We the People: Thinking Heavenly, Acting Kenyanly

by Timothy Njoya

Timothy Njoya makes a decision to convert to Christianity. He is met with threats of a beating. The year is 1956. The Mau Mau had taken to the forest determined to win back the land stolen from them by the British settlers. Now, Njoya has an all-consuming purpose. Based on his newfound sovereignty, he dedicates his life to restoring the people's humanity and the country's nationhood. His pursuit sees him thrice defrocked and, thrice left for dead, but he is thrice reinstated and thrice rises again, surviving against the odds to see the beginning of the realization of his dream - a constitution based on the sovereignty of We the People.

470 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 31, 2017

Reviews

[Mbogo J · Rating 4 out of 5]

There exists a realm that can only be accessed by religious people with an unfailing moral compass when they engage in civic life. We have seen it countless times all over the world and across time most famously in the American civil rights fight era with MLK. In Kenya we have our own Reverend Timothy Njoya, A man who has lived an eclectic life in the tireless pursuit of giving humanity their identity back from what has been defined by circumstances.

I have been looking for this book for a while and at one point had to request my local bookshop to call me when they stocked it. It seems am not the only one who was interested in Njoya's story. Good things come to those who wait.

There is a lot to say about this book but what I enjoyed most was the little nuggets of history about my country which they don't teach you at school. Things like the first Mashujaa day was celebrated privately by activists who thought Kenyatta Day was a glorification of one individual, later it became a national holiday. The future is made by brave souls who can look further than the current horizon... I also did not know that there was an attempted coup in 1971. We all know about the 1982 one, turns out there was an earlier one in 1971. Who knew? I am guessing people who are not me. This book also made me understand why a new constitution was a big deal. I was a kid in the late 90s and early 2000s and the clamour for the new constitution was always in the evening news and as a kid I didn't know why it was a big deal but now I know. There are many, many things I learnt which cannot be rehashed here and on whose strength alone I can advice people to read this.

As this is not a piece of propaganda but an honest review, there were some things I found challenging with the book. One is the writing itself. Njoya is a preacher and as such he is used to writing sermons which he modeled this book after. It has short chapters, three or four pages at most with each chapter being self contained. While this might be good for a homily it does not serve well for a book format. It resulted in a lot of repetition of details and wild jumps in timelines. I also found it standing on shaky ground when it made it intellectual arguments. You get the notion that Njoya thought that if somehow Kenya had a new constitution and some Christian version of Sharia laws then all will be well and Kenya might became Shangri-La. A lot of the arguments made here were theological when a wider lens was needed to look at things. Tom Mboya's The Challenge of Nationhood stands as the gold standard on how to write about Kenya. Such a tragedy that he died so young...

Still I take nothing away from the man himself. Reverend Timothy Njoya is God's gift to humanity. His drive, bravery, content of character and fortitude as he showed Kenyans that it was possible to stand against tyrants and demand a better life stands as a singular testament on human life from which others can borrow a leaf as they chart their own path in life. Highly recommended especially to Kenyans or anyone with an interest in Kenya.

[Mo Sande · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took me 6 months, and I finished only because I started and I haven’t yet learned to abandon a book. I looked forward to reading it, but it was disappointing in its disorganisation and repetitiveness. Take out all the repetition and a well laid-out 2,000-word essay would have been gripping.

Also -and I say this with some hesitation- it feels like an exercise in self-validation by a person who has irrefutably and indelibly earned his place in the history of Kenya’s democracy.

That said, one thing I really valued about this book is that it gave me a historian’s hindsight and context, joining dots on hugely pivotal moments that I witnessed as a child - in the news and in my parents’ conversations - that I lacked the awareness to understand.

The best part of the book, for me, was Willy Mutunga’s foreword.

[Grace Mwaura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Looked forward to reading it, but was disappointed in how the book was organized. Kept wondering why the publisher did such a horrible job with such an important memoir! I hope his other books are well-written