Rev Njoya set to launch his memoirs

By Mbugua Ngunjiri

The Kenyan literary scene is set to be enriched by the launch, sometimes in October, of Rev Timothy Njoya’s autobiography, curiously titled We the People.

Rev Njoya is a well-known outspoken critic of the Moi government, whose hard-hitting sermons earned him the wrath of the day’s government.

The book, published by WordAlive Publishers, will seek to lift the lid on the scenes behind the struggle for multiparty democracy in the 1990s, at least from the perspective of Rev Njoya.

The most enduring image of Rev Timothy Njoya is that of a man in priestly garments lying helplessly on the ground, trying to shield himself from vicious blows by government hoodlums.

This was in the days when the fight for political reforms in Kenya was at its peak.

Njoya was the man who had the unenviable reputation of being fought both by the State he criticised and the Church he served.

Just as his fights with the State were well publicised, so were the tribulations he underwent in the hands of his own church, the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA).

PCEA, at one time defrocked the outspoken Njoya, only to later reinstate him.

It is expected that the book will shed some light on some of unknown happenings that led to his eventual defrocking and subsequent reinstatement.

And since he was involved in a tussle with the church it is also possible that the author will address touchy subject of rot in the institution.

We the People is the latest in a list of memoirs of prominent Kenyan individuals that have been published in the recent past.

Early this month Mvule Publishers launched Dr Betty Gikonyo’s autobiography The Girl who dared to Dream. Many more are on the way.