Performed by Chisaina Arts Play
Dates:
13 October 2024 – The National Theatre
20 April 2025 – Jalaram Auditorium, Westlands
The staging of the play ‘Beyond Silence – J. M. Chronicles is a milestone. The fact that we can finally interrogate the history of this enigmatic man in Kenyan history is an achievement in itself in an era where stories of resistance to a creeping dictatorship aka Butere Girls and the GenZ revolt are being suppressed in Kenya today.
It is commendable that new and varied theatre spaces have opened up in Nairobi besides the usual outlets such as the National Theatre, Ukumbi Mdogo, The Alliance Francaise and the Goethe Institute. In recent times the Oshwal Auditorium and the Jalaram Auditorium have become venues in interrogating the contested histories of Tom Mboya and now J. M. Kariuki. I commend both these communities in opening their spaces to hosting the Kenyan voice for telling our histories in search for answers to our hidden and suppressed stories for freedom and liberation.
The Tom Mboya play hosted by ‘Too Early for Birds’ over the last two years performed at the Oshwal Auditorium to critical acclaim from Kenyan audiences and for that I say ‘Hongera’. And now the Jalaram auditorium has given voice, through ‘Chisaina Arts’ to Kenyan patriot J.M. Kariuki’s (JM) life , the much loved and maligned Kenyan politician in equal measure who was assassinated 50 years ago on 2 March 1975. The JM family have enthusiastically supported this production and are still seeking proper closure to the death of their family patriarch.
The task now is for ‘Too Early for Birds’ and ‘Chisiaina Arts’ to take the plays to the counties where there is real hunger for new and creative theatrical works.We are in the 15th of devolution and this expansion of our creative voices is long overdue.
Chisiaina Arts did a commendable job in telling the story of this Kenyan politician who is famously remembered for his remark ‘We do not want a Kenya of ten millionaires and ten million beggars’. On 2 March 1975, JM’s remains were found in Ngong Forest by a herd boy; his hands had been chopped off, his eyes gorged out, his face burnt with acid and left on an ant’s nest. As of 2025, his murder remains unsolved.
It is a herculean task to tell the story of JM in 2 hours and Chisiaina Arts through director Victor Muyekwe made a valiant attempt in painting broad strokes through history and enacting the three main trajectories of JM’s history ie his Mau Mau phase, his dalliance with the Kenyatta regime when he became a millionaire through state largesse and opportunity and finally his disillusionment with the neo-colonial state as he realises the betrayal of the aspirations of the Kenyan people for Land and Freedom, resulting in his assassination. The story of JM needs to be told in much greater detail through the different phases of his life since each weave an intriguing mosaic in history. The performance started and ended with the voices of GenZ who represent the new generation that demands a return to the ideals of a free, democratic, just and accountable Kenya.
Recently on the 50th anniversary of JMs death the Nation Media Group and the Department of History at the University of Nairobi interacted respectively with the history of this remarkable man in history.
John Kamau in his article for the Nation Media Group on 5 March 2025 https://archive.is/JOtCI talks about JMs links with Apartheid Israel and setting up of the National Youth Service (NYS) replicating Israel’s Nahal experiment, which integrated military discipline with national development, procuring 45 scholarships to train Kenya’s future intelligence officers and pilots in Israel.
Kamau went to say ‘ The Israelis (were), eager to cultivate strong ties with the emerging Kenyan state, saw in him a willing and capable partner, one who could navigate the complex interplay between former Mau Mau combatants and the newly forming government’ He continued ‘He (JM) was not only a man of means but was a power man draped in wealth and influence with a rich portfolio spanning lucrative casino directorships, high-stakes gemstone trading, and vast agricultural ventures’
The three part series of the Nation Media group are as follows:
PART I: The day JM Kariuki vanished https://archive.is/o/JOtCI/https://nation.africa/kenya/weekly-review/the-day-jm-kariuki-vanished-4947088
PART II: Betrayal and bloodshed: The State’s cover-up of JM Kariuki’s assassination https://archive.is/o/JOtCI/https://nation.africa/kenya/news/politics/the-state-s-cover-up-of-jm-kariuki-s-assassination-4948816
PART III: How JM Kariuki’s assassination shaped Jomo Kenyatta regime and succession https://archive.is/o/JOtCI/https://nation.africa/kenya/news/politics/how-jm-kariuki-s-assassination-shaped-jomo-kenyatta-regime-and-succession-4949932
The Department of History & Archaeology also hosted a JM lecture ‘JM Kariuki’s Political History – His Legacy in Kenya’s Future’, on March 27, 2025, at University of Nairobi Towers, Chandaria Hall. Watch the lecture at https://t.co/xIU1liT3Vt . The lecture was delivered by Kamoji Wachira who knew JM personally.
The play enacted in chilling fashion the last hours of JM as he interacts with different state actors and which ends in his shocking assassination and the consequent discovery of his body in a mortuary labeled as “unknown adult male.”. Kenya lost another son of the soil who refused to betray the ideals of ‘Land and Freedom’ which the Mau Mau had taken up arms for. Not to take away from the positives of the production, I personally felt that there was too much stage time devoted to dealing with JM’s family life and the alleged salacious side of his character which could have been used more productively in telling his story as Jomo Kenyatta’s personal secretary, his business acumen, the Israeli connection, the relationships and tensions within the new emerging political and security elite of Kenyan society and the after death solidarity campaigns by the student community in Kenya.
I feel the it is premature for Chisaina Arts Play to move onto other productions as it announced at the end of the play. Much more introspection is needed to make it not only a better production but also fill the unfulfilled gap for Kenyan audiences who are just beginning to hear of the play. The theatre group also needs to explore other more affordable and accessible venues that can reach diverse audiences.
Reviewed by Zahid Rajan
zahid@awaazmagazine.com
