Bildad Kaggia

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Bildad Kaggia (1922 - March 7, 2005) was a Kenyan nationalist, freedom-fighter, and politician.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Kaggia was born in 1922, at Dagoretti, where his father had moved from his home district of Murang'a.[1]

[edit] The Young Radical

After service in World War II, Kaggia returned home and joined KAU in 1947; he eventually rose to its secretaryship. He also founded, organised, and led the Clerks and Commercial Workers Union. In 1949, it amalgamated with several other unions to form the Labour Trade Union of East Africa. Kaggia would later serve as president of the general union.

Despairing of constitutional change, he joined Mau Mau and sat on its central Committee.[2] On 20th October 1952, he, along with the rest of the Kapenguria Six, was arrested in Operation Jock Scott, and charged inter alia with managing Mau Mau, and being a senior member of it. He was convicted at trial, and imprisoned until September 1961. Thereafter, he was confined to his home district. On 17 November 1961, all restrictions were lifted.

[edit] Independence and After

In the 1963 elections, he won Kandara on a KANU ticket, and so had the distinction of a seat in independent Kenya's first parliament. Kaggia also served as a minister in the Kenyatta cabinet; his denuciations of corruption marked him out as a member of KANU's radical tendency. When Kenyatta and Mboya combined to purge the KANU left, he was one of their victims, with Kenyatta making the trip to Kandara to campaign against him. He joined Odinga's KPU, but eventually retired from active politics in 1974, after failing to recapture his seat.

Kaggia was the leading Kenyan leftist of the colonial period; probably the strategic planner on Mau Mau's central committee; notably anti-racist[3]; and uncompromisingly committed to the poor.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ See p. 9 of Bildad Kaggia (1975) Roots of Freedom 1921-1963: the autobiography of Bildad Kaggia, Nairobi: East African Publishing House.
  2. ^ He admits as much on p. 116 of Kaggia 1975.
  3. ^ Kaggia made common cause with Asian workers and trade-unionists at a time when this was difficult and unpopular; after Uhuru, he strove to secure recognition of Kenyan Asians' part in the struggle for independence. See Adenekan.
  4. ^ He lived in, and campaigned for the dwellers of, one of Nairobi's biggest slums. See Adenekan.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Shola Adenekan. (25.05.2005) Guardian Obituary
  • Bildad Kaggia. (1975) Roots of Freedom 1921-1963: the autobiography of Bildad Kaggia, Nairobi: East African Publishing House.
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