An important exhibition re-opened at the National Museums of Kenya on Museum Hill, Nairobi, on the life and achievements of the great freedom fighter Pio Gama Pinto.
It is open for the next two months. In his speech, Dr Frederick Manthi, Director of Antiquities and Monuments, noted the wide range of photographs not usually seen, with fresh national and international assessments of Pinto's role.
In one of several excellent speeches given, Davinder Lamba, the designer together with his wife Diana Lee-Smith of the Mau Mau Memorial at Uhuru Park in Nairobi, gave witness to Pio Gama Pinto's funeral. Lamba was present at City Park Cemetery on February 25th 1965. In a moving reminiscence, Lamba recalled the day and distress among mourners and himself.
When we think of Pio Gama Pinto, Bildad Kaggia and all the others, we usually think of them as freedom fighters in the struggle to December 12th 1963. Beyond that they were also freedom fighters for the future of a free Kenya. This is what Pio Gama Pinto himself wrote on December 12th 1963:
"The sacrifices of the hundreds of thousands of Kenya's freedom fighters must be honoured by effective implementation of Kanu's policy - a democratic, African, socialist state in which the people have the right, in the words of the Kanu election manifesto, 'to be free from economic exploitation and social inequality.'"
These are constitutional expectations set out in terms of rights, and political, economic and social equality. These 'hundreds of thousands' did not fight only for ouster of the colonialist occupiers. They fought for a free Kenya whose programme they set out in the Kanu May 1963 manifesto. That manifesto was our future - a society free of oppression, hunger, ignorance and landlessness.
Our Constitution acknowledges this and honours them for both. The Preamble says: "WE, the people of Kenya - ACKNOWLEDGING the supremacy of the Almighty God of all creation; HONOURING those who heroically struggled to bring freedom and justice to our land; ... ADOPT, ENACT and give this Constitution to ourselves and to our future generations. GOD BLESS KENYA."
Their struggle and the 1963 manifesto would bring into visible reality - justice, dignity, equality, equity, tolerance, good health, education to every child. Are these not the very goals of today's Constitution?
Our 2010 Constitution does not only set out the political and social goals of the freedom fighters, but also the values which the Independence struggle embodied.
I quote Article 10 which states the national values: "patriotism, national unity, sharing and devolution of power, the rule of law, the participation of the people, human dignity, equity, social justice, inclusiveness, equality, human rights, non-discrimination, protection of the marginalised, good governance, integrity, transparency, accountability and sustainable development."
The aim of the freedom fighters was a united and cohesive Kenya; this and how it was to be achieved, were subjects of consideration by them even in the forest: see Karari Njama, himself a freedom fighter, in Mau Mau From Within (page 335). Here is another: "Prisoners organised discussions about the purpose of the independence struggle and what they wanted for future independent Kenya. Pio took notes of what his colleagues were saying, so that there would be a record of the heroic struggle.
These notes were secretly smuggled out of the camp whenever one of the prisoners was released. Achieng Oneko remembered, 'We felt proud of our activities and had great hopes for the future.'" (Pio Gama Pinto: Patriot for Social Justice (page 29).
This is not coincidence. It is shared values handed down. This is why we have to acknowledge that the first architects of our Constitution were our freedom fighters, from Waiyaki to Pinto, Kaggia, Muinga Chokwe, JD Kali and many others.
It is also unfinished business. For us. This is why we have to continue the struggle for the values, rights and protections in the Constitution. And also why we must use the tools the Constitution has provided and which are protected - rights peaceably and unarmed to demonstrate in maandamano.
The past is also proof the manifesto of the people has never changed over the last hundred years, and why therefore even today the Manifesto of the people is the Constitution.
-The writer is a senior counsel
