Gombesugu,
Sasa katika hawa wazalendo nilowataja kila mtu ana historia yake nzuri kabisa katika
kupigania uhuru wa Tanganyika.
Hiyo timu ya Wakenya ya Budohi, Ongalo na Aoko hao ndiyo waliokuwa wanaunganisha
TAA na KAU ya Kenyatta.
Hawa wote walikuja kukamatwa na Special Branch baada ya Operation Anvil kuanza Kenya.
Naweka hapa tena mambo yaliyowashangaza jamaa hapo Nairobi wakati nawasiolisha mada
yangu ''Tanzania: A Nation Without Heroes:''
This piece of information here below stands as witness to the rich history which for many
years remained unknown:
Abdulwahid and his friend
Ahmed Rashad Ali went to a house in the suburbs which was
in darkness and surrounded by Mau Mau guards. He was expected.
Kenyatta was informed and came out of the house to receive him. This meeting took place
under the cover of darkness probably in Eastleigh in the suburbs of Nairobi where most of
the 1950s Mau Mau meetings before the emergency took place.
Ahmed Rashad Ali recalls that he heard Kenyatta calling
Abdulwahid by name.
Kenyatta
had known
Ally Sykes in Nairobi in 1946 and it is most probable that
Abdulwahids work was
made easy by that acquaintance.
Ahmed Rashad Ali met
Kenyatta and they shook hands.
After introductions,
Kenyatta, Abdulwahid, Fred Kubai, Bildad Kaggia and Kungu Karumba
went to another room where the meeting took place.
Ahmed Rashad remained outside with a guard.
[1]
Another meeting was proposed by
Kenyatta to be held in Arusha and TAA was to be presented
by
Abdulwahid Sykes, Steven Mhando and
Dossa Aziz.
This meeting never took place because
Operation Anvil came into operation soon after.
In 1955
Dome Budohi and
Patrick Aoko and other Kenyans were among Kenyans rounded up in
Dar es Salaam following Operation Anvil which came into operation in Kenya in 1954.
Budohi and
Aoko the two active Kenyans in TANU were remanded at Central Police Station
[2]
in Dar es Salaam and were all the time kept in chains.
Budohi was the first Kenyan to join TANU and was the proud bearer of TANU card no. 6.
[3]
Budohi and
Aoko were interrogated for six months and then sent to a camp in Handeni to be
transported to detention camps in Kenya.
Budohi was detained in Lamu Island.
The Kenyan nationalists were packed in cattle wagons chained and they passed through Korogwe
and Taveta on their way back to Kenya.
Ally Sykes then transferred to Korogwe as punishment for being among the 17 founders of TANU
went to the railway station to see them off.
[1] This information is from
Ahmed Rashad Ali broadcaster for Radio Free Africa in Cairo a radio
station set up by
Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt in 1950s as propaganda machinery for African
countries fighting to liberate their countries from colonialism. In that position
Ahmed Rashad
came to know many freedom fighters including
Jomo Kenyatta. For more information on
Ahmed
Rashad Ali see
Maisha na Nyakati za Abdulwahid Sykes (1924 1968) Historia Iliyofichwa Kuhusu
Harakati za Waislam Dhidi ya Ukoloni wa Waingereza katika Tanganyika, Phoenix Publishers Nairobi
2002 pp 199 205.
Ahmed Rashad Ali Many years later had an audience with President Kenyatta
at the State House in Nairobi. Surprisingly
Kenyatta remembered him as the person who accompanied
Abdulwahid to that meeting in Nairobi in 1950. The President called his official photographer who took
their photograph posing together. This photograph decorated the living room of
Ahmed Rashad Ali for
many years.
President Kenyatta also presented him with a tie with the national colours of Kenya.
[2] This building still stands in its original form although it is not now a police station. A plaque on the
building to honour the nationalists who spent time there will help in preserving that history.
[3] Julius Nyerere card no. 1;
Ally Sykes card no 2,
Abdulwahid Sykes card no 3;
Dossa Aziz card
No. 4;
Denis Phombeah card No. 5;
Dome Okochi Budohi card no. 6
John Rupia card No. 7;
Bibi Titi
Mohamed card No. 16;
Idd Tosiri card No. 25.