The ‘little shopkeeper’ who had Mzee Jomo Kenyatta jailed

Founding president was convicted largely due to the false testimony of Rawson Macharia

Kenya: ‘Frail, little Kikuyu shopkeeper’, that is how Time magazine described the star witness who provided false testimony against Kenya’s founding President, Jomo Kenyatta and got him convicted during the Kapenguria trials in 1953.
These memories will be replayed as the country celebrates 35 years since Kenyatta’s death today.
Attention will also be focused on his trials in Kapenguria alongside five other nationalists. Despite his role in the saga, Rawson Macharia has always escaped attention.
The trial, which took place in 1953, was dubbed the most notorious in Commonwealth history. But unknown to many, the colonial administration that was behind it was so short of evidence to convict Kenyatta and his co-accused that they had to rely on false evidence to prosecute.
Proceedings of the case stored at the Kenya National Archives shows that the colonialists relied on Macharia to nail Kenyatta.
On March 16, 1959, Time magazine wrote: “Star witness Rawson Mbogwa Macharia, a frail little Kikuyu shopkeeper, testified six years ago that Kenyatta himself had administered the Mau Mau oath on him, that he had been stripped naked and made to walk seven times through an arch of banana leaves and to drink human blood.”
Plane ride
The magazine reported that Macharia showed newspapers editors in Nairobi a letter sent to him from the then Attorney General written before the trial.
In return for his testimony, the letter said, the government would reward Macharia with a round-trip plane ride to England, a two-year college course in public administration, protection for his family when he was away, and a government job when he got home.
“The Kenya government did indeed keep its promise, at a total cost of £1,500, but nothing seemed to satisfy Macharia. Found unfit for one job, he huffily turned down another,” stated the magazine.
Revenge plot
A beer shop that the colonialists helped him to open flopped. Blaming all his troubles on the government, Macharia plotted to hit back.
In November, he signed an affidavit for People’s Convention Party Leader Tom Mboya charging that the Kenya government had paid him to lie.
The colonial government later admitted that it had paid Macharia a retainer fee of £29 per month, but insisted that it had paid him only to testify, not to lie, and promptly put him on trial for signing a false affidavit.