Kimani Waiyaki.
On March 9, 1962, during the second Lancaster Conference, Jaramogi Oginga held a secret meeting with top Soviet diplomats in London to request for funds that would enable him and Kenyatta to organise KANU against the rival KADU and to counter another faction within KANU allied to Tom Mboya.
The Russians had convinced Odinga that a meeting at the Soviet Embassy in Kensington would be safe, especially after the British installed listening devices in a private residence they had used for their previous meeting. But they were wrong. The British intelligence still managed to slip through the doors of the well secured diplomatic building and installed covert listening and bugging devices.
The late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. Commonly known as the doyen of Kenyan opposition politics.
A declassified record of the secret conversation reveals that apart from the discussion on funds, the Soviet diplomats also had another issue they wanted to raise with Odinga, who was their point man in East Africa. They were having problems with so many people who were turning up at the embassy to ask for funds claiming they had been sent by Kenyatta who was staying at Cumberland Hotel during the conference.
They mentioned a young man who had visited the embassy with a letter signed by Kenyatta asking for £5,000. This young man was Lewis Kimani Waiyaki, Nairobi’s first African Town Clerk who died two weeks ago on March 3, 2025. By then he was a 34-year-old student studying law in London.
A descendant of chief Waiyaki wa Hinga who was buried alive for resisting British rule, before pursuing law in London Kimani Waiyaki had studied in Uganda and Durban South Africa before proceeding to America where he arrived when he was just 23 years old.
To prepare for university education, he spent a semester at Hillyer College, Hartford, Connecticut after which he proceeded to University of Pennsylvania for his BA (Social Science) then to Roosevelt University Chicago for his MA (Political science) and eventually to Goshen College Indiana.
Having come from Kenya colony where freedom and the rights of the Africans were restricted, Kimani found the American society quite open to divergent views and to a great extent, sympathetic to African causes. He used the opportunity to highlight the plight of Africans by giving talks and appearing as a panellist in nationalistic discourses.
He was a panellist when Professor Ahmed Shah Bokhari, head of the Pakistan Permanent Delegation at The United Nations gave a talk titled Nationalism in Asia and Africa during the 7th annual International Students Conference held at Bard College on April 18, 1953. Some of his nationalistic views were evident in a paper he authored around that time in which he argued that the “disparagement of African culture was one of the fundamental weaknesses of educational practice in Kenya.” When the Bible was first translated to Olulogooli, a Luhya dialect spoken by the Maragoli of Western Kenya, the first copy was presented to Kimani by the world-famous Bible translator Dr Eugene Nida during the American Bible Society 135th annual meeting in New York in 1951.
Fight injustices
Driven by the desire to fight injustices back home as the wind of Black Nationalism swept across the African continent, Waiyaki moved to London to study Law and to sit for his bar exams. In those years London served as a hub for anti-colonial activism. It was where students and anti-colonial activists from British colonies connected with the British left and other like-minded individuals. Waiyaki became part of an already thriving enclave of young Kenyan nationalists, some of them students such as Burudi Nabwera, Othigo Otieno, Kihara Mutu, JohnAkumu and Ngumbu Njururi.
In 1962, when a delegation that included Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Tom Mboya , Oginga Odinga and Ronald Ngala arrived in London for the second Lancaster Conference, Waiyaki was among the London based students and activists who met these nationalists and gave them their views on the ideal constitution. But even in such an important constitution making process, cold war intrigues were still evident.
According to previously restricted files Kenyatta had visited MI5 Headquarters at Leconfield House where the agency’s director, Sir Roger Hollis spent time advising him about communism and the dangers of associating with the Soviet Union and China. Meanwhile these two countries had cast their lots with Oginga Odinga as their point man in East Africa, channelling scholarships and money through him.
Kenyatta was still not stable financially having just come out of detention, and was relying on Odinga for financial support. During the conference, both the Chinese and the Soviet were secretly trying to woo him through Odinga in the hope that he would take care of their interests if he became the leader of Kenya. Kenyatta, fearing that flirting with these Eastern powers could jeopardise his chances of leading Kenya especially after the MI5 Director warned him, left it upon Odinga to continue dealing with them, but secretly benefited from what Odinga was given. They especially wanted to raise money to counter internal opposition within KANU and for their campaign against KADU. Consequently during the conference Odinga held a series of meetings with Russian and Chinese diplomats to request £500,000 . He argued that within KANU they were facing Western-funded rivals led by Mboya who he claimed had received $57,000 from the Americans.
The first meeting with the Soviet diplomats took place at a private residence on March 7, 1962, during which the Russians sought to know the progress of the constitutional conference and whether Kenyatta was leaning towards the West or East. After this meeting the Soviet realised that building had been bugged and decided to hold the next meeting at the Russian Embassy in Kensington on March 9, 1962.
But even in such a well secured building, British intelligence officers still managed to sneak in bugging devices. Present at this meeting apart from Odinga were Mr Aleksandr Ramanov, the Counsellor at the Soviet Union Embassy and Anatolij Gorshenov, the Embassy’s first secretary. They were joined by another Soviet official who spoke English well. Before the meeting the officials made it known to Odinga that the Soviet Embassy was a much safer place for such a meeting because “although the British authorities might well get to know that Odinga had been at the Embassy they could not know what transpired.”
In the course of the conversation, Ramanov mentioned the difficulties they were having to differentiate the many requests for financial assistance they were receiving from Kenyans who were invoking the name of Kenyatta. Romanov gave the example of a young man who had arrived at the Embassy claiming Kenyatta had sent him to collect £5,000. At the beginning of the conversation which wasn’t really clear Ramanov told Odinga how some boys had come to the Embassy with a letter from Kenyatta asking for money.
At first Odinga responded, “You know these British agents and also these boys hungry for money will come like that because of propaganda which the British maintain everywhere. They have been all around everywhere.” One of the Russian diplomats interrupted, “You must understand that we must be very careful in this ………we know you only but nobody else, and we can’t accept any other request.” Odinga continually burst in with “Yes, yes”. Another Russian possibly Ramanov then told Odinga that he would give him one name of the boys who had visited the embassy. When he mentioned Kimani Waiyaki, Odinga responded, “Ah Ah , I know the boy, he is studying here as a barrister, but hasn’t finished yet.”
Former President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
The Russian continued in broken English, “He “Vayakian” (Waiyaki) had come to us and said that Jomo Kenyatta had asked him to come, and wanted help immediately for £5,000, and he said that only don’t tell Odinga about this.” Odinga on hearing this roared with laughter, before the Russian interrupted again, “No the boy wanted money for himself.”Odinga agreed before asking “What’s wrong with that?” The subsequent remarks were not really clear as Odinga and the Russians spoke at once. But later Odinga was recorded saying, “Of course you know this –eh- this –eh- British. They also have got their followers, students who are spies of the British.” One Russian said something inaudible to which Odinga agreed saying, “I know that in all these things Jomo Kenyatta will not do anything without consulting to (sic) me.”
Further education
In summary, Odinga’s point was that such approaches were irresponsible and that some of those concerned were most likely students serving as British spies. Ramanov, the Soviet Embassy Counsellor, assured Odinga, the Embassy would deal with no other Kenyan other than himself. On the same token, Odinga assured the diplomat that Kenyatta was content with him handling all the funds and assistance coming from behind the Iron Curtain, and that he would never authorise anyone such as Waiyaki to make an independent approach. There were also discussions on Odinga’s son Oburu Oginga who was heading to Moscow for further education.
An MI5 officer who analysed the bugged conversation and noted the frequent mentioning of Kimani Waiyaki sent a transcript to MI5 liaison officers in Uganda and Kenya, and attached a note stating , “The Kimani Waiyaki mentioned therein is identical with Lewis Wilkinson Kimani Waiyaki, the subject of your SF.50/2/1/2(612) of 29th March,1954. Having formally studied in the USA, he is now reading for the Bar here and at the December 1961 Bar finals , he was deferred in one subject.”
The question that was left unanswered was whether Waiyaki was acting for himself or was sent by Kenyatta. Odinga although telling the Soviet that he really doubted whether Kenyatta could send someone to collect money without his knowledge, had in another recorded conversation complained to a friend that he believed that Kenyatta and some of his followers were trying to develop separate secret channels to secure aid from the Chinese and the Soviet, to no success.
Nevertheless, in that same year with internal self-governance in sight, after the Lancaster House Conference, Kimani made his way back to Kenya where he was appointed as an Assistant Legal Secretary in the East African Common Service Organisation (EACSO)in October 1962. The organisation had been founded the previous year , 1961, to administer common services such as transportation, communication and university education. The EACSO charter was also to create a common court of appeal, a common currency and a common parliament. However because of conflicting political and economic policies among members states , the organisation collapsed in 1965, and was replaced by the East African Community which was founded in 1967.
By this time Kimani had already left the organisation and joined the Nairobi City Council as Town Clerk on May 1, 1964, on probationary terms pending his confirmation. But in just three months , the relations between him and the council led by Mayor Charles Rubia were already strained. It was just an extension of the battle in KANU where he was allied to the Odinga faction while Rubia was allied to the Mboya/Kenyatta faction. The situation was so bad that when the City Council convened in January 1965, to discuss the question of Waiyaki’s confirmation as Town Clerk, Lawrence Sagini the then Minister for Local Government intervened and asked the council to postpone the discussion.
Confirmation vote
When the council reconvened in April 1965, the vast majority of members voted for the non-confirmation of Waiyaki as Town Clerk and the termination of his appointment on allegation that he didn’t have administrative experience.
Kimani Waiyaki.
This triggered a heated debate in parliament with members demanding an answer from Sagini. Ngala Abok the Member of Parliament for Homa Bay accused Mayor Rubia of undermining Kimani Waiyaki stating “It was the question of the mayor undermining him with his colleagues.” Minister Sagini who appeared to be siding with the council’s decision, told parliament that from the onset the ministry didn’t want the appointment of Kimani as town clerk. ”He has good degrees, a BA and a degree in law, but the snag then was administrative experience,” the minister said. “What are the essential prerequisite qualifications needed for a person to be appointed town clerk? Is it administrative experience or some form of technical qualification, which Mr Waiyaki did in fact have?,” asked Arthur Ochwada while Masinde Muliro asked, “Since the minister has proved that Mr Waiyaki had no previous experience would it be in order if Mr Waiyaki could be allowed to continue in the job so that he could catch as a form of training?”
The truth was that Kimani Waiyaki’s goose was already cooked just like most of Odinga’s allies who were being purged from public service as cold war intrigues and the battle of ambitions raged in KANU. The following year Odinga resigned from the government and among those who left with him to form the new party KPU was Kimani Waiyaki who became the administrative secretary of the new party. As the government moved to contain Odinga and other KPU officials among those targeted was Kimani Waiyaki who was accused of using his businesses and contacts in Uganda to fund Odinga’s activities.
In March 1968, the Special Branch working with their Ugandan counterparts raided Waiyaki’s residence in Kampala where he operated a series of successful businesses among them a bar and a restaurant. He was driven to Kenya where he was tortured and detained for nine months in inhumane conditions without trial. A
As Kimani Waiyaki later revealed when he was released on December 19, 1968, he was invited to State House where Kenyatta while feigning ignorance asked Attorney General Charles Njonjo why he had detained him, but Njonjo had no reason. “From the time I joined KPU Mr Njonjo threatened to finish me for being a traitor,” Waiyaki would later recall. In 2015, he moved to court to seek compensation for wrongful detention and the loss of his businesses.
The writer is a London-based Kenyan researcher and journalist
