Milestones

Few witnessed the building of the young Kenyan state from within as did Ngina Kenyatta, the widow of Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta. Mama Ngina, as she is known, will mark her 90th birthday on 24 June 2023. She was by her husband’s side when Kenya won independence 60 years ago and for many turbulent years thereafter. 

The nuclear weapon missile business is contradictory, full of missteps, highly dangerous and prepared in its madness (Mutually Assured Destruction, aka MAD, they used to call it in Cold War days) to plunge the world into a nuclear war that could reduce much if not most of the world to dust.

She was only 26 when she became the Queen of Britain and the British Empire. Today the Commonwealth has replaced Empire, but the Monarchy is still in charge. More or less.  At last year’s annual conference Prince Charles, now King Charles III, flew to Kigali, Rwanda, to open the sessions.

In his trademark three-piece suit, a rose on his lapel, a watch strapped to his waistcoat, Sir Charles Njonjo, a man of the ruling Kikuyu ethnicity, cut the image of a colonial Englishman. It was an image he loved and assiduously cultivated. Sir Charles Njonjo wasn’t really Sir Charles. He wasn’t knighted by the Queen of England though he could have been. But what else to call this man who was so English and so pro-European and had little respect for his fellow Kenyans. Although he was Attorney General, he cared little for constitutional niceties.

This has been a trying year.  We must contend not only with the many challenges of the coronavirus pandemic but also the loss of many people who have touched our lives. One of these was Mr. Bill Milligan who left us on June 29, 2021, to join his ancestors in Pagak, the proverbial land of no return.  His departure left us with mixed emotions. On the one hand, we are sad that he is no longer with us. On the other hand, we are glad that he is no longer facing life’s difficult challenges which naturally come with advancing age.

When someone dies, we feel sad and grieve for the life lost. This was the case with the passing of Lapwony Mzee Isaiah Lazaro Loka who was born on January 15, 1939. He passed on April 15, 2021 at his home near St. Mary’s Hospital, Lacor, Gulu District, Uganda. We mourn his passing because he was a husband, a father, uncle, grandpa, a friend, and a teacher to many. 

He was far from self effacing but he wasn’t pushy. He had no need to sell himself. His brains and his presence in a trim rugby form spoke for him. Ginyera Pinycwa, the long time academic and intellectual giant of Makerere University, who died of cancer on March 15^th this year, aged 74 is best remembered for his book The Social and Political Thought of an African People, the Alur and the Jonam People.