Watching the tragedy unfolding in Kenya as a result of rigged elections reminds me of my time there, as I was stationed with the RAF in Kenya between 1964 and 1966 when the country became an independant nation. Independance day found my wife (Jill) and I living in a flat in the Parklands area of Nairobi and we went into the city to watch the events as they happened. I still have a faded copy of the "East African Standard" newsaper published on independance day, somewhere in the loft.
I remember the shouts of "Uhuru" and "Jamhuri" being heard everywhere - Swahili for freedom and independance. At that time many of the locals seemed to think that Jomo Kenyatta, the first President, would be giving each of them a house and a car, though I suspect that this was largely as a result of what we now call spin on the part of the politicians. Tom Mboya was expected to become a very high-flyer in the new goverment - he was a nice and very able politician but there was also another named Odinga Odinga, whom we nick-named as '007'. Tom was murdered in the doorway of a shop I used to use in Nairobi and throughout the time I was in Kenya, '007', being basically a Marxist, caused a lot of political problems.
Looking at the TV pictures of slums and shanty towns in Kenya, it seems to me that not much has changed since 1964 because back then there were areas of Nariobi 'out of bounds' to the RAF, especially the slums like in the inappropriately named part of Nairobi known as 'Jerusalem'. I worked at a small but secure remote communications site out in the bush, accessed by a single track which also led towards Jomo Kenyatta's farm and more than once I had to get off the track to avoid conflict with his convoy.
We handed over all of the RAF assets to the Kenya Air Force in 1966 and departed for home, taking in those times almost 3 days travel by air in a Britannia aircraft, making stops along the way and getting stuck at Paris because of widespread fog in the UK. I have never returned to Kenya but am sad (though not entirely surprised) to see what is happening there right now.....
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2 comments:
You appear to have glossed over the child care issues... forcing me to ride in a rally car I vaguely recall...
I've set the kids up to have a look as well.
Blogging... my father... lord I'm getting old.
Sone of G4SOH
True, but you spent most of the rallies asleep strapped into a full-harness child seat. Marshalls commonly said on our arrival at checkpoints "I see the navigator is asleep"....
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