The news came in the afternoon
Pinto is assassinated
Pinto is assassinated
Pinto is dead
The smog of people’s anger
Clouded the city streets
Police were mobilized
Not to hunt the killers
To cover up the murder
Death silence roamed statehouse
As the principle killers
Watched the reaction of the people
Unexpectedly
An official statement was distributed
In the capital city
Pinto was killed they said
Because he was a communist
The names of the killers
Were never revealed
But the situation went back to normal
The workers went back to the factories
The university students resumed their studies
A communist is killed
A Kenyan Asian communist
Who cares?
Who gives a damn?
And yet
He represented the best in us.
March 6, 1986 Kamiti M.S. Prison.
The happenings of the morning of 24th February 1965 happened as a warning, a fearful act by some powerful forces to intimidate the tides of liberation struggles in Kenya. Of course they did not come as a surprise, but it must have been a vigorous tremor, to the revolutionary ranks, shock the progressive units, then followed a consistent, deep silence, raised tensions, then, things suddenly got back to normal. A committed, hopeful and ideologically clear, 38 year old, Kenyan Asian communist, Pio Gama Pinto is gunned down, at the sight of his daughter, along his gateway in Nairobi. A clear depiction of intended malice by a bluntly violent state, purposefully orchestrated murder. He was not mistakenly murdered.
The ruling class state, has always, and still is, an agent deliberately designed and tried out, to enhance repression towards those against its master’s establishment. These few, privileged group of people, who own a considerable sum of capital and control power have hit men, the police, prisons and machinery to enforce repression by unleashing their unreasonable hostility towards the contending force, anytime they are signalled to. The current Kenyan state apparatus has only inherited the characteristics, institutions and conduct from the colonial powers. There have been completely no disengagement with our colonial masters. The state has obviously been involved in claiming progressive and revolutionary lives in history, some of them including, Dedan Kimathi, Gen. Baimungi, General Kago and all freedom fighters murdered by the British government. In other societies, Patrice Lumumba, in Congo, Amilcar Cabral in Guinea, and Pio’s great friend, Malcolm X, who visited Pinto in 1959. In today’s society, the state represses progressive movements by infiltration, arrest of its key leaders, failure to offer quality healthcare, murdering poor people by denying them land, food and basic control of the means of production.
Pinto’s death was a validation of the trembling nature of his killers. They were afraid of the ideological clarity by Pinto and his political camp. They could not handle the resistance that Pio and his comrades were advancing. A class of few, privileged, selfish elites, hijacked the liberation journey, taking advantage of their societal status in the transition from colonialism to a self-governed rule. The struggles against colonialism did not, however settle the question on class exploitation in Kenya, they only replaced the structural apparatus with new classes. There was a lot of hope in the self-governing rule. The collective sacrifice and contributions made by the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, and other freedom fighters units across the country, were carelessly wrapped up and ungratefully dismissed after independence. The fighters were forced to the struggle for freedom by necessity, their land, cattle and industries were confiscated by the British and were pushed densely in concentration camps. To date, they have never been resettled, their grandchildren today, linger hopelessly in the streets of Mathare, Kayole, Kiambu, Dandora, Githurai, Mukuru, korogocho and some arid parts of the rural with no hope for food, employment, healthcare, and housing.
Pinto is often remembered for his stern position on critical matters to the Kenyan poor masses. Uhuru must be uhuru for the masses, uhuru from exploitation, poverty and disease. Pio Gama Pinto.
This is the simplest, renowned illustration of who pinto was, his character and attitude. His experiences in his early life both in Kenya and Goa prepared him for the upcoming tasks. He was a flexible, selfless Marxist-Leninist fighter who, apart from mobilizing resources for the fighters, hosting lawyers who would represent the fighters, and intense political organizing, also took part in the formation and institutionalization of the Kenya African National Union and a devoted journalist. He was a smart political influencer, his aggressors, also liked his character and even tried to win him to their side. In a very short time in parliament, he had won the opinions of powerful political forces. When the sessional paper no 10 was being introduced at the floor of the house, Pinto and his camp, constituting of the likes of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Joseph Murumbi and Fitz De Souza, had planned to introduce a counter paper. The sessional paper was meant to outline the development path Kenya would take going forward. Outlining a neoliberal market structure, insisted on placement for high taxation on the poor and dependency on foreign aid, though slanderously, creatively scribed to mislead and confuse the Kenyan masses. His resistance on such critical plots by the ruling class led to his brutal assassination.
A few years after his assassination, the Lumumba institute was shut down, to mean his existence was a threat to the state, and which, one that can now be understood properly, to expose his murderers. The closure of the Lumumba institute was meant to erase his historical contributions to the Kenyan society. His contributions in the historic development is hardly taught in schools.
A while ago, I had only interacted with Maina wa Kinyatti’s dedication poem, on the beginning of this piece to pinto. It was difficult to come across pinto’s material, pictures or someone speaking about Pinto. There has however been a notable shift in history, with the emergence of a militant youthful generation who have upheld to the generational call to duty, and the tasks to service the revolution. There have been several articles that have recently been in circulation about Pinto at Ukombozi library. His image is seen drawn on walls and in offices. Ukombozi library, and comrade Willy Mutunga have bought some sculptures of Pinto’s face. There have sufficed a Kenyan local podcast, ‘Until All Are Free’ by Kenyan young people, in sheng (Kenyan slung). There have also been numerous visits to his grave by different social movements and progressive organizations. The organic intellectuals’ network in Kenya, has recently published a reflection book on The Legacy of Pio Gama Pinto. The network consists of young intellectuals from the Social justice movement, The Communist Party of Kenya and members of Ukombozi library, inspired by the legacy of Antonio Gramsci, an Italian revolutionary intellectual, and the historic example set by organic intellectuals like Walter Rodney, Mwalimu Nyerere and Amilcar Cabral. Shirraz Durani and Vita Books have published materials on Pio Gama Pinto, including a collection of detailed accounts of Pio’s life, Pio Gama Pinto, Kenyan Unsung Martyr 1927-1965, (2018) prolifically done articles about the life of Pinto. While still little has been achieved, we are hopeful that history shall be correctly read.
You can kill a revolutionary, but you cannot kill the revolution.
Pinto’s life remains an inspiration to Kenyan liberation struggles towards socialism 57 years after his assasination. Towards freedom and liberation from ignorance, poverty and disease. The reactionary response by the assaulters of history has proven futile. Their attempts to vilify socialism has been outlived by the dialectical approach of the phenomena on nature. The consistent state of motion. Those who are afraid of socialism, of change, are afraid of themselves. Pinto has not been forgotten. The words on his tombstone have been fulfilled. ‘If he has been extinguished yet there arise a thousand beacons from the spark he bore.’
‘Let the ruling class tremble at a communist revolution. The Proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.’ Karl Marx.