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Read Also:: When Jomo Kenyatta Caught Paul Ngei Flirting With His Daughter Margaret

1) In 1914, a 25-year-old man named Johnstone Kamau took the name at his Christian baptism in Thogoto as his apprenticeship as a carpenter ended. He moved to Nairobi where he had a mastery of carpentry, English literacy, and basic speaking skills of the language. 2) In 1917, Johnstone fled conscription by the British army during WWI and lived with his Maasai relatives. He later worked as a clerk in Narok, writing to a friend about a marriage. 3) By 1919 after the war, Johnstone lived in Nairobi and worked as a store manager, dressing very stylishly in suits and ties

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96 views4 pages

Read Also:: When Jomo Kenyatta Caught Paul Ngei Flirting With His Daughter Margaret

1) In 1914, a 25-year-old man named Johnstone Kamau took the name at his Christian baptism in Thogoto as his apprenticeship as a carpenter ended. He moved to Nairobi where he had a mastery of carpentry, English literacy, and basic speaking skills of the language. 2) In 1917, Johnstone fled conscription by the British army during WWI and lived with his Maasai relatives. He later worked as a clerk in Narok, writing to a friend about a marriage. 3) By 1919 after the war, Johnstone lived in Nairobi and worked as a store manager, dressing very stylishly in suits and ties

Uploaded by

Promise Santana
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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In August 1914 at a Christian baptism ceremony in Thogoto, a smooth-

shaven 25-year-old took up the name “Johnstone Kamau” in Thogoto.


With his apprenticeship as a carpenter at an end in the area, the young man
who would one day be Kenya’s first president came to the tiny town of
Nairobi. In the shape-shifting duality that would mark his character all his
life, Kamau had wanted to be christened “John Peter”. But on being
instructed to choose only one Christian name, he creatively went for
Johnstone. And by the stroke of his genius, this marked the first significant
step of out-manoeuvring the British, while at the same time exploiting
their tongue - English - in ways that would see him use his tongue to get
into State House half a century later. For with his mastery of carpentry,
English reading and writing ability, and smattering speaking skills of the
Queen’s language, Johnstone Kamau came to town as one very educated
African man.

READ ALSO: When Jomo Kenyatta caught Paul Ngei flirting with his daughter

Margaret

Sartorial fellow

In their search for able-bodied young men to coerce into the army to fight
in World War I, the British organised press-gang raids. Johnstone got wind
of it and fled to live with his Maasai relatives to evade conscription in
1917. The Rift Valley then was still dreaded territory by the British,
following Koitalel arap Samoei’s “reign of resistance terror” there just a
decade earlier.
While working in Narok as a clerk in an Asian meat company
supplying nyama to the British Army, Johnstone wrote thus to a friend
about to get married: “I enclose herewith 15 rupees to help you in your
marriage. Hoping you will excuse me as I have nothing to help you, you
know I am a poor fellow.”

Notwithstanding his use of words like “herewith,” by 1919 (after the war
was over) and working in Nairobi as a store manager for a mzungu called
Stephen Ellis, Johnstone Kamau became a most sartorial fellow – wearing
slouch or wide-brimmed hats, suits, waistcoats and ties. And cutting a very
Anglo-Saxon fashion figure. The only concession he made to his tradition
was the Kinyata, a Maasai-made ornamental belt he wore with his trousers,
and that, moniker-modified, would give him a name that would become
world-famous one day. Meanwhile, as Johnstone Kamau, he was quite
happy buying himself a gleaming new bicycle, riding it to go woo a young
lady called Grace Wahu, who he married in 1920 in a traditional
ceremony, where a lot of njohi was consumed.
Johnstone Kamau went to England at the start of 1928 and returned in May to
found the first native Kenyan newspaper, “Muigwithania”, and on its mast-head
signed himself for the first time as “Kenyatta”.
The Christians of Thogoto were not happy with Johnstone Kamau. They
called him before a Church session led by Elder Kirk who made him swear
to never drink liquor again. The date, ironically, was October 20, 1920.
Two years later, he was forced to marry Wahu “properly”, that is, in a civil
ceremony before a European magistrate. The years 1922-1924 were happy
ones for Johnstone Kamau. He got a job as a Municipal Council water
meter reader for the very handsome salary of Sh250 a month.

He lived in a nice tin hut in Kilimani weekdays and went to see his wife
weekends in Dagoretti, dressed very nicely and lifting his kofia to say
“how ye doing?” to fellow cyclists at a time when most Africans,
including those in Western Kenya, were yet to see one. Johnstone Kamau,
was still only mildly interested in politics then. He would draft letters for
Kikuyu Central Association (KCA) leaders like James Beauttah and
Joseph Kang’ethe as he knew far better English than them. And they
would have to pay him for these services.

READ ALSO: Why Jomo Kenyatta never attended church for 15 years as

president

Then came the Hilton Young Commission of 1928, and KCA had to send
a representative to England to present their land grievances. Kangethe, a
former sergeant and machine-gunner in World War 1 was well-built but it
was felt he was not eloquent enough to go to England. Beauttah was
reluctant to leave his very young family and sail all the way to Europe.

Joni to Jomo

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