Reflections on Kenya - A Prison Notebook: Intergenerational Inheritance of Social Struggles in Kenya

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/groudevepanacrit.5.2.0004
• Published date: 28 August 2022
• Date: 28 August 2022
• Pages: 11-13
• Author: Gacheke Gachihi
• Subject Matter: Kenya,Maina wa Kinyatti,social struggle,Mwakenya,Moi regime

Groundings: Development, Pan-Africanism, and Critical Theory

11DOI: 10.13169/groudevepanacrit.5.2.0004

Reecons on Kenya - A Prison Notebook:

Intergeneraonal Inheritance of Social Struggles in

Kenya

Gacheke Gachihi

Mathare Social J ustice Centre (MSJC) a nd the Social Justice Ce ntres Working Grou p Steering Committ ee

Abstract: “June 9th 1982 After refusing to sign a written confession statement, I was given back my

clothes, blindfolded, handcued and taken to the CID headquarters where I was physically abused,

photographed, ngerprinted and charged with possession of a seditious publications entitled Moi’s Divisive

Tactics Exposed, a document the Police had planted in one of my research les.” Prof. Maina Wa Kinyatti.

25 Years ago, Professor Maina Wa Kinyatti wrote Kenya: A Prison Notebook, borrowing from

the narrative of great revolutionary and organic intellectual Antonio Gramsci, a political prisoner

during the fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini in Italy during a period when Europe was

undergoing a capitalist-imperialist crisis of fascism.

Comrade Maina Wa Kinyatti, a revolutionary and freedom ghter, spent 6 years in Prison

primarily for writing Kenya’s correct history and for being a member of the Mwakenya –DTM

movement that fought for democracy and social justice in Kenya during the Kenyatta–Moi

dictatorships. In blood and tears, he wrote one of the most beautiful and glorious chapters of the

history of our resistance as a people - a history of constant struggle in defense of democracy and

our collective memory, dignity and social justice. Published 25 years ago, Kenya: A Prison Notebook

remains relevant and continues to inspire new generations of freedom ghters, students, peasants

and social justice activists. It has sparked a re-imagination of political education and provided the

social justice movement with great insights into the true history of resistance in Kenya, including

lessons learnt during the struggles of Kenya’s underground Movement, popularly known as

Mwakenya.

It was in 2003 when, through Tirop Kitur, I got a copy of Kenya: A Prison Notebook from the

then Release Political Prisoners (RPP) oces along Nairobi’s historic Cabral Street. RPP was a

political organization started by mothers of political prisoners and Kenyan exiled communities in

London agitating for democracy and release of all political prisoners in Kenya. Comrade Tirop

had been one of the Mwakenya detainees and was a political activist alongside Karimi Nduthu -

rst RPP coordinator, great revolutionary and urban guerrilla assassinated by the Moi regime in

1996. Karimi Nduthu was at the time of his assassination creating a political path for the mass

movement anchored on the struggles and human rights work that RPP was engaged in. Indeed,

the seeds for today’s grassroots social movements emerged from the struggles of RPP and the