July 5th is the late TJ Mboya's 39th anniversary. That is the day he died (in 1969) at the hands of a gunman known as Nashon Isaac Njenga Njoroge. Students of history, and the recent upsurge in new revelations about his death are attached below for any of you, who occossionaly stray into my e-hut.
http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143989571&cid=4
http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143989575&cid=4
You may also sample these verses from "RATENG' AND BRIDE.* TJ was popularly called, Rateng', by his contemporaries, but he is not the RATENG' in my epic poem. For the young among us, you want to know that this native son of Rusinga Island---a seed of Ramogi Ajwang' (Ramogi ka Podho son of the great Ramogi)---was a GO-GETTER.
In this regard, TJ is remembered for the great Mboya Airlifts (educational) that saw the arrival of many sons of Kenya at the shores of the Americas, as the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was doing the same in the Soviet Block. Two sons of Ramogi, polarized by an ideaologically polarized world of the 1950s and 1960s, yet able to bring the kill home for their nation, Kenya! The Shield, the Spear, the Cock and the Axe (all four are requisite in starting a Luo home) in "Kenya's Court of Arms" are a testimony to Ramogi's footprints and Wisdom in Kenya's political journey.
Rateng TJ is my inspiration---only I can't do even a millionth of what he did!
Rateng',
This genie-of-a-woman
Has wooed and killed
Each and every one
of our brothers
She ever danced with:
AK Joremo—
the best legal mind
Of his generation—
Fell on her chest after a brief
but romantic affair—
AK fell to an irate, rival’s barb.
TJ JaRusinga,
Was then the best dancer
On the floor—a dancer
with a golden tongue,
A fast pair of feet
And a sharp mind;
TJ was a dancer with
An unmatchable speed
On his feet
On any dance floor—
TJ Fell to a jealous rival’s
Arrow of passion.
Rateng’,
TJ fell to a jealous rival’s
arrow of passion,
As he flirted, chatted
and danced to a slow Rumba
with the woman.
Rateng’,
TJ fell in broad daylight—
Like a common-street thief—
He fell, the bride’s
freshly-minted ring
Still in his pocket.
* Source: RATENG' AND BRIDE (a poem) pp 19&20)----NEW
Author: Joseph R. Alila
Published by CreateSpace
www.createspace.com/3346481
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