Biafra and the left
Sir: Mr S. L. Muhanji's letter (30 May) does not explain the attitude of the Kenya government on the Biafra tragedy. No one is against Kenya getting loans and experts from East or West. The distasteful thing is that for the loans, her national con- science is mortgaged to such an extent that on tragic issues affecting the survival of her fellow Africans, Kenya's role is that of a committed stooge dancing to the tune of her donor and always echoing her master's voice as on Biafra. Mr Muhanji must have been a victim of diplomatic flatteries to think that Kenya's image in present Africa is something better.
As an African, I can say that independ- ent Kenya is a disappointment. As a Biafran, it would not be going too far to remind the Kenya High Commission's press attaché that at the time of Kenya's tribulations, during the Mau Mau emer- gency, Eastern Nigerians (now Biafrans), through Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe's appeals, contributed monies and hired the services of a barrister who was junior counsel to Mr D. N. Pritt. QC, in the long and pro- tracted court trials of .Jomo Kenyatta, and his co-accuseds at Kapenguria. No other Africans bothered about the plight of Kenyatta and others, not even the inde- pendent countries of "Ethiopia, Liberia and Egypt. No other people in Africa dared challenge the wrath of Britain when mere expression of sympathy for Imo and the Mau Mau attracted serious victimisation from British colonial authority. Biafrans damned the con, equences and expressed their sympathy and support in positive terms. Biafrans did not exploit the plight of Kenyans to curry favour with the British to accomplish their own 'develop- ment plans' like the Kenyans are doing today. Under cover of false legalism,
leaders of independent Kenya collaborate with the British government in its 'exter- minate Biafra' policy. And these are the very men that Biafrans helped in a similar situation. Good luck to Kenya and her 'development plans'!
Nweke Agbata
56 Cecilia Road, London E8
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