January 12, 2007
Kenya's Political GadflyProfiles
Salim Lone turns the car down a winding driveway in Nairobi’s diplomatic enclave to a bright bungalow with a terraced garden. The house is separated from the thick overgrowth in the back by a high fence topped with electric wire. There’s a gate and guard.
”When I was a young journalist,” he says, ”I never came back here. This area was all white.”
Today, he says, he lives here by accident. He and his wife, Pat, rented this house because it was one of the few they could find that had a downstairs bedroom, which they needed for his mother. But it is a peaceful spot for a man who has spent his forty-odd years in journalism making other people uncomfortable.
For his political commentary and muckraking style, he ran afoul of both the Kenyatta and Moi regimes in the 1970s and ’80s. He was jailed, stripped of his Kenyan citizenship, exiled in 1982, and made stateless. He went back to the United States, where he had attended Kenyon College in the 1960s and where he had worked for the United Nations. Later, President Moi sent word that all had been forgiven and that he was free to return. He did so, only to find himself in jail again.
Kenya has matured politically since the return of multi-party elections in 1992 and the end of Moi’s reign a decade later, but Lone still takes to the pages of the Kenya’s Daily Nation to criticize the current president for failing to complete his promised reforms and to call for greater participation in opposition politics.
He’s also fighting bigger battles. In 2003 Lone served as spokesman for the United Nations Mission in Iraq when Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Brazilian diplomat in charge of the mission, was killed along with 23 other UN personnel. A suicide truck bomb demolished the building.
”The United Nations should never have been there,” he says. “This was just cover for the United States and the Bush administration’s illegal war.” He resigned in protest after the incident and returned to Nairobi, where he has become a popular figure in the media for the stridency of his views.
His recent article in the International Herald Tribune about the new US involvement in Somalia has struck a chord in this part of the world. He called the American attacks on alleged al-Qaeda sites in Somalia “a reckless proxy war [whose] real goal is to obtain a direct foothold in a highly strategic region by establishing a client regime there.”
He is in demand as a speaker and commentator, especially as Kenya finds itself on the fringes of an American military operation and has sealed its border with Somalia against the flow of refugees and the Islamists of Mogadishu’s toppled regime. Kenya was a victim of terrorism in 1998 when the American embassy was bombed in Nairobi, killing some 200 Kenyans, and in 2002 when an Israeli-owned hotel was bombed near Mombasa. The Pentagon initially said it had killed one of the perpetrators of those attacks, but has since backed away from the claim.
”It’s the same pretense as the Iraq war,” he says. “The United States is using charges of terrorism as a pretext for another illegal war.”
For all his pique, Lone is quick to laugh and is a generous host. When I met him for lunch, we had a delightful chicken, rice, and somosa meal prepared by his American wife, who works for UNICEF. “After Pat and I were married, we lived for a time with my parents, and she really learned to cook traditional food very well. Now she is as good as the other Pakistani Kenyan daughters-in-law.”
We talk a little about Indians in Nairobi, if there is any sense of insecurity as a minority community. “Ten or fifteen years ago, that was true, but not today. There are now more blacks than Indians in the middle class, so there is less resentment at the community’s wealth,” he says.
Lone spends his time consuming all the newspapers he can get his hands on. Internet connections in Kenya are slow and unreliable, so he pores over newsprint, clipping articles and keeping files. His study is strewn—not piled but strewn—with newspapers, as if they have been blown off the desk by a strong wind. ”I’m thinking about hiring an assistant to help me organize these files,” he says, his voice trailing off, perhaps at the sheer scale of the task ahead.
I think he is secretly drawn to the disorder of it all. It hasn’t been easy for him to be a Kenyan Asian, gadfly, progressive journalist, political prisoner, UN official in Iraq, and campaigner against what he perceives as the Bush administration’s imperialism, which has now arrived at Kenya’s doorstep. His job as a writer is to probe that chaos, cut through the lies and propaganda, and produce something revealing and often unpopular with the powers that be.
All images by Preston Merchant
Salim Lone with Biscuit (blond) and Tea (brunette).
preston on January 12, 2007 08:46 AM in Profiles · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
Thanks for classing up the joint with this interesting profile, Preston.
BTW, a short essay by Salim Lone on the denationalized Asians of Kenya appeared in the NYRB in 1971; it's now freely available online.
Awesome post, Preston.
"In 2003 Lone served as spokesman for the United Nations Mission in Iraq when Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Spanish diplomat in charge of the mission, was killed along with 23 other UN personnel. A suicide truck bomb demolished the building."
was wondering why the name Lone sounded so familiar. nice post.
tea and biscuit :) -- love these types of candid, unexpected shots.
These posts make me want to visit Kenya.
Thanks for this, Preston - fabulous as usual :)
I was wondering when this would come up. It's going to be amazing to see how the EAC responds this time around.Preston, Awesome post.
Amardeep, thanks for the NY times article link.
This is really good Preston. I hope original off-the-beaten path features like this are a part of SM's future. It's a great new direction.
preston, you may want to get in touch with my bud shashank, living in nairobi. african correspondent for knight ridder...
What a fabulous post, Preston -- thanks. (And Amardeep, thanks for the NY Review link.)
Another pointed -- and poignant -- Salim Lone commentary on his time in Iraq here.
Nice post and pictures Preston.
Love the contrast between his workplace and his perfectly manicured lawn :-)
Terence, I had lunch with Shashank a few days ago! Nice chap, and a college football fan, which was good since he's a Trojan and I'm a Gator, and the Gators have done rather well recently.
Really wonderful stuff, Preston. I haven't been commenting much, but I've been poring over each installment as you post them ...
glad to hear it preston!
A very good profile . I searched wikipedia to find one, but there was none. Thanks.
This was very helpful. I needed some information on Salim Lone, who is currently Kenya opposition leader Raila Odinga's spokesman. I can now contextualize his comments.
I need to suggest that the bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi Kenya was in August of 1998 and not 2002. There was different terrorist bombing of a tourist resort in the coastal town of Mombasa in 2002.
Thanks for the information on Salim Lone. I used to wonder who is that foreigner always beside Raila Odinga. Now that clears the airs that he indeed is very Kenyan. Thank you.
I take my hat off to Salim Lone. A brilliant journalist and principled man. He truly does Kenya proud. I am confident that he will soon replace the nauseating Alfred Mutua once ODM is in office!
Hey - Is it true that Lone has been forced to flee Kenya again?
His life was in danger with police following to his house?
Kenya is facing a serious showdown
When Kikuyus and other tribes fled Nyanza province in Jan 08 to Uganda - Uganda opened its doors without question. When asians fled Uganda in the early 70's Kenya
did not allow them to even temporarily visit Kenya on their way to other countries.
What right does an African government have to create insecurity to 3rd generation Asians (and as we see today to kikuyus and luos) - this is nothing short of gross violation of inalienable human rights. Even the term Asian is not appropriate; just as blacks in US are now now known as African Americans 3rd generation Asians ought to refered to as Indian Africans or Indo Africans.
Kudos Mr Lone! I had no idea about him but he is a true kenyan, patriot, No one can strip him of his rights. Thanks again for enlightening us.
Lone, Lone.... its heartening Preston has put a face and flesh to the journalistic legend! The Lone-liness that has accompanied his high profile work is now gone-thanks in no small way to Preston profiling him
Salim Lone and I were classmates in Form IV of Duke of Gloucester School, Nairobi, many moons ago. It is heartening to note that Salim is trying to bring some equality in a world of inequality, trouble and strife. I truly hope and pray that he can influence Raila Odinga to be outstanding among his peers if he brings about change to Kenya based upon unselfish and incorrigible principals and practices. I am reminded of India's current Prime Minister who called a meeting of his relatives and family soon after getting elected and requested them not to ask for any favors during his tenure...unlike so many world leaders. I am also reminded of absolute power corrupts absolutely. However, more power to Raila, but not to the extent of corrupting him and his underlings.
preston, for the sake of accuracy, a point upon which my friend and former boss would have enlightrened you had you but asked, sergio vieira de mello was brazilian not spanish.
Corrected--thanks.