Wahome Mutahi

Wahome Mutahi (October 24 1954 – July 22 2003) was one of the most beloved humourists of Kenya. He was popularly known as "Whispers" after the name of the column he wrote for "The Daily Nation" from 1982 to 2003, offering a satirical view of the trials and tribulations of Kenyan life.

Mutahi was equally well-known in theatre where he wrote and acted in English- and Kikuyu-language plays that caricatured Kenya's society and politics using his company "Igiza Productions". [ [http://www.artmatters.info/theatre/articles/crawls.php Art Matters.info :: flaunting arts and culture in Africa ] ] A memorial burst of the late Wahome has been erected at the Kenya National Theatre. Outside of Kenya, he wrote humour columns for Ugandan publications "The Monitor" and "Lugambo".

Among his books are "Three days on the Cross" which won the prestigious Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature (1992), "Jail bugs", "Doomsday", and the immensely popular "How to be a Kenyan" based on his newspaper columns. Others include "The Miracle Merchants, Mr Canta, HAssan the Genie, The Ghost of Garba Tula" and "Just wait and see".

In 1986 Mutahi was arrested with his brother Njuguna Mutahi and detained in the infamous Nyayo House torture chambers in Nairobi. He was charged with sedition and alleged association with the underground Mwakenya Movement and later transferred to Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. They were both released after fifteen months without ever being brought to trial. His imprisonment inspired him to write "Three Days on the Cross" and "Jailbug".

In early 2003 Mutahi underwent what was supposed to be a routine, minor and painless operation at the Thika District Hospital to remove a lipoma from his back. He had been assured by a surgeon friend, who had offered to do the operation, that the procedure would take less than 15 minutes. Possibly because of a blunder by the anaesthesiologist He went into a coma from which he never woke up. His family was waiting for his condition to improve before they could fly him to London for corrective neurosurgery.

Mutahi died on July 22 2003 at the Kenyatta National Hospital after 137 days in a coma. All his life he expressed his solidarity with the average Kenyan through his refrain: "I am neither too foolish nor too clever."

By the time "Whispers" died, he had grown into a formidable art form. In the mainstream press, both "The Standard" and T"he Nation" have attempted to 'reincarnate' "Whispers" through surrogates. Benson Riungu, reintroduced 'Benson's World', written along the lines of Whispers in the "Sunday Standard" after Mutahi's death. The "Sunday Nation" tried the ‘"Whispers"’ column with a new writer but it never worked. However, the style of expression developed over the years by Mutahi in Whispers is still best expressed in politics through humour, satire and the use of certain widely diffused iconographic imagery.

His family has started the "Wahome Mutahi memorial trust" to further his work especially humour and theatre. In addition, the Kenya Publishers Association started the bi annual "Wahome Mutahi award for literature,"' in his honour in 2005.

A book analysing Wahome Mutahi's works titled "Wahome Mutahi's World" was published and edited by Herve Maupeu and Patrick Mutahi [ [http://www.ifra-nairobi.net/IFRA_eng/otherpublications.htm IFRA ::. Institut Francais de Recherche en Afrique ] ]

WAHOME MUTAHI: IN MEMORIAM

I am not celebrating death

Which deprives itself of the honour

By taking away the very breath

With which it should be celebrated

I am celebrating a life, lived and fulfilled.

For death is hollow

Like its living room – the grave

It dreads the brave

And those who stare it in the face.

I am celebrating my brother’s life

A life lived and fulfilled

But even as I do so I can’t stop wondering

How a single, simple artist

Touched the souls of so many people.

Death dreads the brave –

We’ll still hear your whispers from the grave.

Sam Mbure

References

External links

* [http://www.artmatters.info/theatre/wahome.htm "Wahome Mutahi: the passing on of a Kenyan legend"] [http://www.mywire.com/pubs/Africa/2006/09/22/2869452?page=7] The idiom of age in a popular Kenyan newspaper serial [http://www.poetmbure.com/]