Chelagat is true Kenyan heroine who embodied spirit of a fighter

Koigi wamwere

NAIROBI, KENYA: Chelagat Mutai was a true heroine of Kenya, in the same class with J.M. Kariuki, Bishop Alexander Muge, Mary Nyanjiru, Mekatilili wa Menza and others.

I regard her a heroine because when Kenya called upon patriots to protect her against one party dictatorship, Chelagat did not hesitate to take up a spear and a shield, and jump into the battlefield to fight.

Although Kenyans don’t seem to have acknowledged her deeds, I attest to her heroic status because at least for three years, I was with her in the trenches of Parliament fighting to democratise Kenya from a very cruel dictatorship.

Questioning Kanu dictatorship when one was miles away was more difficult than questioning President Uhuru in Parliament today. It called for suicidal courage and sacrifice. 

Chelagat fought for Kenya as a nationalist, a champion of the small man and a patriot and not as a woman. At the time we were battling one-party dictatorships of former Presidents Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi, no other woman in Parliament fought as she did. Outside Parliament, I would say her only equal would probably be Prof Micere Mugo.

While other women MPs like Edda Gacukia, Phoebe Asiyo and Grace Onyango seemed cautious for fear of rubbing the Government the wrong way, Chelagat seemed happy to take on dictatorship irrespective of consequences.

Bearded sisters

Indeed, Chelagat was the only female MP in our group of the so-called “Seven Bearded Sisters” that were neither seven, bearded nor sisters.

The only thing we were was, “Rebels against Dictatorship.” At any time, our number may have varied but names remained constant; Abuya Abuya, Mwashengu wa Mwachofi, Koigi wa Wamwere, Wasike Ndombi, Lawrence Sifuna, James Orengo, Chibule wa Tsuma, Chalagat Mutai and Onyango Midika.

Under Kenyatta, Chelagat fought closely with George Anyona and Jean-Marie Seroney. For defending the land rights of common people in her constituency, she was arrested and jailed for a fabricated crime of uprooting sisal.

A compliant magistrate would then send her to Langata Prison where she served her sentence.

As she served the sentence, Anyona was carted away to detention in Manyani and Shimo La Tewa Maximum Prisons. As for Seroney and myself, we would be detained in 1975 and stay in detention until Kenyatta died in 1978.

The purpose of jailing Chelagat was not that she was a criminal. Chelagat was jailed to break her indomitable spirit. But as the Government would learn, when Chelagat was re-elected in 1979, she joined the group of ‘Seven Bearded Sisters’ and continued the fight for democracy from where she left off.

Undiminished by her own incarceration and that of her close ally Anyona, Chelagat fought corruption with enormous courage. She particularly championed a debate on maize that had gone missing under Jeremiah Nyaga, then Minister for Agriculture. When Kenya became a de jure one party State, we mourned the last straw that broke the back of democracy together with Chelagat.

second detention

After the attempted coup by Kenya Air Force that came right in the heels of legalising the one party State with the insertion of Section 2A in the Constitution, I was detained and taken to Manyani Maximum Security Prison to serve my second detention.

Chelagat and other bearded sisters were left behind but the now legally empowered State would not rest until the group was silenced and completely dispersed.

Aware that Moi’s one-party state was plotting to put other members of the group behind bars, Chelagat and Senator James Orengo took flight into exile. Later, Orengo would be illegally returned to Kenya and jailed in Naivasha prison.

Chelagat’s fight for democracy was heroic because, as a graduate of the University of Nairobi, she really didn’t have to risk her comfort fighting for democracy and the downtrodden of Kenya. She could have gotten a good job with a good salary and led a comfortable life thereafter.

But she was one of the few selfless souls in Kenya that fight for all to live better. Even in Parliament, she could have chosen to side with Government. Instead, she chose to fight for others at great cost to herself.

Chelagat’s contribution was also spectacular because she knew while her community may have applauded her struggle with Anyona against the regime of Kenyatta, criticising the Kanu government isolated her from the people. The author knows this because his community would applaud him when he said no to the tyranny of Kanu and vote him out for criticising Kenyatta, Kibaki or Uhuru.

Tragically, Chelagat Mutai has died in absolute need and poverty, neglected by the same Kenya she fought so hard for.

Fare thee well my sister.