Bildad Kaggia

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Bildad Mwaganu Kaggia (1921 – 7 March 2005) was a Kenyan nationalist, freedom-fighter, and politician. Kaggia was a member of the Mau Mau Central Committee. After independence he became a Member of Parliament. He established himself as a militant, fiery nationalist who wanted to serve the poor and landless people. Because of this he fell out irreconcilably with Jomo Kenyatta. Kaggia remained steadfast on his political principles till his death in 2005.

Early life

Kaggia was born in 1921, at Dagoretti, now part of Nairobi, where his father had moved from his home district of Muranga District.[1] Two years later his father moved back to Murang’a. Kaggia schooled at Santamor Estate and later at the Church Missionary Society School at Kahuhia. Kaggia did very well at the exams and was selected for the famous Alliance High School. Unfortunately, his father was not able to raise the school fee and Kaggia had to take up a clerical job at the District Commissioners’ Office at Murang’a. When the Second World War broke out, Kaggia was moved to the military recruiting office. Despite hating war, Kaggia decided to join the army to seize the opportunity to travel to the Middle East. When the War Office in London decided to create a unit in Britain to rehabilitate captured African soldiers, Kaggia applied and got the post of company quarter-sergeant, the first African to get this post. Most of the work in the army was routine and boring. During the years in the army Kaggia engaged in many correspondence courses (journalism, trade unionism and political science) which later would serve him well during his political career. His experiences in the army made him aware of the evils from racial discrimination and colonialism. In his opinion the foreign religions in Kenya were a stepping stone to colonialism and his people had to be liberated from this as well.[2]

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.[3] On 20 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.

Independence and after

In the 1963 elections, he won Kandara Constituency seat 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 denunciations 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;[4] and uncompromisingly committed to the poor.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Bildad M. Kaggia, W de Leeuw and M. Kaggia (2012) The Struggle for Freedom and Justice; the life and times of the freedom fighter and politician Bildad M. Kaggia (1921-2005),1. Nairobi: Transafrica.
  2. ↑ Carl G. Rosberg and J. Nottingham, 1985 (1966), The Myth of Mau Mau, 192-193. Nairobi: Transafrica Press.
  3. ↑ He admits as much on p. 116 of Kaggia 1975.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ He lived in, and campaigned for the dwellers of, one of Nairobi's biggest slums. See Adenekan.

Bibliography

  • Shola Adenekan. (25 May 2005) Guardian Obituary
  • Bildad Kaggia. (1975) Roots of Freedom 1921–1963: the autobiography of Bildad Kaggia, Nairobi: East African Publishing House.
  • Kaggia, Bildad M., Leeuw, W. de and Kaggia, M. (2012), The Struggle for Freedom and Justice; the life and times of the freedom fighter and politician Bildad M. Kaggia (1921-2005), Nairobi: Transafrica Press.

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