TOM MBOYA EMERGES
Our Kenya Correspondent writes : TN up-country Kenya, where men are divided by the blood- 'shed and bitterness of Mau Mau, they have a catch-phrase for Mombasa—`Sea level and sanity.' But at all altitudes in the ill-starred colony, complacency about race relations in East Africa's premier port of entry was sadly shaken by the six-day strike of 6,000 dockers which is estimated to have cost £260,000. Days of stone-throwing hooliganism and intimida- tion of port workers by nationalist agitators indicate that Mombasa is yet • another trouble spot on the fevered racial contours of the British East. Although the men are back at work now, having accepted the employers' offer of a 50 cent increase a shift, arbitration continues on the men's claim for another 2s. The strike was caused by three factors, the most important of which was an abrupt rise in the cost of living. In certain cases rents for one room in Mombasa had risen by as much as 13s. a month, and rice, coffee and tea have all been subjected to recent price increases. These grievances were aggravated by nationalist agitators, and the trades union structure in the port was too shaky to stop an unofficial strike. But the strong man of the hour was undoubtedly the twenty- six-year-old African general secretary of the Kenya Federa- tion of Registered Trades Unions, Mr. Tom Mboya, who, after a series of mass meetings, persuaded the men to return to work. He has also completely overhauled and strengthened trades union structure at the port. Had he been called in earlier he might have short-circuited the agitators and kept the men at work under promise of arbitration. Tom Mboya, who recently said that settler agitation against the surrender offer to Mau Mau 'made him sick,' is rapidly becoming the most significant African outside the legislature since Jomo Kenyatta.
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