Cover Story: Saba Saba: the story of an iconic struggle!
BACKGROUND TO SABA SABA - The story of an on-going iconic struggle
The time was ripe for protest and revolution. Kenyans had had enough. When Moi took over from Jomo Kenyatta in 1978, in true nyayo fashion he perfected the art of state torture and repression. That was the only way he could...
Saba Saba: The Living Spirit of the Resistance Movement in Kenya by Wambua Kawive
The political plurality that was envisaged in the Lancaster house constitution that we inherited in 1963 was dismembered by Jomo Kenyatta and his henchmen. By 1965, the Kenya African National Union (KANU) was a monolithic – the party, the government,...
Saba Saba 1990 and The Lawyers by Pheroze Nowrojee S.C.
Two key factors, as they grew, year by year, defeated Moi. First: the lawyers constantly held up the Alternative to Moi. Second: the lawyers suffered in the repression just as the people did. It made the people believe in the...
SABA SABA - Fate or Destiny?!? by Njeri Kabeberi
Coincidence-Fate or Destiny?!? They say a coincidence is a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection; that fate is the development of events outside a person's control, regarded as predetermined by a supernatural power and destiny is what's...
THE 1990 SABA SABA PUTSCH IN A NEW LIGHT: A generational event which changed Kenya forever by Hon. Wanyiri Kihoro
I had just left detention without trial a year before - a 6 footer weighing 70 kgs, but still as determined as ever to fight for a New Kenya, free from the suffocating stranglehold of KANU’s one party rule. After...
‘Mbili Mbili Kama Kawaida’ by John Khaminwa
Last week I had the pleasant surprise of meeting Zarina Patel and her husband at my legal chambers in Nairobi after many years. Zarina Patel is a Kenyan Asian lady a graduate of Harvard, Har...
Saba Saba and My Political Awakening by Ndungi Gĩthuku
On 7 July 1990, Kenyans took to the streets to demand free elections. The politicians who had called for the protests, Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia, were arrested before the pr...
The Saba Saba Experience by Antony Adoyo
In the past years of 2017, 2018 and 2019 the Social Justice Centres Working Group (SJCWG), while tapping into the rich history of Saba Saba, held successful peaceful demonstrations into Kamk...
The ‘Second Liberation’: Waves, Milestones and its Soldiers by Abdulrahman Wandati
Background The story of Kenya is the story of a National identity forged out of the Colonial experience. A story of oxymorons. The story of an entity forged out of hitherto disparate politi...
Time Young Kenyans Were Exposed To Their Political History by Fr Gabriel Dolan
Those of us who have walked this earth a little longer than most, frequently like to compare notes on their favourite decade. Was it the fifties, the sixties, the nineties or even the new m...
Youth Of Saba Saba: Rage Fuelled By Innocent Courage by Muthoni Kamau
7 July 1990, the first Saba Saba, was a bloody day. The call for multi-partyism had triggered a fury bottled up for many years by Kenyans, especially the youth. Kenyans born in the 60’s and ...
Saba Saba and the Struggle for a Better Kenya by Stephen Wetheo Musau
There is no doubt that in the journey of life, one finds a course that determines his or her path into adulthood. Such a path is influenced by different experiences, intuitions, combined wit...
Reflections on the 2020 Saba Saba by Suhayl Omar
30 years later we are still fighting the same oppression that plagued the Moi regime. From the disdain of human rights that flows through all the arms of government to suppression of dissent...
The Road Leading to the Birth of Saba Saba for Kenya’s Post-Colonial State Transformation by Ndung’u Wainaina
Saba Saba solemnizes liberty and freedom. It is the triumph of the resolute resistance against tyranny, oppression and dehumanization of the people of Kenya. It marks the dismantling and shr...
My Day on Saba Saba 2020 by George Kegoro
I was asked to spare myself from joining colleagues that would come out into the procession to mark the 30th anniversary of saba saba and instead remain on standby to serve as legal counsel ...
The Saba Saba Process By Zein Abubakar
One of the most difficult matters to deal with in a society that has been traumatized by past oppression and injustices is memory. The remembering and retelling of the complicated past is pa...
Chelagat Mutai – A life in struggle
On this, and every Saba Saba Day, we honour the memory of a truly heroic Kenyan who, though she never participated in any Saba Saba event, left this world on this sacred day in the year 2013...
Eye Witness Accounts 2020
#SABASABA #MARCHFOROURLIVES UPDATE by DEFENDERS COALITION Today, 7 July 2020, 63 human rights defenders (HRD) were arrested while participating in the peaceful #SabaSabaMarchForOurLives ...
Other related articles
Citizens Demands (images/v017/i03/01-cover/019/Citizens%20Demands%201.pdf) Ripples of Hope (images/v017/i03/01-cover/019/Ripples%20of%20Hope.pdf) Saba Saba At 30: The Gains We Have Lost (i...
Poetry
By Monaja Ilikuwa nineteen ninety, baada ya Ouko kukangwa Kiasi kidogo kabla machafuko kuanza, Serikali ya Nyayo ilisababisha vituko majanga, Kudhulumu raiya ikitarajia wao kunyamaza,...
Videos
What Is Saba Saba? (Short video): Voices of Njeru Kathangu, Koigi wa Wamwere and footage of the brutal beating of Rev. Timothy Njoya https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVYZi0-AZjE (https://www...
Public Demonstrations Gallery of Pictures
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Heroes Gallery
[widgetkit id="173"] CAPTIONS Bedan Mbugua - Journalist and Magazine Editor Mr Mbugua lost his job as Editor in Chief of Beyond magazine, which in 1988 had highlighted massive el...
Regular Column
Main Editorial
Witnessing the Saba Saba marches in Nairobi this year, it struck us that there has not been to date (at least we have not seen one) a compilation of the experiences of individuals and institutions...
London Calling - People of Colour by Ramnik Shah
London Calling US Election 2020: relax, the nightmare is over! Not quite, not yet, alas. There is no doubt however that we have all been treated to a seemingly endless series of news updates, analyses, statistics,...
Special Feature
Constitution Making and its Link to Saba Saba
As we undertook our research for this special issue on ‘Saba Saba’, it became increasingly obvious that there was a link between Saba Saba and the struggle for a new Constitution. While Saba Saba’s main aim was a return to political pluralism and a multi-party state, many who participated in it realized that it was just the beginning of a process to completely transform and re-write the social contract the state had made with the people of Kenya in 1963....
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Footsteps
![Emma Gama Pinto [nee Dias] 1928 - 2020](/cache/mod_news_show_sp2/nssp2_thumbs/315/3.jpg "Emma Gama Pinto [nee Dias] 1928 - 2020")
Emma Gama Pinto [nee Dias] 1928 - 2020
Emma was born July 24, 1928 under the astrological sign of Leo. A lioness has died, and we are all...