kymnjoro
Elder Lister
Julius Mwandawiro Mghanga arrived in November 1959, somewhere in Werugha, Taita-Taveta. They say that his childhood resume included climbing the Taita Hills barefoot, tilling soil and avoiding hyenas but destiny interrupted that peace.
Starehe Boys’ Centre polished him, and unleashed him back into the world. By the time he walked into the University of Nairobi in the late 1970s, the young man had already developed an intolerance for nonsense, particularly by authoritarian governments. He joined SONU politics in 1983 and, in the spirit of Kenyan mathematics he succeeded Titus Adungosi who was himself succeeding prison walls.
From the moment he inhaled student politics, Mwandawiro declared war on anything wearing a government badge.He rejected them tribal groupings and dismantled Divide-and-rule tactics. He demanded university autonomy at a time when demanding anything could earn you three meals a day in a basement cell at Nyayo House.
And to prove that courage is sometimes just stupidity with good PR, he did not stop.Imagine Kenya in 1985 where even your shadow needed police clearance.Now imagine a student leader deciding to mock President Daniel Toroitich arap Moi live at a National Youth Service parade on university grounds.
That day was February 10, 1985. He made an extreme commitment to suffering.Earlier that week, he and fellow student leaders had been expelled. Instead of leaving, they barricaded themselves inside campus like revolutionaries with no escape plan. Students boycotted classes for a full week.
Then came the fateful parade. Moi was expected to inspect the guard of honor mounted by the Army, Navy, Air Force, and GSU. Students hated the mandatory NYS training viewing it as state-sponsored character assassination.So Mwandawiro did what no human with survival instincts would do.
He walked onto the field, straightened his shoulders And he began INSPECTING the NYS guard of honor himself before Moi could reach them.For a full 20 steps, the nation witnessed a man inspecting soldiers who were supposed to be inspected by the Commander-in-Chief. It was the closest thing we ever saw to a coup conducted with raw confidence and zero weapons.
GSU and Special Branch officers materialized from the air, they grabbed him, folded him like a bed sheet, and vanished him. Chaos followed. One student, Joseph Wandera, died; dozens were injured. His arrest was followed by a legal session....... prosecuting under Attorney General Matthew Guy Muli, charged him with sedition for “holding an illegal meeting”. In bukusu “breathing loudly in the direction of power.”
He was sentenced to one year in Kamiti.
But the state was not finished.On April 3, 1986, the intelligence services stormed Werugha and seized him again, this time accusing him of Mwakenya links. They took him to the basement suites of Nyayo House where patriotism was beaten into him using blunt objects.
His menu included, forced naked press-ups,waterlogged cells,sleep deprivation, psychological terror and enough beatings.He refused to confess. They jailed him again five years in Kamiti and Kibos.When Kenya finally spat him out alive, he escaped to Sweden. There, he rebuilt himself.Master’s degree from Stockholm University,another MSc from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and permanent residency in the international fraternity of men who survived Nyayo House without losing their sanity.
When the KANU regime collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions, he returned to Kenya. In 2002, he clinched the Wundanyi parliamentary seat on a Ford-People ticket shocking analysts.
In Parliament, he was a thorn in corruption’s backside, a nightmare for land grabbers, and a migraine for hypocrites. After losing his seat, he reorganized his political machinery and became leader of the Communist Party of Kenya
In 2016, history blinked and apologized. The High Court awarded him Ksh 10 million for Nyayo House torture. A small refund for a life nearly broken.
Then in 2022, he triggered ideological earthquakes by aligning the Communist Party with Kenya Kwanza sparking a factional war where comrades accused each other of ideological betrayal using long English and short tempers
Today, Mwandawiro Mghanga stands as a monument to Kenya’s troubled political evolution a man who inspected a presidential guard of honor without permission, endured torture without breaking, fled into exile without surrendering, returned home without fear, and continued fighting for justice long after his body had earned retirement.
Starehe Boys’ Centre polished him, and unleashed him back into the world. By the time he walked into the University of Nairobi in the late 1970s, the young man had already developed an intolerance for nonsense, particularly by authoritarian governments. He joined SONU politics in 1983 and, in the spirit of Kenyan mathematics he succeeded Titus Adungosi who was himself succeeding prison walls.
From the moment he inhaled student politics, Mwandawiro declared war on anything wearing a government badge.He rejected them tribal groupings and dismantled Divide-and-rule tactics. He demanded university autonomy at a time when demanding anything could earn you three meals a day in a basement cell at Nyayo House.
And to prove that courage is sometimes just stupidity with good PR, he did not stop.Imagine Kenya in 1985 where even your shadow needed police clearance.Now imagine a student leader deciding to mock President Daniel Toroitich arap Moi live at a National Youth Service parade on university grounds.
That day was February 10, 1985. He made an extreme commitment to suffering.Earlier that week, he and fellow student leaders had been expelled. Instead of leaving, they barricaded themselves inside campus like revolutionaries with no escape plan. Students boycotted classes for a full week.
Then came the fateful parade. Moi was expected to inspect the guard of honor mounted by the Army, Navy, Air Force, and GSU. Students hated the mandatory NYS training viewing it as state-sponsored character assassination.So Mwandawiro did what no human with survival instincts would do.
He walked onto the field, straightened his shoulders And he began INSPECTING the NYS guard of honor himself before Moi could reach them.For a full 20 steps, the nation witnessed a man inspecting soldiers who were supposed to be inspected by the Commander-in-Chief. It was the closest thing we ever saw to a coup conducted with raw confidence and zero weapons.
GSU and Special Branch officers materialized from the air, they grabbed him, folded him like a bed sheet, and vanished him. Chaos followed. One student, Joseph Wandera, died; dozens were injured. His arrest was followed by a legal session....... prosecuting under Attorney General Matthew Guy Muli, charged him with sedition for “holding an illegal meeting”. In bukusu “breathing loudly in the direction of power.”
He was sentenced to one year in Kamiti.
But the state was not finished.On April 3, 1986, the intelligence services stormed Werugha and seized him again, this time accusing him of Mwakenya links. They took him to the basement suites of Nyayo House where patriotism was beaten into him using blunt objects.
His menu included, forced naked press-ups,waterlogged cells,sleep deprivation, psychological terror and enough beatings.He refused to confess. They jailed him again five years in Kamiti and Kibos.When Kenya finally spat him out alive, he escaped to Sweden. There, he rebuilt himself.Master’s degree from Stockholm University,another MSc from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and permanent residency in the international fraternity of men who survived Nyayo House without losing their sanity.
When the KANU regime collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions, he returned to Kenya. In 2002, he clinched the Wundanyi parliamentary seat on a Ford-People ticket shocking analysts.
In Parliament, he was a thorn in corruption’s backside, a nightmare for land grabbers, and a migraine for hypocrites. After losing his seat, he reorganized his political machinery and became leader of the Communist Party of Kenya
In 2016, history blinked and apologized. The High Court awarded him Ksh 10 million for Nyayo House torture. A small refund for a life nearly broken.
Then in 2022, he triggered ideological earthquakes by aligning the Communist Party with Kenya Kwanza sparking a factional war where comrades accused each other of ideological betrayal using long English and short tempers
Today, Mwandawiro Mghanga stands as a monument to Kenya’s troubled political evolution a man who inspected a presidential guard of honor without permission, endured torture without breaking, fled into exile without surrendering, returned home without fear, and continued fighting for justice long after his body had earned retirement.
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