The time was ripe for protest and revolution. Kenyans had had enough. When Moi took over from Jomo Kenyatta in 1978, in true nyayo fashion he perfected the art of state torture and repression. That was the only way he could...
The political plurality that was envisaged in the Lancaster house constitution that we inherited in 1963 was dismembered by Jomo Kenyatta and his henchmen. By 1965, the Kenya African National Union (KANU) was a monolithic – the party, the government,...
Two key factors, as they grew, year by year, defeated Moi. First: the lawyers constantly held up the Alternative to Moi. Second: the lawyers suffered in the repression just as the people did. It made the people believe in the...
Coincidence-Fate or Destiny?!? They say a coincidence is a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection; that fate is the development of events outside a person's control, regarded as predetermined by a supernatural power and destiny is what's...
I had just left detention without trial a year before - a 6 footer weighing 70 kgs, but still as determined as ever to fight for a New Kenya, free from the suffocating stranglehold of KANU’s one party rule. After...
Last week I had the pleasant surprise of meeting Zarina Patel and her husband at my legal chambers in Nairobi after many years. Zarina Patel is a Kenyan Asian lady a graduate of Harvard, Har...
On 7 July 1990, Kenyans took to the streets to demand free elections. The politicians who had called for the protests, Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia, were arrested before the pr...
In the past years of 2017, 2018 and 2019 the Social Justice Centres Working Group (SJCWG), while tapping into the rich history of Saba Saba, held successful peaceful demonstrations into Kamk...
Background The story of Kenya is the story of a National identity forged out of the Colonial experience. A story of oxymorons. The story of an entity forged out of hitherto disparate politi...
Those of us who have walked this earth a little longer than most, frequently like to compare notes on their favourite decade. Was it the fifties, the sixties, the nineties or even the new m...
7 July 1990, the first Saba Saba, was a bloody day. The call for multi-partyism had triggered a fury bottled up for many years by Kenyans, especially the youth. Kenyans born in the 60’s and ...
There is no doubt that in the journey of life, one finds a course that determines his or her path into adulthood. Such a path is influenced by different experiences, intuitions, combined wit...
30 years later we are still fighting the same oppression that plagued the Moi regime. From the disdain of human rights that flows through all the arms of government to suppression of dissent...
Saba Saba solemnizes liberty and freedom. It is the triumph of the resolute resistance against tyranny, oppression and dehumanization of the people of Kenya. It marks the dismantling and shr...
I was asked to spare myself from joining colleagues that would come out into the procession to mark the 30th anniversary of saba saba and instead remain on standby to serve as legal counsel ...
One of the most difficult matters to deal with in a society that has been traumatized by past oppression and injustices is memory. The remembering and retelling of the complicated past is pa...
On this, and every Saba Saba Day, we honour the memory of a truly heroic Kenyan who, though she never participated in any Saba Saba event, left this world on this sacred day in the year 2013...
#SABASABA #MARCHFOROURLIVES UPDATE by DEFENDERS COALITION Today, 7 July 2020, 63 human rights defenders (HRD) were arrested while participating in the peaceful #SabaSabaMarchForOurLives ...
Citizens Demands (images/v017/i03/01-cover/019/Citizens%20Demands%201.pdf) Ripples of Hope (images/v017/i03/01-cover/019/Ripples%20of%20Hope.pdf) Saba Saba At 30: The Gains We Have Lost (i...
By Monaja Ilikuwa nineteen ninety, baada ya Ouko kukangwa Kiasi kidogo kabla machafuko kuanza, Serikali ya Nyayo ilisababisha vituko majanga, Kudhulumu raiya ikitarajia wao kunyamaza,...
What Is Saba Saba? (Short video): Voices of Njeru Kathangu, Koigi wa Wamwere and footage of the brutal beating of Rev. Timothy Njoya https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVYZi0-AZjE (https://www...
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[widgetkit id="173"] CAPTIONS Bedan Mbugua - Journalist and Magazine Editor Mr Mbugua lost his job as Editor in Chief of Beyond magazine, which in 1988 had highlighted massive el...
Witnessing the Saba Saba marches in Nairobi this year, it struck us that there has not been to date (at least we have not seen one) a compilation of the experiences of individuals and institutions...
London Calling US Election 2020: relax, the nightmare is over! Not quite, not yet, alas. There is no doubt however that we have all been treated to a seemingly endless series of news updates, analyses, statistics,...
As we undertook our research for this special issue on ‘Saba Saba’, it became increasingly obvious that there was a link between Saba Saba and the struggle for a new Constitution. While Saba Saba’s main aim was a return to political pluralism and a multi-party state, many who participated in it realized that it was just the beginning of a process to completely transform and re-write the social contract the state had made with the people of Kenya in 1963....
Emma was born July 24, 1928 under the astrological sign of Leo. A lioness has died, and we are all...