KENYA: VETERAN JOURNALIST MOURNS WARURU KANJA

LEO ODERA OMOLO MOURNS THE LATE NYERI POLITICIAN WARURU KANJA

May take this opportunity to extend my heartfelt profound condolence to the family and friends of the late Nyeri fierce politician Waruru KANJA.

I Knew the late Waruru Kanja way back in 1957 when he led a group of hard-core Mau Mau detainees on Mageta Island, Bondo district, now Siaya County, who were involved in jailbreak after killing the European prison commander who was in charge of the camp.

After killing the prison boss, the group escaped MAGETA Island using a makeshift raft and swam across the Nyanza Gulf {formerly Kavirondo Gulf and landed at Ulugi, near Lihanda beach on Rusinga Island in what was then known as South Nyanza distric after swimming for more that 14 hours.

The fugitives were given shelter by the LUO Elders who gave the them accomodation and food inside hideout houses, but only after separating them in four groups. The colonial police launched an elaborate search for the jail breakers both aerially using the police air-wing and motor-boats. The search also went on into the villagers on the mainland locations of Yimbo, Sakwa and Uyoma.

The colonial authorities used motor-boats and even sent their agents to the twin fishing islands of Rusinga, but all in vain, Warurur Kanja and his friends had been issued with new clothes and were living safely in the villages.

I met the late ex-Mau Mau detainee in the 1980s while he was serving in the cabinet as a Minister and Nyeri Town MP in Parliament Building over a cup of tea, and I found his memory to be very fresh. He could easily recognize me, though many years had lapsed because in 1957 I was a young man of 18 of age. Mzee Kanja was a true nationalist and freedom fighter apart from being detribalized person and humanist

May Almighty God give his soul eternal peace.

LEO ODERA OMOLOO
veteran journalist-cum-Author

2 thoughts on “KENYA: VETERAN JOURNALIST MOURNS WARURU KANJA

  1. Richard Koech

    As you moan Waruru Kanja, another gallant fighter and good friend of ours, Mzee Barngetuny has passed on and we are surely going to miss him. I first met him in 1987 when I joined Chemelil fresh from University and he had come for Company service. When I met him in the then GM office, he called me ‘bloody hell, kwa nini ujanifanyia kazi’. In front of the GM, I felt slighted and thought of reacting negatively, but the GM assured me not to worry as that was his way of communicating. I took a sit and that was the beginning of our long association. RIP Mzee

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