Koigi wa wamwere dreadlocks styles
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After what I went through, I realised that to survive in politics, there are occupational hazards.
You disagree with some, others become your enemies and you can easily die in the process.
If Moi confesses to Kenyans about the sins of his government, I will salute him. I had to sacrifice my education. She has given birth to me more than once.
I wish I could have a daughter to name after her.
Some even claim you are Mungiki. After what I went through, I realised that to survive in politics, there are occupational hazards.
You disagree with some, others become your enemies and you can easily die in the process.
If Moi confesses to Kenyans about the sins of his government, I will salute him.
What happened?
I don’t want to talk much about it because I have lodged an appeal case in the Court of Appeal, but the judges argued that I did not suffer and was not tortured, well, apart from the incident at Nyayo House. After the Mau Mau struggle, we ended with independence without freedom. He died of multiple strokes when Moi won the 1992 general elections.
You had the opportunity to pursue a degree at Cornell University in USA but you opted to come back and wage war against dictatorship.
I did not have any choice but to agree.
Questions have been raised concerning your religion. The plan was to make us look like terrorists.
But later, they realised my dreadlocks were gaining attention when my photo was made public and they decided to shave me.
I however refused and successfully moved to court to stop.
Kindly clarify. There is freedom of religion for everyone. If Moi was in power today, I would be having them. I understood the situation many were in.
I remember when I was taken back to Kamiti Prison, an officer wept a lot when he saw me being whipped by his boss called Mathenge.
He wept until Mathenge left. I understood the situation many were in.
I remember when I was taken back to Kamiti Prison, an officer wept a lot when he saw me being whipped by his boss called Mathenge.
I had to sacrifice my education. Are you working on something now?
For a long time, I have been working on a book titled Revolution in Olduvai. They became part of the oppressive system, but not out of choice.
They were perpetrating evil, even though they might not have personally been evil. In the literal sense.
We spoke with Koigi wa Wamwere, a former Member of Parliament from Nakuru North, now Subukia, to get a sense of context and, most likely, the significance or meaning behind the "big chop."
With a mop of 13-year-old dreadlocks that he kept while serving time for treason, the former MP rose to prominence during the Kenyatta and Moi regimes, and was a symbol of Kenya's agitation for multi-party era, as well as an uprising against the government of the time.
According to Koigi, dreadlock cutting has no universal meaning, and most people cut theirs for different reasons.
Koigi started growing his hair by a fluke, shortly after he was thrown into jail alongside three others, having been accused of importing weapons, and recruiting youths to rise against the government.
“I never really wanted to keep my hair, but the prison authorities thought if we appeared before the judge, with unkempt hair, we’d possibly look like the terrorists we were being portrayed to be,” Koigi told Citizen Digital on Monday.
“They denied us combs, in the hope that we would increasingly start looking like the Mau Mau (who were known to keep dreadlocks) and therefore look like terrorists.”
In an unexpected turn of events, following their court appearances, their hair became a fad, and was quickly adopted by others outside of prison who were protesting the leadership at the time.
According to the former MP, the prison authorities later reconsidered the hair idea, informing the prisoners that they would now need to cut their hair.
Koigi would then go to court to protest the order to cut his now-famous locks, telling the judge that his hair, while long, was neat and clean.
Following his release from prison and eventual exile to Norway, he vowed to keep his dreadlocks and shave them only when President Moi left office.
His hair became a symbol of his opposition to President Moi, and he wore it for 13 years before cutting it off in 2003.
Koigi also discusses the spectacle of Muthoni wa Kirima chopping off her hair to signal that Kenya has now attained the long-desired 'Uhuru.'
He began by joking that, as a lover of locks, more Kenyans should grow dreadlocks rather than shave them.
Did you know how to use guns?
All those were trumped up charges to take me down. It was historical.
Do you still have issues with Moi or you have forgiven him?
Differences between me and Moi were not personal but political. Moi is older than me.
There is freedom of religion for everyone.
Why?
Actually, I was among the first three Kenyans to be enrolled on a hotel management course, but I felt that though the country was independent, we were not yet out of the woods.
I could not seat pretty in USA while my people were going through discrimination and inequitable distribution of resources.
I realised that our leaders had betrayed us even after we attained independence.