August

Makhan Singh, a pioneer trade unionist, made huge personal sacrifices and contributions in the struggle for Kenyan independence. When Jomo Kenyatta was sentenced to jail at Kapenguria, he found Makhan Singh already in jail, imprisoned by the British. He refused to accept a trade union movement segregated by race and poisoned by the colonial apartheid that classified black Africans and Asians in a humiliating hierarchy.

He demonstrated, for the first time in colonized Kenya, that Asians and black Africans were bound by the same fate and their liberation was inextricably linked. Though the British offered to release him on the condition that he left Kenya forever, he did not pay any heed and continued to fight for the struggle of Kenya and eventually spent more time in prison than Kenyatta.

The Hon. Nahar Singh Mangat Q.C, was a very prominent Sikh lawyer who was the first Asian to be appointed a Queens Council in East Africa. He was twice named the President of The Kenya Indian Congress. Further, as the specially elected member of the Legislative Council, he was one of the lawyers who represented Jomo Kenyatta in the trial against the British.

Some of the other key Sikh politicians include Hakam Singh, founder of The East African Indian National Congress, Jaswant Singh, gun making teacher of the Mau Mau freedom fighters, Sir Mota Singh, Council Member, judge, and eventually a knight, and Alderman Mohan Singh, successful business man who became the first non-British deputy mayor of Nairobi.