Post by Ed on Jun 21, 2006 8:50:50 GMT 3
The Seven Bearded Sisters: Were they rebels or defenders of truth?
Published: 5/7/2006 By: STEPHEN MBURU
____________________________________
Mr Abuya Abuya
They were sharp, abrasive and relatively young. They did
their groundwork well and when they went to the House, government ministers
would find themselves in a tight corner.
They were a painful thorn in the government's flesh and more so in the
flesh of then powerful Constitutional Affairs minister Charles Njonjo.
Mr Njonjo joined Parliament as MP for Kikuyu (now Kabete) in 1980 after
retiring as the Attorney General following the resignation of Kikuyu's Amos
Ng'ang'a.
Ms Chelagat Mutai
President Moi created a new Cabinet post and appointed
Mr Njonjo the Constitutional Affairs minister. But in 1983, Mr Njonjo would
be hounded out of power following the infamous "Traitor" issue. President
Moi had claimed there was a person being groomed by foreign masters to take
over the government unconstitutionally.
Plotting ouster
Then a Cabinet colleague, the late Elijah Mwangale named Mr Njonjo in the
House as the person plotting to oust Mr Moi from power.
Mr Chibule wa Tsuma
In his short stint as minister, Mr Njonjo would face
stiff challenges from a group of daring MPs.
The cabal of the original radicals comprised Onyango Midika (Nyando), Koigi
Wamwere (Nakuru North), James Orengo (Ugenya), George Anyona (Kitutu East),
Chibule wa Tsuma (Kaloleni), Mashengu wa Mwachofi (Wundanyi), and Chelagat
Mutai (Eldoret North). Lawrence Sifuna (Bumula) and Abuya Abuya, replacing
his friend Mr Anyona (Kitutu East) joined later.
In them, Njonjo saw communists out to serve their foreign masters. They may
not all have sported beards and only one of them was female.
But Mr Njonjo had to coin a name to isolate the rebels from the rest of the
brood, and he settled for the "seven bearded sisters". That was in 1981.
Mr Mashengu wa Mwachofi
It was widely believed he had borrowed the term
from the title of a book: "The Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the
World they Shaped " by a British author, the late Anthony Sampson.
The book, published in 1975, and whose full text is found online, is about
a conspiracy theory by a cartel of seven oil giants who would manipulate
prices and fight government taxes.
Agreement signed
The cartel of the "sisters" had been established from an agreement signed
on September 17, 1920, by Royal Dutch Shell, Anglo-Iranian and Standard Oil,
for the purpose of fixing oil prices. The tax-avoidance of the companies was
their most striking common achievement.
Mr James Orengo
Mr Orengo, who had read the book while an MP, says the
text was "very popular" in mid 70s.
Like the oil companies, Kenya's "seven sisters" also seemed well-organised.
They would come together, research on and analyse Bills before taking debate
to the House. They would also lobby their colleagues to side with them.
The Sunday Nation traces the whereabouts of the "sisters" and brings you
first-hand interviews with them.
MATHEW ONYANGO MIDIKA
One of the original Seven Bearded Sisters, Mr Mathew Charles Onyango-Midika
was MP for Nyando (now Muhoroni), the secretary general of the Kenya Union
of Sugar Plantation Workers and a one-time sprinter for Kenya.
Mr Lawrence SifunaEducated in social sciences at Makerere University,
Kampala, Mr Midika started his professional life on the side of the
establishment as personnel manager for the East African Power and Lighting Company
between 1965 and 1967.
He moved in the same position to the British American Tobacco from 1967 to
1970 and finally to Chemilil Sugar Company as personnel and training manager
where he served from 1970 to 1973.
Later in life he became a parliamentarian with a decidedly leftist bent
which earned him membership among the Seven Bearded Sisters.
During the government crackdown on dissidents, Mr Midika was arrested and
charged with theft of union money which he offered to repay. He was
nonetheless jailed.
CHELAGAT MUTAI
She has been out of politics for a long time now. But Ms Chelagat Mutai
says she is preparing for a come-back to pick up where she left when she was
forced to abandon the Eldoret North seat and flee to Tanzania to escape the
threat of jail by the government of President Daniel arap Moi.
"There have been no major political changes in the country. The current
breed of politicians are busy pursuing personal gains at the expense of the
majority of Kenyans," says Ms Mutai.
Born in 1949 at Terige village in Lessos, Nandi district, Ms Mutai has been
controversial since her high school days.
Mr Koigi wa WamwereAt Highlands Girls School, she earned her first
expulsion after leading a students strike.
She sat her 'A' level examinations from outside the institution but to the
surprise of many, excelled and joined the University of Nairobi to read
political science.
It was at the university that her political activism was refined when she
served as editor of the students magazine, The Platform.
She was critical of the Kanu leadership, which saw her in and out of
university before completing her studies to venture into real politics.
In 1972, her uncle, then Eldoret North MP William Saina was jailed for
incitement. A by-election was called and Ms Mutai was encouraged by then
non-conformist Tinderet MP, the late Jean Marie Seroney, to enter the race.
She had to battle it out with 12 other contestants. When the results were
announced, she became the first Kalenjin woman ever elected to Parliament.
She was just 24.
"The victory gave me the platform to articulate issues that affected my
community and the country with the land issue being a priority," she said in a
recent interview.
Joined forces
Former Ugenya MP James Orengo being taken to court in 1982. "Mr Orengo was
forced to flee the country in 1982. He had been arrested and charged with
forgery and stealing client's money. He was released on bond, and also faced
another accusation of falsifying Parliamentary mileage claims. But he jumped
bail and fled to Tanzania where he found his 'sister' Chelagat Mutai."
Photo/File She joined forces with other legislators critical of the Kanu
government, and was quickly branded alongside the legendary Seven Bearded
Sisters.
In 1976, she was arrested and sentenced to six months. She was accused of
inciting her constituents to invade a sisal plantation at Ziwa.
But even after serving the sentence and resuming her parliamentary seat,
the Government continued hounding her. Early in 1983, she was targeted for
allegedly filing fake Parliamentary mileage claims.
To escape another jail term, she sought political asylum in Tanzania. She
was repatriated in 1984 and resorted to a humble life.
Ms Mutai even mended fences with the Moi regime and briefly served the
establishment before retreating to private life.
But she kept out of the activism that led to re-introduction of multi-party
politics and the rehabilitation of critics who had been ostracised under
one-party rule.
Ms Mutai is critical of the current political system terming it a
commercial venture where politicians are elected through bribery to voters.
"I am yet to make up my mind on which constituency to contest but I will
definitely be there," she says.
CHIBULE wa TSUMA
He describes his two terms in Parliament, between 1979 and 1988, as the
most turbulent due to the position he took with like-minded legislators.
The long arm of the law: Ms Chelagat Mutai (left), then Eldoret North MP,
after being arrested in 1976. "She was arrested and sentenced to six months.
She was accused of inciting her constituents to invade a sisal plantation
at Ziwa."
Photo/File Dr Chibule believes their brand of politics, at a time when the
country was a one-party system, kept the Government in check.
He says their principled politics resulted in some political freedom for
oppressed Kenyans.
While most MPs embraced the politics of patronage that President Moi loved,
the Seven Bearded Sisters stood for what was right.
During that period, he recalls, Cabinet ministers were reduced to errand
boys.
He says the tag Seven Bearded Sisters was used by then powerful
Constitutional Affairs minister Charles Njonjo to insult and ridicule them.
He says though they practised opposition politics at a time when Kenya was
a one-party State, they were never engaged in subversion.
Dr Chibule, who has announced his candidature for the presidency on the
Orange Democratic Movement ticket (under the Federal Party of Kenya), says the
Seven Bearded Sisters managed to provide an alternative voice for the
voiceless Kenyans.
The former Kaloleni MP says that of all his comrades, it is only James
Orengo who has remained firm. He describes his coastal colleague, Mr Mashengu wa
Mwachofi, as "lukewarm", and Subukia MP and assistant minister for
Information and Communications, Mr Koigi wa Wamwere, as "a big let down and a
turncoat".
And Mr Njonjo? An African by appearance but a Briton by action and deeds.
"He is the kind of a slave who enjoyed slavery and would not escape even if he
had an opportunity to do so."
The former MP for Kaloleni is a doctor at Mvita Hospital, Mombasa and
consultant in all major hospitals in Mombasa town.
LAWRENCE SIFUNA
The former MP for Bumula strongly believes that retired President Daniel
arap Moi engineered the entry of former Attorney General Charles Mugane Njonjo
into politics as a pay-back for the latter's support to his ascendancy to
the presidency following the death of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta in 1978.
In an interview with the Sunday Nation, the former Bumula MP said: "That is
why the former A-G made it to the front bench as Constitutional Affairs
minister after he weaved his way into Parliament as Kabete MP unopposed."
Mr Sifuna says thereafter, Mr Njonjo began to scheme how to sideline then
Vice President Mwai Kibaki and ultimately get the top prize - the presidency,
through a vote of no confidence.
"At the time no one would dare whisper anything against the president. He
was all powerful and Njonjo had set out an elaborate network to monitor each
of the ministers," he remembers.
The former legislator says he was among the group of MPs who were
approached by the Njonjo camp to support a move to amend the Constitution so he could
ascend to power. When they refused, he says, they were branded the Seven
Bearded Sisters.
Mr Sifuna has no grudge against Mr Njonjo, but is critical of the current
MPs. "We stood for national interests. We are not like the present crop of
MPs who are selfish and greedy. I do not want to begrudge them over their
allowances but the truth is they don't merit what they earn," he says.
Of President Kibaki, he has this to say: He is a difficult person,
forgetful and can never come to anyone's rescue . . . even those who have supported
him in his bid for the presidency. He cannot be relied upon and this is why
he never honoured the MoU with the LDP," he says.
Mr Sifuna reckons that the Kibaki administration should voted out of office
in next year's General Election because it has lost the moral authority to
govern.
Mr Sifuna served as MP for Bumula between 1979 and 1983. He made a comeback
on a Ford Asili ticket with the re-introduction of multi-party politics in
1992, but served just one term.
He says he will be running in the next election but was non-committal on
which party ticket.
KOIGI wa WAMWERE
This is how the Subukia MP sums up his controversial first term in
Parliament which begun in 1979 but was cut short prematurely: "We were opposed to
tyranny; fighting one-party dictatorship and Njonjo's use of the term Seven
Bearded Sisters was contemptuous. He wanted to portray us as communists.
"He was comparing us with the cartel of oil companies which would conspire
to raise prices and lobby to oppose taxes. He wanted to show the world that
though we were in the ruling party Kanu, we had a cartel to oppose the
Government and eventually bring it down. But we were only opposed to the tyranny
which he defended with vigour.
"Njonjo was trying to intimidate us. He succeeded in giving us a bad name
and ultimately scuttled us."
Mr Wamwere first entered Parliament as MP for Nakuru North in 1979.
In 1974, at the age of 24, he had made his first attempt to capture the
seat but lost to Mr Kihika Kimani.
Soon after the 1974 elections, he found himself in trouble when he was
detained by the Jomo Kenyatta government in August 1975, the same year Nyandarua
North MP J. M. Kariuki was assassinated.
Mr Wamwere had made a name for his relentless attack on the government over
land policies.
He would be released three years later in 1978 when Kenyatta died and was
succeed by then Vice-President Daniel arap Moi.
Ironically, the new President welcomed his ouster of Mr Kihika, one of his
old enemies and leading member of the late Kenyatta insular ruling mafia.
Once in Parliament, however, Mr Wamwere would not play ball. His first
motion in Parliament was to urge the Government to re-examine its land policy to
ease landlessness in the country. The motion was defeated.
During his three years in Parliament, Mr Wamwere established himself as a
champion for the poor.
Soon after the 1982 attempted coup, he was detained again and released in
1984. He fled to Norway in 1986 during the crackdown on dissidents.
Born in Bahati
Mr Wamwere was born in Bahati, Nakuru district. He went to Full Primary
School and Mother of Apostles Seminary where he sat the East African Certificate
of Education in 1968.
He joined Nyeri High the following year but was suspended for two terms
over student activism.
While still under suspension, he got a scholarship to study hotel
management and tourism at Cornnel University in New York, where he would be a member
of the African Students Association.
He returned to Kenya in 1973 and became a teacher at Jogoo Commercial
College in Nakuru. He was a freelance journalist with the defunct Sunday Post and
his articles, mainly on squatter problems, helped sell him to the people
ahead of the 1979 elections.
His return to Kenya from self-exile in 1990 was mysterious. The Government
just announced he had been arrested at a raid on a Nairobi residential
estate together with lawyers Rumba Kinuthia and the late assistant minister Mirugi
Kariuki.
Mr Wamwere maintains that he was kidnapped from neighbouring Uganda. He was
accused of amassing weapons and plotting to overthrow the Government, but
the State dropped the charges and released him in 1993 (a year after the
multi-party elections).
In 1995, Mr Wamwere was arrested again charged with allegedly raiding and
stealing guns at Bahati Police Station in Nakuru. He was convicted on a
simple case of theft, instead of robbery with violence as charged. Eventually he
was freed on appeal.
In 1997, he contested the presidency on a Kenya National Democratic
Alliance (KENDA) ticket but could not even secure the Subukia parliamentary seat.
He made a comeback to Parliament in 2002 on the Narc ticket. Initially he
was a critic of Kibaki's government policies, particularly on land and the
wealth gap, but he mellowed and became a strong defender of the administration.
He was named assistant minister for Information and Communications last
year, from where he has become a strong advocate for turning the Kenya
Broadcasting Corporation back into a Government mouthpiece.
MASHENGU wa MWACHOFI
The controversial politician says he was inspired to join politics by the
anxiety for change and euphoria that gripped the country after President
Kenyatta's death in 1978.
Campaigning without a penny to his name, Mr Mwachofi was elected MP for
Wundanyi at the 1979 elections.
"There was a lot of hope among Kenyans that the change of government would
bring change from oppression under Kenyatta but, unfortunately, this did not
happen," he says.
In Parliament, he quickly joined up with the small group of youthful MPs
who were keeping the Government on its toes.
"Njonjo used to describe us as communists and referred to me as Karl Marx,"
Mr Mwachofi recalls.
The group opposed to the culture of land grabbing and accumulation of
wealth which led to the impoverishment of the masses.
"We did not want a country with millions of beggars and a few
millionaires," he says adding that earned them the enmity of Mr Njonjo.
Mr Mwachofi served just one term in Parliament. He tried a comeback with
the advent of multi-party politics in 2002, to no avail.
But he has remained active in coastal politics and is presently chairman of
the Shirikisho Party of Kenya (SPK), which he says will be his platform to
vie for the presidency next year.
He is also actively involved in grassroots civic education in politics and
development and is behind the formation of community based organisations
like Muungano wa Wanavijiji, Pamoja Trust and Sema Trust among others.
JAMES ORENGO
"We were fighting for political reforms and democracy.
"Njonjo used to be offended by those with beards. He thought all radical and
communist politicians had beards.
"He believed those with beards were uncouth. I would tell him even Jesus,
as we know him, had a beard. He even influenced Moi to attack leaders who had
beards. Moi started saying those with beards were serving foreign masters."
Mr Njonjo "was not being original" in describing them as the Seven Bearded
Sisters, the former MP says. The description was borrowed from a book by a
British author Anthony Sampson, Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the
World they Shaped.
Mr Orengo terms "poetic justice" the hounding out of power of Mr Njonjo by
President Moi in 1983.
However, he has some respect for Njonjo, describing him as "black
Anglo-Saxon. He is a gentleman with a certain element of decency. He does not want to
be engaged in corruption." Born in February 1950, Mr Orengo was only 29 when
he first went to Parliament as member for Ugenya, in 1980, through a
by-election.
He enjoyed the support of pioneer opposition leader, the late Oginga
Odinga, who even as a pariah in the one-party days dictated voting trends in Luo
Nyanza.
Mr Orengo was forced to flee the country in 1982. He had been arrested and
charged with forgery and stealing client's money. He was released on bond,
and also faced another accusation of falsifying Parliamentary mileage claims.
But he would jump bail and flee to Tanzania where he would find his
"sister" Chelagat Mutai who had fled there a year earlier after she faced similar
charges.
Mr Orengo's activism crystalised while he was at the University of Nairobi.
In 1972, he was elected President of the Students Organisation of Nairobi
University (Sonu).
Mr Njonjo banned the use of the title "President" countrywide arguing it
was reserved for the State President.
In 1974, Mr Orengo was among students who supported a strike by their
architecture colleagues who were protesting alleged mass failures in their final
examinations.
He was expelled and had to complete his studies at the University of Dar es
Salaam.
He returned to join the Kenya School of Law, where he would lead student
demonstrations following the 1975 assassination of Nyandarua North MP J. M.
Kariuki.
After the fall of Mr Njonjo, Mr Orengo was among the exiles, including the
1982 coup plot leader Hezekiah Ochuka, who were returned to the country
in1983 when the Tanzania and Kenya governments exchanged dissidents.
He was arrested and released in 1984 after five months in custody.
He led a quite life until 1990 when he joined his political mentor, Oginga
Odinga, in the original Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (Ford) and
was among the new opposition's Young Turks.
He was elected Ugenya MP on a Ford Kenya ticket in 1992, and retained it in
1997 despite having fallen out badly with Raila Odinga who was then calling
the shots in Luoland after his father's death.
Mr Orengo resisted the Narc wave in 2002, instead making a token
presidential bid on the Social Democratic Party ticket. He ended up losing his
parliamentary seat as well.
ABUYA ABUYA
"Kenya was ripe for a revolution. We were pro-poor and had social
inclination. Njonjo was pro-rich and for Wazungu (white people). He was an extreme
capitalist. We were fighting for fair distribution of resources especially
among the rural poor. But he was opposed to that.
"I believed and still believe in socialism. I strongly believe in fair
distribution of resources. We never sat down to conspire as Njonjo wanted the
world to believe.
"We were brought together by a shared vision: democracy and fair
distribution of resources. We would discuss and analyse Bills before moving to the
House for debate."
So recalls Mr Abuya Abuya, who had succeeded his then close ally, the late
George Anyona, as MP for Kitutu East.
He was soon lumped with the famous Seven Bearded Sisters.
In 1982, Mr Abuya was lured from Parliament Buildings by two officers from
the dreaded Special Branch and questioned about his opposition to the
Government. He was put in a water-logged cell for four days before he was
released.
Born in 1944, Abuya first went to Parliament in 1979 as member for Kitutu
East, now Kitutu Masaba, after his political ally Mr Anyona's nomination
papers were rejected by the returning officer. Mr Anyona, who had been detained
without trial in 1997, was told he needed special clearance to be allowed to
contest.
Mr Abuya served two terms, before losing to Mr Otieno Momanyi in 1988. He
had by then fallen out with with Mr Anyona.
After the defeat, Mr Abuya remained out of the limelight until the
reintroduction of multi-party politics when he joined Ford Kenya.
And after he failed to make any impression in the 1992 elections, he
shifted to Nairobi to try his luck in the Dagoretti parliamentary seat in 1997 on a
Ford Kenya ticket.
But party leader Michael Wamalwa proposed him for appointment as a member
of the Electoral Commission of Kenya where he serves to date.
Additional reporting by Barnabas Bii, Ngumbao Kithi, Simbi Kusimba and
Pascal Mwandambo
Published: 5/7/2006 By: STEPHEN MBURU
____________________________________
Mr Abuya Abuya
They were sharp, abrasive and relatively young. They did
their groundwork well and when they went to the House, government ministers
would find themselves in a tight corner.
They were a painful thorn in the government's flesh and more so in the
flesh of then powerful Constitutional Affairs minister Charles Njonjo.
Mr Njonjo joined Parliament as MP for Kikuyu (now Kabete) in 1980 after
retiring as the Attorney General following the resignation of Kikuyu's Amos
Ng'ang'a.
Ms Chelagat Mutai
President Moi created a new Cabinet post and appointed
Mr Njonjo the Constitutional Affairs minister. But in 1983, Mr Njonjo would
be hounded out of power following the infamous "Traitor" issue. President
Moi had claimed there was a person being groomed by foreign masters to take
over the government unconstitutionally.
Plotting ouster
Then a Cabinet colleague, the late Elijah Mwangale named Mr Njonjo in the
House as the person plotting to oust Mr Moi from power.
Mr Chibule wa Tsuma
In his short stint as minister, Mr Njonjo would face
stiff challenges from a group of daring MPs.
The cabal of the original radicals comprised Onyango Midika (Nyando), Koigi
Wamwere (Nakuru North), James Orengo (Ugenya), George Anyona (Kitutu East),
Chibule wa Tsuma (Kaloleni), Mashengu wa Mwachofi (Wundanyi), and Chelagat
Mutai (Eldoret North). Lawrence Sifuna (Bumula) and Abuya Abuya, replacing
his friend Mr Anyona (Kitutu East) joined later.
In them, Njonjo saw communists out to serve their foreign masters. They may
not all have sported beards and only one of them was female.
But Mr Njonjo had to coin a name to isolate the rebels from the rest of the
brood, and he settled for the "seven bearded sisters". That was in 1981.
Mr Mashengu wa Mwachofi
It was widely believed he had borrowed the term
from the title of a book: "The Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the
World they Shaped " by a British author, the late Anthony Sampson.
The book, published in 1975, and whose full text is found online, is about
a conspiracy theory by a cartel of seven oil giants who would manipulate
prices and fight government taxes.
Agreement signed
The cartel of the "sisters" had been established from an agreement signed
on September 17, 1920, by Royal Dutch Shell, Anglo-Iranian and Standard Oil,
for the purpose of fixing oil prices. The tax-avoidance of the companies was
their most striking common achievement.
Mr James Orengo
Mr Orengo, who had read the book while an MP, says the
text was "very popular" in mid 70s.
Like the oil companies, Kenya's "seven sisters" also seemed well-organised.
They would come together, research on and analyse Bills before taking debate
to the House. They would also lobby their colleagues to side with them.
The Sunday Nation traces the whereabouts of the "sisters" and brings you
first-hand interviews with them.
MATHEW ONYANGO MIDIKA
One of the original Seven Bearded Sisters, Mr Mathew Charles Onyango-Midika
was MP for Nyando (now Muhoroni), the secretary general of the Kenya Union
of Sugar Plantation Workers and a one-time sprinter for Kenya.
Mr Lawrence SifunaEducated in social sciences at Makerere University,
Kampala, Mr Midika started his professional life on the side of the
establishment as personnel manager for the East African Power and Lighting Company
between 1965 and 1967.
He moved in the same position to the British American Tobacco from 1967 to
1970 and finally to Chemilil Sugar Company as personnel and training manager
where he served from 1970 to 1973.
Later in life he became a parliamentarian with a decidedly leftist bent
which earned him membership among the Seven Bearded Sisters.
During the government crackdown on dissidents, Mr Midika was arrested and
charged with theft of union money which he offered to repay. He was
nonetheless jailed.
CHELAGAT MUTAI
She has been out of politics for a long time now. But Ms Chelagat Mutai
says she is preparing for a come-back to pick up where she left when she was
forced to abandon the Eldoret North seat and flee to Tanzania to escape the
threat of jail by the government of President Daniel arap Moi.
"There have been no major political changes in the country. The current
breed of politicians are busy pursuing personal gains at the expense of the
majority of Kenyans," says Ms Mutai.
Born in 1949 at Terige village in Lessos, Nandi district, Ms Mutai has been
controversial since her high school days.
Mr Koigi wa WamwereAt Highlands Girls School, she earned her first
expulsion after leading a students strike.
She sat her 'A' level examinations from outside the institution but to the
surprise of many, excelled and joined the University of Nairobi to read
political science.
It was at the university that her political activism was refined when she
served as editor of the students magazine, The Platform.
She was critical of the Kanu leadership, which saw her in and out of
university before completing her studies to venture into real politics.
In 1972, her uncle, then Eldoret North MP William Saina was jailed for
incitement. A by-election was called and Ms Mutai was encouraged by then
non-conformist Tinderet MP, the late Jean Marie Seroney, to enter the race.
She had to battle it out with 12 other contestants. When the results were
announced, she became the first Kalenjin woman ever elected to Parliament.
She was just 24.
"The victory gave me the platform to articulate issues that affected my
community and the country with the land issue being a priority," she said in a
recent interview.
Joined forces
Former Ugenya MP James Orengo being taken to court in 1982. "Mr Orengo was
forced to flee the country in 1982. He had been arrested and charged with
forgery and stealing client's money. He was released on bond, and also faced
another accusation of falsifying Parliamentary mileage claims. But he jumped
bail and fled to Tanzania where he found his 'sister' Chelagat Mutai."
Photo/File She joined forces with other legislators critical of the Kanu
government, and was quickly branded alongside the legendary Seven Bearded
Sisters.
In 1976, she was arrested and sentenced to six months. She was accused of
inciting her constituents to invade a sisal plantation at Ziwa.
But even after serving the sentence and resuming her parliamentary seat,
the Government continued hounding her. Early in 1983, she was targeted for
allegedly filing fake Parliamentary mileage claims.
To escape another jail term, she sought political asylum in Tanzania. She
was repatriated in 1984 and resorted to a humble life.
Ms Mutai even mended fences with the Moi regime and briefly served the
establishment before retreating to private life.
But she kept out of the activism that led to re-introduction of multi-party
politics and the rehabilitation of critics who had been ostracised under
one-party rule.
Ms Mutai is critical of the current political system terming it a
commercial venture where politicians are elected through bribery to voters.
"I am yet to make up my mind on which constituency to contest but I will
definitely be there," she says.
CHIBULE wa TSUMA
He describes his two terms in Parliament, between 1979 and 1988, as the
most turbulent due to the position he took with like-minded legislators.
The long arm of the law: Ms Chelagat Mutai (left), then Eldoret North MP,
after being arrested in 1976. "She was arrested and sentenced to six months.
She was accused of inciting her constituents to invade a sisal plantation
at Ziwa."
Photo/File Dr Chibule believes their brand of politics, at a time when the
country was a one-party system, kept the Government in check.
He says their principled politics resulted in some political freedom for
oppressed Kenyans.
While most MPs embraced the politics of patronage that President Moi loved,
the Seven Bearded Sisters stood for what was right.
During that period, he recalls, Cabinet ministers were reduced to errand
boys.
He says the tag Seven Bearded Sisters was used by then powerful
Constitutional Affairs minister Charles Njonjo to insult and ridicule them.
He says though they practised opposition politics at a time when Kenya was
a one-party State, they were never engaged in subversion.
Dr Chibule, who has announced his candidature for the presidency on the
Orange Democratic Movement ticket (under the Federal Party of Kenya), says the
Seven Bearded Sisters managed to provide an alternative voice for the
voiceless Kenyans.
The former Kaloleni MP says that of all his comrades, it is only James
Orengo who has remained firm. He describes his coastal colleague, Mr Mashengu wa
Mwachofi, as "lukewarm", and Subukia MP and assistant minister for
Information and Communications, Mr Koigi wa Wamwere, as "a big let down and a
turncoat".
And Mr Njonjo? An African by appearance but a Briton by action and deeds.
"He is the kind of a slave who enjoyed slavery and would not escape even if he
had an opportunity to do so."
The former MP for Kaloleni is a doctor at Mvita Hospital, Mombasa and
consultant in all major hospitals in Mombasa town.
LAWRENCE SIFUNA
The former MP for Bumula strongly believes that retired President Daniel
arap Moi engineered the entry of former Attorney General Charles Mugane Njonjo
into politics as a pay-back for the latter's support to his ascendancy to
the presidency following the death of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta in 1978.
In an interview with the Sunday Nation, the former Bumula MP said: "That is
why the former A-G made it to the front bench as Constitutional Affairs
minister after he weaved his way into Parliament as Kabete MP unopposed."
Mr Sifuna says thereafter, Mr Njonjo began to scheme how to sideline then
Vice President Mwai Kibaki and ultimately get the top prize - the presidency,
through a vote of no confidence.
"At the time no one would dare whisper anything against the president. He
was all powerful and Njonjo had set out an elaborate network to monitor each
of the ministers," he remembers.
The former legislator says he was among the group of MPs who were
approached by the Njonjo camp to support a move to amend the Constitution so he could
ascend to power. When they refused, he says, they were branded the Seven
Bearded Sisters.
Mr Sifuna has no grudge against Mr Njonjo, but is critical of the current
MPs. "We stood for national interests. We are not like the present crop of
MPs who are selfish and greedy. I do not want to begrudge them over their
allowances but the truth is they don't merit what they earn," he says.
Of President Kibaki, he has this to say: He is a difficult person,
forgetful and can never come to anyone's rescue . . . even those who have supported
him in his bid for the presidency. He cannot be relied upon and this is why
he never honoured the MoU with the LDP," he says.
Mr Sifuna reckons that the Kibaki administration should voted out of office
in next year's General Election because it has lost the moral authority to
govern.
Mr Sifuna served as MP for Bumula between 1979 and 1983. He made a comeback
on a Ford Asili ticket with the re-introduction of multi-party politics in
1992, but served just one term.
He says he will be running in the next election but was non-committal on
which party ticket.
KOIGI wa WAMWERE
This is how the Subukia MP sums up his controversial first term in
Parliament which begun in 1979 but was cut short prematurely: "We were opposed to
tyranny; fighting one-party dictatorship and Njonjo's use of the term Seven
Bearded Sisters was contemptuous. He wanted to portray us as communists.
"He was comparing us with the cartel of oil companies which would conspire
to raise prices and lobby to oppose taxes. He wanted to show the world that
though we were in the ruling party Kanu, we had a cartel to oppose the
Government and eventually bring it down. But we were only opposed to the tyranny
which he defended with vigour.
"Njonjo was trying to intimidate us. He succeeded in giving us a bad name
and ultimately scuttled us."
Mr Wamwere first entered Parliament as MP for Nakuru North in 1979.
In 1974, at the age of 24, he had made his first attempt to capture the
seat but lost to Mr Kihika Kimani.
Soon after the 1974 elections, he found himself in trouble when he was
detained by the Jomo Kenyatta government in August 1975, the same year Nyandarua
North MP J. M. Kariuki was assassinated.
Mr Wamwere had made a name for his relentless attack on the government over
land policies.
He would be released three years later in 1978 when Kenyatta died and was
succeed by then Vice-President Daniel arap Moi.
Ironically, the new President welcomed his ouster of Mr Kihika, one of his
old enemies and leading member of the late Kenyatta insular ruling mafia.
Once in Parliament, however, Mr Wamwere would not play ball. His first
motion in Parliament was to urge the Government to re-examine its land policy to
ease landlessness in the country. The motion was defeated.
During his three years in Parliament, Mr Wamwere established himself as a
champion for the poor.
Soon after the 1982 attempted coup, he was detained again and released in
1984. He fled to Norway in 1986 during the crackdown on dissidents.
Born in Bahati
Mr Wamwere was born in Bahati, Nakuru district. He went to Full Primary
School and Mother of Apostles Seminary where he sat the East African Certificate
of Education in 1968.
He joined Nyeri High the following year but was suspended for two terms
over student activism.
While still under suspension, he got a scholarship to study hotel
management and tourism at Cornnel University in New York, where he would be a member
of the African Students Association.
He returned to Kenya in 1973 and became a teacher at Jogoo Commercial
College in Nakuru. He was a freelance journalist with the defunct Sunday Post and
his articles, mainly on squatter problems, helped sell him to the people
ahead of the 1979 elections.
His return to Kenya from self-exile in 1990 was mysterious. The Government
just announced he had been arrested at a raid on a Nairobi residential
estate together with lawyers Rumba Kinuthia and the late assistant minister Mirugi
Kariuki.
Mr Wamwere maintains that he was kidnapped from neighbouring Uganda. He was
accused of amassing weapons and plotting to overthrow the Government, but
the State dropped the charges and released him in 1993 (a year after the
multi-party elections).
In 1995, Mr Wamwere was arrested again charged with allegedly raiding and
stealing guns at Bahati Police Station in Nakuru. He was convicted on a
simple case of theft, instead of robbery with violence as charged. Eventually he
was freed on appeal.
In 1997, he contested the presidency on a Kenya National Democratic
Alliance (KENDA) ticket but could not even secure the Subukia parliamentary seat.
He made a comeback to Parliament in 2002 on the Narc ticket. Initially he
was a critic of Kibaki's government policies, particularly on land and the
wealth gap, but he mellowed and became a strong defender of the administration.
He was named assistant minister for Information and Communications last
year, from where he has become a strong advocate for turning the Kenya
Broadcasting Corporation back into a Government mouthpiece.
MASHENGU wa MWACHOFI
The controversial politician says he was inspired to join politics by the
anxiety for change and euphoria that gripped the country after President
Kenyatta's death in 1978.
Campaigning without a penny to his name, Mr Mwachofi was elected MP for
Wundanyi at the 1979 elections.
"There was a lot of hope among Kenyans that the change of government would
bring change from oppression under Kenyatta but, unfortunately, this did not
happen," he says.
In Parliament, he quickly joined up with the small group of youthful MPs
who were keeping the Government on its toes.
"Njonjo used to describe us as communists and referred to me as Karl Marx,"
Mr Mwachofi recalls.
The group opposed to the culture of land grabbing and accumulation of
wealth which led to the impoverishment of the masses.
"We did not want a country with millions of beggars and a few
millionaires," he says adding that earned them the enmity of Mr Njonjo.
Mr Mwachofi served just one term in Parliament. He tried a comeback with
the advent of multi-party politics in 2002, to no avail.
But he has remained active in coastal politics and is presently chairman of
the Shirikisho Party of Kenya (SPK), which he says will be his platform to
vie for the presidency next year.
He is also actively involved in grassroots civic education in politics and
development and is behind the formation of community based organisations
like Muungano wa Wanavijiji, Pamoja Trust and Sema Trust among others.
JAMES ORENGO
"We were fighting for political reforms and democracy.
"Njonjo used to be offended by those with beards. He thought all radical and
communist politicians had beards.
"He believed those with beards were uncouth. I would tell him even Jesus,
as we know him, had a beard. He even influenced Moi to attack leaders who had
beards. Moi started saying those with beards were serving foreign masters."
Mr Njonjo "was not being original" in describing them as the Seven Bearded
Sisters, the former MP says. The description was borrowed from a book by a
British author Anthony Sampson, Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the
World they Shaped.
Mr Orengo terms "poetic justice" the hounding out of power of Mr Njonjo by
President Moi in 1983.
However, he has some respect for Njonjo, describing him as "black
Anglo-Saxon. He is a gentleman with a certain element of decency. He does not want to
be engaged in corruption." Born in February 1950, Mr Orengo was only 29 when
he first went to Parliament as member for Ugenya, in 1980, through a
by-election.
He enjoyed the support of pioneer opposition leader, the late Oginga
Odinga, who even as a pariah in the one-party days dictated voting trends in Luo
Nyanza.
Mr Orengo was forced to flee the country in 1982. He had been arrested and
charged with forgery and stealing client's money. He was released on bond,
and also faced another accusation of falsifying Parliamentary mileage claims.
But he would jump bail and flee to Tanzania where he would find his
"sister" Chelagat Mutai who had fled there a year earlier after she faced similar
charges.
Mr Orengo's activism crystalised while he was at the University of Nairobi.
In 1972, he was elected President of the Students Organisation of Nairobi
University (Sonu).
Mr Njonjo banned the use of the title "President" countrywide arguing it
was reserved for the State President.
In 1974, Mr Orengo was among students who supported a strike by their
architecture colleagues who were protesting alleged mass failures in their final
examinations.
He was expelled and had to complete his studies at the University of Dar es
Salaam.
He returned to join the Kenya School of Law, where he would lead student
demonstrations following the 1975 assassination of Nyandarua North MP J. M.
Kariuki.
After the fall of Mr Njonjo, Mr Orengo was among the exiles, including the
1982 coup plot leader Hezekiah Ochuka, who were returned to the country
in1983 when the Tanzania and Kenya governments exchanged dissidents.
He was arrested and released in 1984 after five months in custody.
He led a quite life until 1990 when he joined his political mentor, Oginga
Odinga, in the original Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (Ford) and
was among the new opposition's Young Turks.
He was elected Ugenya MP on a Ford Kenya ticket in 1992, and retained it in
1997 despite having fallen out badly with Raila Odinga who was then calling
the shots in Luoland after his father's death.
Mr Orengo resisted the Narc wave in 2002, instead making a token
presidential bid on the Social Democratic Party ticket. He ended up losing his
parliamentary seat as well.
ABUYA ABUYA
"Kenya was ripe for a revolution. We were pro-poor and had social
inclination. Njonjo was pro-rich and for Wazungu (white people). He was an extreme
capitalist. We were fighting for fair distribution of resources especially
among the rural poor. But he was opposed to that.
"I believed and still believe in socialism. I strongly believe in fair
distribution of resources. We never sat down to conspire as Njonjo wanted the
world to believe.
"We were brought together by a shared vision: democracy and fair
distribution of resources. We would discuss and analyse Bills before moving to the
House for debate."
So recalls Mr Abuya Abuya, who had succeeded his then close ally, the late
George Anyona, as MP for Kitutu East.
He was soon lumped with the famous Seven Bearded Sisters.
In 1982, Mr Abuya was lured from Parliament Buildings by two officers from
the dreaded Special Branch and questioned about his opposition to the
Government. He was put in a water-logged cell for four days before he was
released.
Born in 1944, Abuya first went to Parliament in 1979 as member for Kitutu
East, now Kitutu Masaba, after his political ally Mr Anyona's nomination
papers were rejected by the returning officer. Mr Anyona, who had been detained
without trial in 1997, was told he needed special clearance to be allowed to
contest.
Mr Abuya served two terms, before losing to Mr Otieno Momanyi in 1988. He
had by then fallen out with with Mr Anyona.
After the defeat, Mr Abuya remained out of the limelight until the
reintroduction of multi-party politics when he joined Ford Kenya.
And after he failed to make any impression in the 1992 elections, he
shifted to Nairobi to try his luck in the Dagoretti parliamentary seat in 1997 on a
Ford Kenya ticket.
But party leader Michael Wamalwa proposed him for appointment as a member
of the Electoral Commission of Kenya where he serves to date.
Additional reporting by Barnabas Bii, Ngumbao Kithi, Simbi Kusimba and
Pascal Mwandambo