W.W.W. Awori

Wycliffe Wasya Work Awori (August 2, 1925 – May 5, 1978) was a pioneer Kenyan journalist, trade unionist, legislator, and freedom fighter. Popularly known as W.W.W. Awori, he was an eminent agitator for Kenya’s independence movement from the end of World War II and during the Kenya Emergency, which lasted from 1952 to 1959.

W.W.W. Awori was among the early members of the Kenya African Union (KAU) and served as Acting Secretary General, Treasurer, Acting Vice President, and Acting President at various periods before the organization was banned in June 1953. In 1946, at the age of 20, he represented the organization’s executive committee on a mission to the United Kingdom to persuade Jomo Kenyatta to return from England to lead the KAU and Kenya’s fight for Independence. In 1952, following the detention of the Kapenguria Six, W.W.W. Awori joined forces with other prominent politicians to secure a strong legal team, which included Denis Pritt, among other Kenyan and international lawyers.

He was one of the first African representatives nominated to the Legislative Council of Kenya (Legco), representing North Nyanza from 1952 to 1956. Prior to this appointment, he was a prolific editor and journalist involved in pre-Independence publications supporting Kenya’s trade union movement and fight for liberation. A proponent of the Pan-African movement, he drew inspiration from the struggle of other occupied countries in Africa and the Caribbean. Towards the end of his career, which spanned nearly 35 years, W.W.W. Awori served as the editor of the Kenya Hansard.

Early life and family background

W.W.W. Awori was born on August 2, 1925 at the Church Mission Society (CMS, formerly Church Missionary Society) Butere Mission in Kakamega County, which was then part of Kenya’s Western Province.

His father, Rev. Canon Jeremiah Awori (1890–1971), was the first ordained Luhya priest for the Anglican Christian ministry and served on the Local Native Council for North Kavirondo (later Western Province) for 41 years. According to John Spencer’s book KAU: Kenya African Union, the colonial administration insisted that the organization change its name to Kenya African Study Union (KASU) to appear as a “study group” for Africans interested in public affairs. However, the organization’s leaders reverted to the original name at the KAU Second Delegates Conference in February 1946.

By the end of the Second World War in 1945, dissent against the oppressive colonial regime and racially discriminatory practices was growing in tandem with demands for higher wages and better working conditions for African workers. The Congress was significant in Kenya’s independence movement due to the attendance of Jomo Kenyatta, who represented Kenya as its national and trade union delegate in the United Kingdom, where he had been living since 1931. Jomo Kenyatta sailed back to Kenya in September 1946, while W.W.W. Awori remained in England. According to Kenyan trade unionist Makhan Singh’s historical reports, a resolution was passed at a massive meeting of workers in Majengo, Mombasa in March 1947 in support of KAU’s request to raise funds for W.W.W. Awori’s journey back from London, “knowing he was executing a noble and faithful obligation and serving his country in doing so.” He also addressed workers at a historic meeting in Kaloleni Social Hall on August 16, 1947 in honour of the opening of the Nairobi branch of the African Workers Federation by Chege Kibachia, who was elected President of the federation at the Majengo meeting in March. As KAU President, Jomo Kenyatta insisted that members from different parts of the country should be represented in the organization’s executive committee. However, the divide between moderates and radicals continued to grow.

A few months later, on October 20, 1952, Governor Evelyn Baring declared a State of Emergency and ordered the arrests of nationalist and trade union leaders, including KAU members Jomo Kenyatta, Bildad Kaggia, Kung’u Karumba, Fred Kubai, Paul Ngei, and Achieng’ Oneko (together known as the Kapenguria Six) following increasing suspicion of Mau Mau militancy.

An Emergency Committee of KAU appointed Fanuel Walter Odede as the Acting President, Joseph Murumbi as the Acting General Secretary, and W.W.W. Awori as the Acting Treasurer soon after the arrests. Together, they sought funds and a strong legal team to defend the detainees ahead of their trial in late 1952. They recruited British barrister Denis Pritt to lead the international defense counsel alongside lawyers A.R. Kapila, Fitz de Souza, and Jaswant Singh from Kenya, and “did everything they could to inconvenience the defence team.” During the trial, W.W.W. Awori regularly used his personal car to drive the legal team from Nairobi to the remote outpost in Kapenguria, a distance of over 500 kilometres on rough terrain.

According to Makhan Singh’s 1952-1956: Crucial Years of Kenya Trade Unions, KAU were “consolidating the national upsurge that had recently been enhanced by the Mau Mau struggles, Kapenguria trial, and activities of the KFRTU [Kenya Federation of Registered Trade Unions]” under the direction of Fanuel Walter Odede, Joseph Murumbi, and W.W.W. Awori during the early months of the Emergency. W.W.W. Awori was arrested soon after Odede’s detention but was released after his father, Rev. Canon Jeremiah Awori, intervened. took over his treasurer role, having served as Director of Publicity since joining KAU in 1952.

In the documentary “Makers of a Nation: The Men and Women of Kenya’s History,” W.W.W Awori is said to have used the wealth earned from trading crocodile skins to fund newspaper ventures.

As part of the KAU executive committee, he edited the organization’s monthly Kiswahili and English newspaper, Sauti ya Mwafrika. Published intermittently between 1945 and 1952 due to internal disagreements and lack of funds, it was banned at the start of the Emergency. Pre-Independence reporter John G. Gatu recounts a KAU meeting in which Jomo Kenyatta urged members to pledge donations to resume publication of Sauti ya Mwafrika, and mentions W.W.W. Awori’s travelling to Europe to obtain printing supplies. Other editors of the publication were Francis Khamisi, Tom Mbotela, and Tom Mboya. By 1960, the paper was published daily as Taifa Leo and its English counterpart Daily Nation was introduced. In 2000, W.W.W. Awori’s brother Hannington Awori became chairman of the Nation Media Group, which owns both publications. Throughout his career, he maintained strong relationships with Asian politicians, trade unionists, and diplomats including Makhan Singh, Pio Gama Pinto, Fitz de Souza, A.R. Kapila, A.M. Desai, and Apa Pant, India’s High Commissioner in Kenya, who helped him conceal incriminating documents from colonial security agents during a raid at the KAU offices. On February 3, 1953, he introduced a motion to the Legislative Council to allow African Members to hold meetings with their constituents, but the motion was opposed.

Business According to the A Profile of Kenyan Entrepreneurs, W.W.W. Awori was an “aggressive businessman who made his first million in his early twenties.” He was engaged in the lucrative crocodile skin export business in the early 1940s. His funeral service on May 11, 1978 at the All Saints Cathedral was attended by then Attorney-General Charles Njonjo, Minister of Finance Mwai Kibaki, and Minister of Works N. Munoko, as well as Members of Parliament. Peter Habenga Okondo, who went on to become the Minister for Commerce and Industry and later Minister of Labour, read the eulogy outlining W.W.W. Awori’s “chequered career as a journalist, freedom fighter and politician.”

Legacy As a participant in Kenya’s freedom struggle and the first of his siblings to enter national politics, W.W.W. Awori is regarded as the leading politician in his family and a positive influence on others. His elder brother Joshua Awori, who described him as the smartest and most versatile of the family members in politics, is quoted in a 2010 Standard Digital article: “WWW started it all on a good note. The others joined over three decades later, Aggrey in 1981 and Moody in 1983 — and all with their separate fortunes.”