Funeral

Shock, utter disbelief and anger gripped the country.
“What have you people done to Pinto?” Legislator Oduya Oprong confronted Tom Mboya.
“No! No! No! Kenyatta must explain! He must explain!” shouted Achieng Oneko.
“How could such a thing ever happen in our country?” pleaded Minister Gikonyo Kiano.
Joseph Murumbi, Kenya’s Foreign Minister, just sobbed and sobbed.
Oginga Odinga, the Vice-president, moved Parliament to tears as he proposed a one-week adjournment.
27 February 1965: Pinto was laid to rest beside his father in the City Park Cemetery. A huge number of mourners from Kenya (Vice-President Odinga), Tanzania (Foreign Minister Oscar Kambona), Uganda, Zambia (Foreign Minister Simon Kapwepwe), Mozambique (Dr Eduardo Mondlane) and India attended. As did Makhan Singh, founder of Kenya’s Trade Union Movement.

PIO GAMA PINTO – Independent Kenya’s First Martyr 1927-1965
23 decades have passed, yet the true history of this Kenyan Patriot continues to be shrouded in silence, mystery and intrigue. And Kenyans are denied the benefit of his legacy. Pinto fought against colonialism on several fronts and after ‘independence’ took on the neo-colonialists and their local allies. There are no statues or artworks in his memory, and except for a road renamed recently, no literature to disseminate his vision, no official references to his activism and no effort to uncover his real killers. Sadly since then, many more assassinations have blotted Kenya’s landscape and our heroes remain un-vindicated.