Comrade Njoroge Wanguthi, a freedom hero
He spent his life struggling for democratic reforms in Kenya and suffered much for it, spending long years in prison under the Moi dictatorship. His commitment should inspire new generations of revolutionaries
The late Comrade Njoroge Wanguthi, a son of a Mau Mau member and a freedom fighter for the second liberation, was the embodiment of democratic struggles in Kenya in the last three decades. He was a cultural and political pillar of Release Political Prisoners (RPP), a grassroots political organization that was established by Mwakenya revolutionary activists and Mothers of Political prisoners at Freedom Corner, Nairobi, to demand for the release of political detainees of the Moi dictatorship in early 1980s and 1990.
Comrade Njoroge Wanguthi died on June 6, 2013 at Kenyatta National Hospital while struggling with a multiple stroke that resulted from many years of torture at Nyayo House and subsequent imprisonment in Kamiti Prison for seven years from 1986 to 1990. He was released due to pressure of the multi-party democracy movement and the Mothers who organized protests and a hunger strike at Freedom Corner. The truggle to bring a democratic state in Kenya is what Comrade Njoroge Wanguthi lived for.
After release from Kamiti, Wanguthi joined Release Political Prisoners committee where, with his comrades the late Karimi Nduthu, Tirop arap Kitur and others, he worked hard to transform RPP into a formidable grassroots movement anchored on the Mau Mau revolutionary heritage.
Councillor Wanguthi, as we called him, was also elected a representative of the people of Nyathuna Ward, in Central Kenya, from 1992-1997 with FORD-KENYA party in the first multi-party election. His decision to join a party that was led by Jaramogi Odinga, the father of democratic struggle in Kenya, at that time was the hallmark of values of patriotism and nationalist ideals in a country where ethnic political mobilization is still widely used to acquire power.
Comrade Wanguthi was frequent visitor to Jeevanjee Gardens, the political base of Bunge La Mwananchi (Peoples Parliament), to ground intellectual debates and advance political education at to help nature new cadres for grassroots movements to continue with the struggle for democratic change in Kenya. We also visited together the Mouselum of other freedom fighters such as Bildad Kaggia in 2009 in Karatina, under his leadership and Mau Mau War Veterans in Kenol Branch in Muranga.
If there was comrade who never gave apologies for his resistance to imperialism and corrupt system was it Njoroge Wanguthi.
He lived a humble life and suffered much. His death must sow seeds of a revolutionary heritage to the future generations.
On Saturday 15, June 2013 comrades and friends will gather at Gathiga Village in Kikuyu Constituency, not to mourn but to cerebrate the life in struggle of Comrade Njoroge Wanguthi and continue with the struggle inspired under RPP and sing revolutionary songs such as “Mambo ni yale yale ya ukoloni......” (Colonial oppression continues…) Aluta Continua!
* Gacheke Gachihi is a member of Release Political Prisoners and Bunge la Mwananchi (The Peoples Parliament) movement in Kenya