All his life, the self-effacing freedom fighter never courted controversy. He dedicated his energies to resolving disputes and freeing men from shackles of colonialism, believing Kenyans of all races were born free and ought to integrate without any man-made barriers.
In this singular quest, the unsung liberation icon Jashbhai Motibhai Desai, turned his home, one of the oldest to be established in Parklands in Nairobi into a home for all.
Under his roof, hardened Mau Mau freedom fighters would sneak at night safe in the knowledge their lives and secrets were safe with the master. It is in this house that Bildad Kaggia was yanked off under Desai’s bed where he had been hiding and delivered to a colonial government that later detained him for over 10 years in Kapenguria in 1952.
Ironically, aristocrats too paid homage to Desai, and enjoyed his serene garden as their wives sipped English tea as they chitchatted about the country’s destiny.
A brief glimpse into the Desai house visitor’s book where all guests sleeping or lunching there wrote their names, dates of their visit and signatures is quite revealing. Here prime ministers and presidents and opposition chiefs from Africa, India and America squiggled their intricate signatures to chronicle their trips.
READ MORE
Court orders third survey on 666 acre land belonging to former MP
Aviation college proprietor loses bid for Sh31 million damages
Win for Kamar in Sh200 million land dispute
Marathon star seeks to block ex-husband from marital properties
Different occasions
Prime ministers Rajiv Gadhi and Indira Gadhi had on different occasions visited Desai before they rose to power and so had Jomo Kenyatta, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kenneth Kaunda and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.
Secret letters to British Members of Parliament were sneaked to the house from where they were secretly delivered to the Indian High Commission, which sent them to India in diplomatic bags for onward transmission to London, bypassing colonial officers in Nairobi.
Apologists of the colonial government too like Charles Njonjo and Jeremiah Kiereni as well as those who played both sides such as senior Chief Koinange wa Mbiyu treated the Second Avenue address as a second home. Desai’s friendship and contacts in high places can be deduced from the messages delivered by politicians when he died in 1991.
The doyen of Kenya’s opposition, the late Jaramogi told mourners that he had learnt his first lessons in politics from Desai in 1944.
“You should know that my association with Desai is from 1944 when I came to Nairobi. I was actually a teacher at Maseno and the place we were coming to was Desai Memorial Hall and then we would be taken to his house. Politics then was very vague in our minds,” he said.
According to Jaramogi, Desai “instilled into us the bravery and the heart of a person. It was only Desai and Kenyatta who understood politics then.”
During the same memorial, former President Mwai Kibaki, who was also introduced to politics in Desai’s house said, “When we came to know him (Desai), John Keen and myself, it was in 1948. I was in high school and I only came to Nairobi to meet friends and then we were introduced to Desai.”
A mermerised Kibaki had listened as Desai talked about Mathma Gadhi, and the struggle for independence and asked them, “Why are you colonised,” and at this stage, Kibaki recollected how Desai reminded them that God had created all.”
But like a doctor who cannot heal himself, Desai who acted as a bridge to collapse racial divide and prejudice could not provide an enduring cure for divisions in his family. Three decades after his death, JM Desai’s name is embroiled in controversy and his once well-manicured home at the crossroad of Kusi Lane and First Avenue Road is unkempt, chocked by weeds and bushes and deeply divided.
Had the High Court not intervened last year, the house, would have been pulled down long to replaced by a concrete jungle in the name of apartment blocks on the 1.7 acre land its built on.
An attempt to immortalise Desai and preserve his home as a monument too was thwarted through court orders and it is now just a matter of time before this piece of history is flattened and with it memories of its master’s contribution to liberation of Kenya. Shortly before he died, Desai had tried to forestall any fallout after his demise making what he thought was a solid Will where he bequeathed his sons and grandsons his home.
This he did on March 29, 1991, where he bequeathed the home built on Land Reference No.209/1916/6 to his grandchildren Dipal Pulling, Sandeep Rajni, Niranjan Jashbhai and Kevit Subash Desai.
Despite Desai’s best intentions a major row erupted in 2004, leading to a suit where some of the joint owners wanted the property sold and the proceeds shared among them.
Some opposed this suit arguing that the home held too many memories and was of sentimental value and therefore ought to be maintained as it was for future generations.
Ownership matrix
Pulling, who at the time was residing in England opposed the sale and appealed against the decision by the High Court to sell and filed her appeal on August 17, 2007 and ultimately got her wish when the sale decision was set aside.
In the course of these disputes some joint owners sold their stake consolidating and complicating the ownership matrix.
Aggrieved by these developments, Pulling went to court on on April 29, 2008 seeking a permanent injunction restraining Suchan Investment Limited, which had bought shares from Jashbhai Desai and Kevit Desai.
In her plaint dated April 29, 2008, the plaintiff pleaded that she owned the home together with her other relatives as tenants common in equal shares; some of whom had sold their birthright to the company which now wanted to tear apart the ancestral home, which had by then been gazetted as a National Monument. On November 21 last year High Court Judge S Okong’o momentarily postponed the death of Desai home when he declared that it could only be sold if all parties were in agreement since they all jointly owned it as “tenants in common.”
In his judgement Okong’o pronounced, “I declare that Land Reference No.209/1916/6 (“the suit property”) is owned by the plaintiff Pulling), the 1st defendant (Suchan Investment Company and the 2nd defendant (Sandeep) as tenants in common in undivided shares of ½ for the 1st defendant and ¼ each for the plaintiff and the 2nd defendant.”
The court further directed that in the event all the parties could not agree how to partition and allocate the property in 90 days they appoint were to appoint a registered valuer agreed upon by the three.
