Unsung hero who saved Jomo Kenyatta

The name Ambu Patel no longer rings a bell, but this is the man who gave Mzee Jomo Kenyatta a leather jacket in the 1950s, which became his trademark.

He is also the man who started regarding Mzee Kenyatta as baba.

Later, Mzee Kenyatta would order the jackets from a Nakuru-based tailor who specialised in leather outfits.

Besides the leather jacket gift, Mr Patel led a successful fundraiser and campaign for the release of Mzee Kenyatta, and remains Kenya’s unsung hero.

Although he had trained as a book-binder in both London and India, Mr Patel arrived in East Africa in 1955 aged 26 with little formal education but with deep reverence for leader Mahatma Gandhi.

It was after he took more specialised training in London that he returned to Nairobi to set up his Western Book-binders Company.

Kenya was going through political upheaval occasioned by the Mau Mau freedom struggle, and the arrest of Mzee Kenyatta and other leaders.

Mr Patel was appalled by the treatment of Africans during the state of emergency and he, together with his wife Lila, is reported to have “adopted” Mzee Kenyatta as his baba.

He remarked: “I have adopted Jomo Kenyatta as my baba, and all other Africans as my brothers and sisters”.

The businessman decided to look after Mzee Kenyatta’s eldest daughter Margaret while the politician was in jail.

Mr Patel was also a writer and known for his fierce criticism of colonialism. It was due to this that Ambubhai, as he came to be affectionately known, plunged into book publishing and political work. He wrote many articles for newspapers and drew the attention of politicians Tom Mboya, Oginga Odinga and Masinde Muliro.

Mr Patel had by this time given Margaret a job at his Nairobi office, where most of the correspondence to Mzee Kenyatta was typed for onward posting to Kapenguria Prison.

As a result, and since Margaret was Mzee Kenyatta’s contact person, Mr Patel’s office became the place where those wishing to get in touch with him went to get news about him.

This led to the formation of the ‘Release Jomo Committee’, and Mr Patel brought on board a group of Asians who include Mr V. V. Patel and Mr K. P. Shah. They started fundraising from the Shah community from 1959.

Mr Patel not only gathered signatures towards his campaign but also collected money, food, clothes and medicine to cater for those who were leaving detention camps.

He also helped in the publication of Release Kenyatta pamphlets that were distributed in Nairobi. He airmailed these circulars and pamphlets to over 100 countries, targeting “great men”, as he would later say.

The letters went with signatures of Mr Mboya, Mr Odinga and other Africans. Others were withheld at the post office.

Part of this work was supported by the Labour Party in Britain and this support saw Mr Patel publish his book Release Jomo Kenyatta. In 1963, he republished the book as Struggle for Release of Jomo Kenyatta and his Colleagues. It was published by Mr Patel’s firm, New Kenya Publishers.