of Kenya’s least known Vice-President, Joseph Murumbi, is now bare and available to readers, historians and political scientists who would like to peep into the life of the ‘reluctant politician’.
Murumbi was Kenya’s second and shortest serving Vice President when he held the position from May to December, 1966, after Jaramogi Oginga Odinga in President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s first Cabinet. However he is not known for this position but is best remembered for being the continent’s greatest collector of private art, books, postage stamps, artefacts, textiles, jewelry and everything African, including 50,000 documents on Africa, many of which he acquired during the decade that he was in exile in England before Kenya attained independence in 1963.
The former Vice President later co-founded a company with his wife Sheila and Alan Donovan, The African Heritage, which became a household name and a show window for the best of African arts and crafts throughout the world. He donated 50 acres of his land in Trans Mara in Narok County to the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) for research on livestock.
In the 407-page book written by Anne Thurston and a team of researchers, the story of Kenya’s pre- and post-independence history is told through the eyes of Murumbi, whose father, Peter Zuzarte, was an Indian-Goan trader and mother a Maasai, hence the Murumbi name.
The easy-to-read book with black and white as well as coloured photographs has five chapters covering the following topics: Formation of character; Emergence of a nationalist; Independence; After politics; and other interviews.
In the foreword Dr Willy Mutunga, immediate former Chief Justice says: “Joseph Murumbi is truly legendary and an enigma. He has often been described as urbane, cosmopolitan yet humble and unassuming and down to earth. The fact that he chose to resign from the first government of Kenya after the country’s independence, so near to the pinnacle of power, even after all his hard work for this country, has always intrigued, fascinated and inspired me.”
According to Mutunga, Kenyans shall never know what kind of country they would be living in now if Murumbi had the stamina and good health to carry on with his brilliant career in government. He died in 1990 aged 89 years and was buried at the Nairobi City Park cemetery near his friend and mentor, Pio Gama Pinto.
In his eulogy, then Local Government minister, William ole Ntimama, recalled that on Murumbi’s 70th birthday, he had the following to share about his political career: “Power never interested me. I felt I was in the struggle for independence and when I was invited to become a minister, I thought there was a contribution I could make. My job as a politician was to serve Kenya and the people; I hope that history will respect me because I was an honest man.”
During the launch of the book, Dr Mutunga shared similar sentiments saying: “We know that Murumbi was appalled by what he saw as corruption and greed as well as the tribalism that emerged shortly after independence. He also witnessed many of his close friends and associates cruelly removed from power, including Pio Gama Pinto, close associate Tom Mboya, friend JM Kariuki and finally Robert Ouko, who was a promising understudy when Murumbi was foreign minister.”
Murumbi was born in Kenya in 1911 and went for his education in India. He returned to Kenya where he worked in the 1930s and also in neighbouring Somalia during Second World War Murumbi returned to Kenya a second time and became associated with the Kenya African Union (The precursor of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), where he served as its representative to Britain throughout Kenya’s emergency period in the 1950s.
Upon independence, Murumbi relocated to Kenya and was honoured by the founder of the nation by being appointed to the first Cabinet as Minister for Foreign Affairs for three years before being promoted to the coveted post of Vice President.
In his letter accepting Murumbi’s resignation on September 23, 1966, President Kenyatta said in part: “During the struggle for independence, and in the years of reconstruction since 1963, you have not spared yourself any effort which would advance the cause of our party, our country and our people. When the time to write the history of these years will come, your personal contribution will be shown to have been among the greatest.”
To Kenyatta, his deputy was: “A wise and true counsellor as well as warm and loyal friend.”
Similar sentiments were expressed in an exclusive interview in 2014 when Fitz de Souza, a long-time friend, confidante and colleague of Murumbi, when he served as Foreign Minister was interviewed by Alan Donovan.
Asked about his memories of Murumbi, de Souza said: “He was fair and just to everyone. He was not a politician but a true democrat. He worked harder than everyone else for independence for Kenya and freedom for Kenyatta. He was a mouthpiece for Kenya while in exile. He did his best to achieve what he could. Kenyatta liked him and we all appreciated that. He was straight forward honest and trustworthy, he had no tribal support. Achieng Oneko was also close to Kenyatta, Murumbi and me. I was sorry about Murumbi’s resignation and I was not pleased that he gave his job with a cigarette company as the reason for leaving. He just could not put his foot on the brakes as the corruption had already outrun him.”
Indeed, the authors of this book, have aptly used it to honor Murumbi’s memory and pass on to the future generations the compelling story of the man who chose his own path and never wavered from his ideals.
Says Mutunga: “It is my patriotic hope and prayer that this book will nurture within our country a culture of glorifying, honoring, celebrating and immortalizing our national heroes and heroines.”
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