Re:Miguna's seal of approval-When was Miguna detained?

Ndugu Joabo,
We have done a very good job. Do you have any information that places Mr. Miguna Miguna in any prison in Kenya between 1963 and 2006? If you have, please by all means, pass it on to me.

Mr. Joabo, I have been intimately involved in the lives of former detainees and ex-political prisoners. Do you know how many are today suffering from unmitigated post traumatic stress syndrome?

Do you know how many are rendered alcoholics as a way of dealing with a bitter past, unacknowledged by a money-oriented society that chews and spits its heroes?

Do you know how many are mere hazy photographs on the walls of their mothers' houses, who cry every morning for what might have been, the graves having been leveled by the remorselessness of time's impatience?

You say that if I am a true researcher then I should have asked questions. Well, what do you think is the essence of my e-mail to Mr. Nyaware? Is it not a question?

I have no interest in arguing. I did not speak to you joabo, now did I? On the contrary, I directed a question to one Banda Nyaware. Can Mr. Nyaware, please answer my questions? We have done a good job I repeat and if Mr. Miguna was ever a political detainee in post-independence Kenya, we humbly stand to be corrected- but we doubt it (please prove us wrong--even for me to be pursuing this obscure case proves to you how thorough our methodology is).

As for who decides who was associated with what in the eighties, the prerogative rests with us the researchers (if you have ever done any research worth its salt then you should know that). We have our parameters, backed by over 1,600 hours of taped conversations with activists, their families, as well as former special branch police..

What may come as a surprise to you was the emotional bond that existed among the Kenyan underground activists. They seemed to be closer to each other even more than siblings ever were. Remember this was pre-Internet days, and they kept in touch with each other through their own underground networks--they couldn't use the post or telephone. So everyone knew everyone else.

Mr. Joabo, you pain me by labeling me with a word I spend all my life running from--"biased". Do you know how many fake so-called "ex-detainees", or "ex-political prisoners" we have had to deal with? People who use other people's giant steps to camouflage their own timidity and lack of fortitude?

They embellish their CVs to suit the moment, while the time when people were risking their lives they played it safe? Yes, call me biased if you must. I am biased on the side of the truth, For history is not made of a bunch of fairy tails. Imagine if we erected a statue for one Dedan Kimathi and he was never in the bush. What sort of society would we be building?

You ask a fair question:
>If Miguna was not a threat to the government as you conclude,
>then why was he arrested and dismissed from the university?

Have you ever been in an area where there has been a murder? If you have, the police swoops and arrests everyone in the vicinity. That is what happened on the night of November 15, 1987. Police did not know who was who so they swooped in the entire student representative council. Believe me, they were not looking for Miguna. Once they sorted out who was who, they left the lambs like Miguna go, and caged the lions.

Now, being picked up for questioning is not the same thing as detention, is it?. As for expulsion, our research shows that the 43 students who were expelled even included government spies, so don't start me on that.

Finally, let me tell you Joabo you seem not to be a seeker of truth but a bestower of truth. You also sound like someone who has an ax to grind, and is not particularly so concerned whether history is manipulated or not. In short you sound like a peddler of opinions. My last word is that whatever it is you are promoting or defending or selling, I am not interested.

Maganga J
Kenya Heroes Documentation Project
Nairobii