After Ronald Ngala, coast is still clear
The late Ronald Ngala.
By John Kamau
What you need to know:
- Being a dominant figure in the Lancaster conferences, few expected Ronald Ngala to fade away so fast.
- Coast region remains up for grabs as the likes of Kingi and Joho lack the drive for a national presence.
It’s safe to say that Ronald Ngala was the only national leader from the Coast. His statue, at the Ronald Ngala Street in Nairobi, hails him as “Baba Majimbo”.
But like the Majimbo he propagated fervently, Ngala faded with it before his premature death in 1972 following a road accident.
Ngala had a place in Kenya’s history after he mobilised the Mijikenda in supporting the integration of the coastal strip, then a protectorate, into Kenya proper at a time when some Coast inhabitants were rooting for autonomy or association with Zanzibar.
For that, and being a dominant figure in the Lancaster conferences, few expected Ngala to fade away so fast.
The late former Local Government Minister Karisa Maitha.
Quietly, the British loved Ngala. They did not have positive feelings on Moi and diplomatic notes they exchanged indicate their low regard for him.
Among Moi’s weaknesses, as High Commissioner Eric Norris pointed out to the Secretary of State was ‘his precarious hold on the loyalties of his own people (the Kalenjin), his incompetence as an administrator, and his intellectual shortcomings’.
The other what Timothy Bellers of the East African Division called Moi’s ‘widely suspect judgement. His ineptitude, his apparent craving for popularity at any price, and his habit of acting without thinking through the consequences.’
After the resignation of Joseph Murumbi as vice president in November 1966, some British officials, including the High Commissioner, thought that Ngala would take the seat.
But Kenyatta played the politics of numbers and went for Moi, who commanded a following among the Rift Valley communities enraged by the continued settlement of Kikuyu in vacated European farms. The Coast politician was short changed.
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Moi and Ngala had been friends since the former accommodated Moi in his Pumwani house as Moi awaited being sworn in as a legislator in October 1955.
The two would later be together at the Legco and team up to form Kadu after Ngala and Moi turned down offers to be treasurer and vice treasurer of Kanu respectively after its formation.
Though Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was part of the group that was wooing Ngala and Moi towards Kanu, it appears he had had little regard for both after that.
He says they were “influenced by the missions, overawed by settler power and making a slow adjustment to political trends and the need to make independent judgments”.
It is these “slow adjustments” that saw Ngala retreat to the Coast and form the Coast African People’s Union as fear of Kanu’s domination emerged.
Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala.
Six months later, Kadu was formed, and Ngala, then 37, was named its leader, at the prodding of settlers. Moi became the chairman of the party’s all-union conference.
It was at the Lancaster conference where the nature of Ngala’s Kadu politics emerged. He was negotiating the Lancaster Constitution by threatening to partition the country – a matter that irked Jomo, who was adamant about a nation-state.
The collapse of Kadu after the 1964 “handshake” marked the end of Ronald Ngala as a national politician. For a man whom the colonial governor had asked to form the first African-led government after the 1961 stalemate over Kenyatta’s release, Ngala saw his star dim.
The handshake not only saw all the opposition legislators join Kenyatta’s Kanu in the guise of national unity but also saw Ngala lose control of Kadu parliamentarians. It was a first in Kenya’s politics and a tragedy for Coast politics which now lacked a spokesperson.
Interestingly, as Ngala was eclipsed, Taita-Taveta’s Dawson Mwanyumba, the only Coast politician in Kenyatta’s independence Cabinet, did not make a national mark.
The fact that he lost his seat in 1969 (he was Minister for Public Works, Communications and Power) speaks volumes of his grassroots support.
Mwanyumba lost his seat to Juxon Madoka Shako, who was appointed Minister for Tourism and Wildlife.
Though Mwanyumba regained the seat in 1974, he never returned to the Cabinet. With the dissolution of Kadu, Ngala was appointed the chairman of Maize Marketing Board, and had to wait until 1966 to enter Kenyatta’s Cabinet as Minister of Cooperatives and Social Services. By this time, his authority was diminished.
In March 1969, Ngala lost control of Kanu’s Mombasa branch as part of an attempt to weaken Tom Mboya, the most influential figure within the party.
Gender Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa.
Though he won his parliamentary seat and was appointed Minister for Public Works, Communications, and Power (previously held by Mwanyumba), the rise of Moi as the vice-president sealed Ngala’s fate of ever becoming Kenyatta’s assistant.
His death in 1972, aged 49, was a blow to coast politics and neither his son Noah Katana Ngala could retain his national brand. The other personality who had a chance to rise was Robert Matano.
Following the assassination of Tom Mboya in 1969, Kenyatta picked Matano to become the acting Kanu Secretary-General. Critics say that he was picked because he was “unambitious”; by then, Kanu was moribund, and its leaders were frightened of holding national elections.
Matano, like a marionette, was controlled by Gema mandarins in the Kenyatta circles and had to call off the party elections he had organised in 1977.
With the death of Kenyatta in 1978, Moi had only Matano and Shariff Nassir, representing the Arab communities, to his side as senior politicians from the Coast.
Nassir was among the first politicians to counter the 1977 anti-Moi campaign framed as Change-the-Constitution Movement.
Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir.
He dismissed those opposed to Moi as “daydreaming, greedy, jealous people”. But even with a Moi presidency, Nassir restricted his politics to Coast Province - and especially Mombasa, where he was Kanu chairman.
For a long time, he as an assistant minister. Another figure was Trade Unionist Juma Boy, who was Cotu Secretary-General and was the most stable of the Coast politicians.
However, the former Kwale MP died in 1983 at a time when he had been fighting with Shariff Nassir over the control of the powerful Dockworkers Union, the breeding ground for radical politicians. The death of Juma Boy created space for Nassir to shine, and he did it with gusto.
At the Cabinet level was Eliud Mwamunga (sacked as Cabinet Minister in 1988) who was a moderate figure.
The radicals from the region were Chibule wa Tsuma and Mashengu wa Mwachofi. While Tsuma and Mwachofi were leftists, they would lose their seats to the Kanu machinery.
In 1992, Chibule became the first coast politician to run for presidency but managed a paltry 10, 221 votes an indicator of the lukewarm reception of locals into national politics.
Of importance is that Mwachofi and Tsuma were among the MPs who were christened “Seven Bearded Sisters” by Charles Njonjo in reference to their Marxist approach.
The others in that grouping included Abuya Abuya (Kitutu East), Onyango Midika (Nyando), Mashengu wa Mwachofi (Wundanyi), James Orengo (Ugenya), Lawrence Sifuna (Bumula), Chibule wa Tsuma (Kaloleni) and Koigi wa Wamwere (Nakuru North).
The others were George Anyona, Chelagat Mutai and Wasike Ndobi. Most of these had their political careers stymied by detentions, exile, arrests, and harassment.
With the emergence of multi-party politics, the coast province was a divided house between the opposition and the ruling Kanu.
ODM Deputy party leader Hassan Joho (centre) with Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir (right) and Mvita MP Mohamed Machele during the launch of the Governor's Scholarship Programme at the Tononoka Hall in Mombasa on February 13, 2024.
Nassir had emerged as a powerbroker and had to contend with the likes of Karisa Maitha, who emerged during the fall of Charles Njonjo, in the battle for supremacy.
None of them managed to rise beyond the Coast even though Maitha had become a notable ally of President Kibaki.
In recent times, personalities such as Ali Hassan Joho and Najib Balala have played their politics at the national level but failed to galvanise any grassroots support.
Speaker of the Senate Amason Kingi speaks during the burial of Michael Maigo, father to Nyandarua Senator John Methu in Njabini on January 4, 2024.
Without any strong personality and a united power base, the coastal region, over the years, has been unable to bring forth a powerful personality to national leadership.
Other interests have continually thwarted attempts to rally the Coast.
Today Amason Kingi, the Speaker of the Senate, and Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa lack the drive for a national presence.
As such, the coastal region is still an open space, loved by national politicians as the place to harvest votes while relying on fly-by-the-night politicos. It is the votes fishing ground.
