Free The Other Barack by Sally Jacobs

conflict, that the grievances that gave rise to the war were felt not just by a handful of weapon-toting rebels but instead ran deeply through the Kenyan heartland. And so it was that local leaders began to
surge onto the political scene, eager to participate in the first African election, which was to be held in 1957. Most of the candidates had a very definite agenda on their minds, and compromise with the colonial government was not on their list. Mau Mau may have been defeated in the forests and in the cities, but the balance of power was slowly shifting from the Europeans to the Africans—and both sides knew it.
    Tom Mboya, aligned with the Nairobi Peoples Convention Party (NPCP), of which he would eventually become president, was one of four candidates running for a seat representing Nairobi. With a highly disciplined organization behind him, Mboya campaigned on many of the positions outlined in a political manifesto he had penned while at Ruskin College called, “The Kenya Question: An African Answer.” He wanted an end to the emergency regulations. There must be a one-person, one-vote franchise for Africans and a lifting of the limitation on national political organizations for Africans. Kenya was for Kenyans. His slogan: “To hell with European Domination.” 36
    The handsome young Kenyan’s bold posture caught the attention of the American media in general and American labor leaders in particular. In the fall of 1956 the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), a group of liberal Americans and prominent black leaders interested in developing relations between the United States and Africa, invited Mboya to make a speaking tour of American college campuses. Mboya eagerly accepted. During his highly successful visit he forged a host of relationships that would blossom into a program of unique academic opportunity for hundreds of young Kenyans in the coming years.
    During that trip it is also rumored that the Central Intelligence Agency recruited Mboya through his numerous labor contacts in the United States. In 1959 Mboya, the general secretary of the Kenya Federation of Labor, became a member of the board of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), a group of international unions financed by American labor and the U.S. government with the aim of opposing communism. Mboya worked closely with the ICFTU and received their ongoing financial support for years.
    A 1969 article in the liberal magazine Ramparts , published only weeks before Mboya was assassinated, appraised the situation like this: “The
CIA’s program in Kenya could be summed up as one of selective liberation. The chief beneficiary was Tom Mboya. ... Mboya was ideal for the CIA’s purposes—the main nationalist hero and eventual chief of state, Jomo Kenyatta, not being considered sufficiently safe.” 37
    Mboya’s biographer points out that Mboya consistently declared that he never “knowingly” had any dealings with the CIA. But he also acknowledges that the young nationalist was determined to achieve his aims. Mboya’s attitude, Goldsworthy added, was, “just as expedient as the Americans’. Quite simply, he wanted the money for domestic political purposes and had no qualms about its sources.” 38
    Such relationships were strictly behind the scenes and were of little matter to the many who rallied around Mboya in his bid for office. Even Obama, a nonjoiner by nature, was swept up by the enthusiasm that engulfed the legislative race. When he was not at his desk at the law firm, Obama headed to Mboya’s office to help strategize and galvanize support among the Luo community. The NPCP was fast becoming one of the strongest political organizations in the country, despite the ban on colonywide organizations, and during his days working on Mboya’s campaign Obama met many activists who would take key roles in the coming days of independence. Obama wanted to be one of