The people’s watchman who fought for the poor

By LUKE ANAMI

KENYA: Kenya’s history would be incomplete without mentioning former Butere Member of Parliament Joseph Martin Shikuku popularly known as ‘People’s Watchman’.

Born on Christmas day in 1933 near Lake Magadi in the former Rift Valley Province, Shikuku who passed away last year, will be remembered as one of the few patriotic Kenyans to have participated in the second Lancaster Conference in London to draft Kenya’s first Constitution.

At 28, he was the youngest member of the Kenyan delegation to Lancaster House talks, which paved way to independence.

He is best immortalised for his firm grasp of parliamentary structure and operations, not forgetting his relentless fight for the rights of the poor since independence.

With a political career that spanned decades with numerous detentions withstanding, the late Shikuku was among the longest and most loyal politicians that Kenya has witnessed so far.

Shikuku grew up in Magadi Soda Mining Company where his parents worked.

His parents got concerned about quality education and sent him to Mumias Secondary School. Thereafter, he joined St.Peters Seminary in Mukumu, present day Kakamega County. He missed priesthood by a whisker before venturing into politics.

Shikuku first joined politics in 1959 when he joined the Nairobi Peoples Conventional (NRP) party and soon climbed the ranks to become its secretary general.

He later moved to KADU, the then major opposition party.

At KADU, he became the youth leader of the party where he met some of the politicians who would later shape the history of Kenya. KADU included big wigs such as former President Daniel Moi, Ronald Ngala, Masinde Muliro among others.

Shikuku was elected the Butere Constituency MP in 1963 on KADU ticket. His party merged soon later with KANU, the only legal party during the subsequent single-party era. He was however the last member to cross the floor of the House to join the government after the merger of Kanu and Kadu.

Free at last

He retained the Butere seat in 1969 and was appointed assistant Minister in the Office of the Vice-President and Home Affairs by President Jomo Kenyatta. However, things became worse when Kenyatta detained him from 1974 to ‘78 after he sarcastically referred to the KANU government as ‘dead.’

Upon Kenyatta’s death in 1978, Shikuku was released from detention when Kenya’s second President Daniel arap Moi took over.

Shikuku recaptured the Butere parliamentary seat the next year (1979-83) and was appointed assistant Minister for Livestock Development. He retained his seat at the 1983 elections but lost in 1988 during the controversial Mlolongo system of voting which saw short queues declared winners over long queues.

Soon, cracks began to emerge in Kenya’s one single party system after the 1988 controversial elections.

Finding no room in KANU, Shikuku teamed up with Kenya’s first Vice President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga to start a process they referred to as the Second Liberation.

He is a founder member of the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD).

Kenya was a one party state until December 1991, when a special conference of the ruling KANU agreed to introduce a multiparty political system. That is when FORD was formed in August 1991 by six opposition leaders to fight for change in the country.

The six are Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Martin Shikuku, the late Masinde Muliro, Philip Gachoka, George Nzenge and Messrs Ahmed Baharmariz. They also teamed up with a group of ‘young Turks’ including Senators James Orengo, Kiraitu Murungi, lawyer Paul Muite and the late VP Kijana Wamalwa who caused KANU sleepless nights.

Moi then outlawed it, and its leaders were arrested and detained. They were released only after sustained pressure from the United Kingdom, the United States and Scandinavian countries.

Multi-party elections

However, in August 1992, FORD split into two factions - FORD-Asili led by Kenneth Matiba and Martin Shikuku while FORD-Kenya was led by Oginga Odinga.

The 1992 General Election was the first multi-party elections in Kenya since the 60s. Matiba was the Ford Asili presidential candidate, while Shikuku recaptured the Butere MP seat on Ford Asili ticket.

Matiba later left Ford Asili and in the 1997 elections, Shikuku was the party’s presidential candidate where he vied and lost his parliamentary seat.

He actively participated in the making of the current constitution. During his last days, he joined former PM Raila Odinga’s ODM party calling for the rule of law and adherence to the Constitution.

 He was a stickler of Parliament’s standing orders; a feat that earned him praise both locally and internationally.

He died on August 22, 2012 at the Texas Cancer Centre in Hurlingham, Nairobi at 79.

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga described Shikuku as a man who “fought for the birth of the Kenyan nation” while Kenya’s third President Mwai Kibaki described him as “A seasoned politician who was well versed in parliamentary procedures. He was also very sensitive to the plight of the wider public”.