Author and journalist Liz Gitonga-Wanjohi with a copy of her book, The
Fifth Columnist: A biography of Philip Ochieng. PHOTO | COURTESY
He writes well, though it is not always that
you agree with his conclusions,” author Liz Gitonga-Wanjohi quotes
lawyer Paul Muite saying of Philip Ochieng, the industrious journalist
whose illustrious career dates back to 1966 when he was hired at Daily
Nation as a reporter. However, most readers only know of Ochieng through
his newspaper columns; this biography enables one to get to see the
man’s human side. The Fifth Columnist has chronicled in
elaborate detail the myriad
surprising twists and turns in Ochieng’s
rather colourful career. What comes across clearly in this simply
written book is that its subject is not just any other journalist.
As
Muite’s statement above suggests, one of the core distinguishing traits
of Ochieng the journalist is his dazzling deftness with language;
another is his deep knowledge of not just how English works but also how
it constitutes systems of thought. His grasp of history and science has
also been demonstrated throughout the book.
To
her credit, Ochieng’s biographer does a commendable job digging deep
into his background to present readers with a fuller picture of him than
one might ever piece together from his newspapers articles. Thus the
narrative unfolds of the little village boy from Awendo whose craving
for knowledge drove him to walk seven kilometres to school. Might this
fact have subconsciously led to his shunning of any athletic exertions
in later years?
We are presented
with the image of a boy who was keenly aware right from the beginning
that the pursuit of knowledge would be his ticket to a world outside the
village, and to great self-fulfilment. Hence, while his village mates
aspired to not-so-outstanding village schools, Ochieng knew that the
famous Alliance High School was his passport to the future; he walked
through the institution’s hallowed gates in 1955. One question that
remains about his Alliance days, though, is what really drove Ochieng to
become a rebel? The chapter on Alliance also has interesting details
about the bigotry of the famous school head Carey Francis.
Ochieng’s
engagement with the world is anchored upon his questioning the order of
things. It might also explain why in later years Ochieng kept resigning
from the many jobs he held; a junior officer at the UN, teaching, a
protocol officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the many
positions he held as a journalist. If something does not make sense to
him, Ochieng walks away; he claims he has only been sacked once, in
1992, from the Editor-in-Chief’s position at the KANU-owned Kenya Times
newspaper. It is in this same fashion that he walked out of his first
marriage to an African American woman while studying at Roosevelt
University.
BOOK KNOWLEDGE
Nevertheless,
even as it is possible to explain some of his unfinished projects —
such as his incomplete degrees — by citing this need to walk away from
things that no longer make sense to him, it is also quite possible that
his impatience, and being taken in by distractions, leads him to abandon
his work midstream. The hoisting of independent Kenya’s flag certainly
led to heady moments, but reading through The Fifth Columnist,
Ochieng’s citing patriotism as the reason for abandoning his
undergraduate studies in France is not convincing. Many other patriotic
Kenyans still went to pursue their university education after 1963 and
their patriotic duty always saw them come back to play their role in
nation-building. In similar manner, one wishes Ochieng would have
supplied more concrete reasons for quitting his undergraduate studies at
Humboldt University in the then East Germany.
One
of the most admirable things about Ochieng is that he is a self-taught
journalist who excelled in the craft and bested many who had been
trained in it. However, as the book shows, this achievement has its own
problems. On the one hand, it has made Ochieng appear arrogant and
domineering to those he evaluates as incompetent. On the other hand
though, and I think quite crucially, it has continuously led him to the
awareness that book knowledge isn’t enough to shape an individual.
Thus
his questioning of the fetishization of degrees in Kenyan society,
especially given the fact that quite a bit of the information we pick up
in school ends up being useless or it is imperfectly imparted thereby
rendering such products of the school system half-baked. This raises an
important philosophical question: Why do we take people to school?
At
another level, readers who are familiar with The Kenyatta Succession —
co-authored with fellow journalist Joseph Karimi — and Ochieng’s I
Accuse the Press will be riveted to particularly chapters 22 through to
24, which are packed with incredible details regarding his stint at
Kenya Times, perhaps with good reason. Intuitively, even the biographer
knows that this is the period of Ochieng’s professional life that many
people still wonder about — and some are unlikely to ever forgive him
for it.
His sometimes three page-long
commentaries in the paper have justly been characterised as
‘unprofessional’ even by his own colleagues quoted in the book. The
amazing thing is that Ochieng still believes he was right in having lent
his skills to defending Moi’s tyranny and demonising everyone that was
opposed to the Kanu regime whose paper he was editing. These three
chapters particularly show one of Ochieng’s character flaws — He seems
to believe that by taking the side of tyranny, only he was right and
everyone else wrong. What is even more puzzling is that in the book he
admits to his being a leftist yet the party whose newspaper he was
working on could very easily have been described as fascist.
POINT FOR REFLECTION
Ochieng’s
biography also has some interesting tid bits. Not many Kenyans know
that either the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson or, more
intriguingly, the Argentine Marxist guerrila Ernesto Che Guevara came
calling to Nairobi, and that in his capacity as protocol officer Ochieng
received them. I would be curious to know if ever Ochieng considered
the possibility of breaking protocol and having a word with these
gentlemen.
Like or hate Ochieng, it
is impossible not to agree with him when he upbraids many print
journalists for their poor skills. He is particularly offended by the
poor grasp of English by reporters. Rooting for investigative
journalism, Ochieng has argued quite convincingly, that research is core
to any good writing.
Liz
Gitonga-Wanjohi has shown what the contribution of one man to his
profession has been but in a sense the book also offers glimpses of some
of the quantifiable achievements of the Kennedy Airlifts of the 1960s
by showing what some of the beneficiaries did for the country after
their return.
This work also raises
an important point for reflection: Where are the biographies of Hillary
Ng’weno, Joseph Karimi, Joe Kadhi, Catherine Gicheru, Pius Nyamora, Roy
Gachuhi, Gitobu Imanyara, and Njehu Gatabaki, among others? These
individuals have a treasure trove of knowledge about how the media in
this country works — they owe Kenyans their stories.
I
know many Kenyans are uncomfortable about their stories being narrated
before their death, but Philip Ochieng has shown that there is nothing
to be afraid of, and there is nothing so odious that it cannot be
explained. Ochieng admits to having done some bad things but with
uncharacteristic grace he has allowed readers to get a glimpse of what
some of these might be.
I consider
Liz Gitonga-Wanjohi’s an important serving to our search for some
answers about a man whose dance with words, even in retirement,
continues to dazzle readers.
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