The travails of the unparalleled master journalist Philip Ochieng’

Befitting Philip Ochieng’s enormous stature, scores of glorious tributes have been paid him by his fellow journalists, including by me, as well as by national leaders.

But now that more than a fortnight has passed since his death, we owe to him and to Kenyan journalism a fuller examination of his legacy, including its troubling areas, so that we might learn more about how his fabled successes as well as his travails can guide us better in our journalism and politics. 

In my view, no Kenyan journalist in the mainstream media did more to push the boundaries of press freedom than did Philip Ochieng consistently and courageously. Nor was any journalist more assailed, condemned, harassed, persecuted and hauled to jail by the authorities, or fired (and re-hired) by his employers. Or more hero-worshipped by those seeking change in the first two decades of ferment once he began his career writing his Nation column in 1968.

Given his mastery of writing and journalism, he could have easily found an accommodation and prosperous niche within the system, but the idea literally never even occurred to him. This was what he was born to do.  

That mastery of multiple journalistic skills saw him repeatedly hired in senior media positions despite his fiercely independent political perspectives — but never a position where he could influence editorial policy.

In those first two decades when Kenya’s future was being cemented as a “liberal” state committed to an unapologetically pro-western orientation, there were many media dissenters, but no one as deeply probing and questioning as Philip. He was my only model as a journalist.

Philip was also the first indigenous Kenyan to become the chief sub-editor 1979,  under Daily Nation editor-in-chief Joe Kadhi.

Philip Ochieng’s book I Accuse the Press was an African masterpiece, a fiery polemic and tour de force that showcased his intellectual and literary ferment, albeit a bit over-written.

“The book invokes an Olympian image,” wrote the late Harvard Professor Calestous Juma in his brilliant and insightful Introduction. 

“He pursues truth and social justice with the single-mindedness of a Socratic philosopher. His commitment to professional cannons and to excellence was simply too high to emulate.” 

PHILIP'S ACHIEVEMENTS

Ironically, even though he trained many subsequent editors at the Nation, he himself was never given that honour, except very briefly. But he was a master of so many journalistic skills that despite his independent political perspectives, he was repeatedly hired in senior positions. He was also the first indigenous Kenyan to become a sub-editor in 1970. 

Among Philip’s other remarkable accomplishments was his being invited in 1970 to take a senior editor’s post at the Daily News in Dar-es-Salaam by the renowned Frene Ginwala, and worked subsequently under her successor Ben Mkapa, Tanzania’s future President.

That was just two years after he started his powerfully written “dissent” column in the Nation in1968. In 1982, Philip was invited to be editor of the Sunday Times in Kampala. No other journalist has enjoyed such distinctions across East Africa.

In 1983, he was appointed the English language editor of Roberto Savio’s Inter Press Service in Rome, after we worked together at Unicef for a few months as exiles!

The only other mainstream journalist who expanded press freedom like Philip was George Githii, the renowned pro-establishment editor who could take on governing powers.

Githii was also brilliant and courageous and would even criticize policies known to be dear to Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, despite being quite close to the President.

For this independent streak, he lost of the Editorship of The Nation twice (1967 and 1977), and The Standard (1982).

Two of these firings (1967 and 1982) resulted  from his deeply- felt crusade against detention without trial. And as always, Githii was not diplomatic in his opposition.

In 1982, as the NY Times reported, he condemned the government “for detaining people without trial and accused it of intimidating journalists and creating fear and insecurity in the body politic.''

And when he was detained overnight, he sued the powerful Police Commissioner of Police Bernard Hinga for "unlawful detention". But Githii dealt a near fatal blow to his reputation in 1975, when he reported in the Nation that the surgingly popular JM Kariuki had been spotted in Zambia, when he in fact this potential future president had been killed in the Ngong Hills.   

THE OTHER SIDE OF PHILIP

To come back to Philip, honouring him does not mean we should gloss over areas of his career that were considered by many as a betrayal of his great record of challenging power in the interest of pro-people justice and equity.

Many condemned him for agreeing to become the editor-in-chief of Kanu’s Kenya Times from 1988-91, in effect becoming a champion of President Daniel Moi’s widely despised policies.

So where before he used his unmatched linguistic, journalistic and political fluency to dissect the fundamental missteps of our new leadership and the newly grasping elites from the late 1960s on, he now used these same skills in powerful arguments for one-party rule.

As a journalist, I am strongly in favour of independent views, including on supposedly sacrosanct issues such as multiparty democracy. We have seen how such democracy has been so exploited in the US in recent decades to buttress the rule of the powerful by both the Republicans and the Democrats that it saw Donald Trump, with his clearly expressed abhorrent views, elected President, and continues to be passionately loved by his base. He could even return to power in 2024.     

In the 1960s and 1970s I myself accepted the possibility of one-party rule succeeding – indeed, we in Kenya had one-man rule under Kenyatta and Moi. And while Kenyans did far better economically then, Presidents Mwalimu Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda did far better with one-party rule to keep their nations inclusive, united and peaceful.

Currently, we are seeing impoverished Kenyans suffering deeply amidst shattering price rises despite multiparty rule.

But supporting Moi’s corrupt, dictatorial and cruel one-party rule was going much too far. Because we were close friends, Philip and I discussed his position, and he explained that he opposed the western world’s demanding their own preferences, which powerful Kenyan forces were using to come to power.

My simple rejoinder was that of course the West was pushing its own interests — but Kenyans were extremely unhappy with one party rule and were demanding more democracy.   

It’s important to point out that Philip’s integrity was never compromised. While working for President Moi, he could have easily obtained a small plot where he could have built a house, and hence saved funds for his last two years, which unfortunately did not go well.

But Philip could also be very stubborn, contrary, imperious and uncompromising. That sometimes led him into conflict with his superiors for non-political reasons.

At the Daily News in Tanzania, he got into spats with colleagues that were unproductive. He lost his editorship of the Ugandan Sunday Times within weeks as he condemned President Ronald Reagan’s attacks on other countries.  

In the early 1990s, I was able to secure for Philip the editor’s position for the paper that was being published for a major United Nations Conference, the first time an African had been appointed.

Here he was unable to fully get along with his diverse team.  

RESTLESS PHILIP

In 1976, he strongly condemned the Kenya government in target for supporting Israel’s raid on Entebbe to rescue hostages – a deeply-felt but not pragmatic stance at this globally-intense moment of crisis.   

There was also a restlessness in Philip that frequently saw his leave projects he has started for some new intellectual pursuit. He never obtained a degree despite a full scholarship under the airlift to the US, leaving for other studies in France, Switzerland and East Germany. He had a long and highly distinguished career, but he held at least 20 separate jobs or assignments — which he could always easily get.   

None of this takes away from Philip’s overall genius, commitment and courage. He was an astonishingly learned person with an intellectual ferment I have not met in anyone else. Nor have I known in my half century of national and international work someone more learned than Philip Ochieng.

We knew from his column in the Nation how much he knew about Kenyan and African culture and history, but few knew that he knew more than many Europeans details of what could be considered arcane treaties of their continent.

I am utterly blessed that I knew Philip. No person had a more profound impact on my life than he did– and this was long before I met him. His outspoken column influenced me in giving up my chosen goal of a university professor for journalism when I returned home from the US in 1968. There I had seen how servile the supposedly free media had been in backing the government’s utterly destructive war on Vietnam. And here was Philip in third world Kenya able to condemn his own government for much smaller crimes.

I will miss him dearly.