Today Monday, July 5, 2021, marks exactly 52 years after the late Tom Mboya was gunned down outside a chemist’s in downtown Nairobi on a Saturday afternoon in early July 1969.
Tom Joseph Mboya, the then Cabinet Minister, Economic planning at Chanis Chemist, next to standard chartered Bank, Moi Avenue on 5th July 1969.
The video below captures the day Mboya was gunned down begins with a hymnal chorus “Jesus has come to my heart.. let us entreat him only..”
The subsequent chorus is a mourning dirge saying ” Oh, what shall we do when the grieving/crying ends”.
The late Tom Mboya is remembered as the foremost African trade union leader of his time who played a significant role within the ICFTU, leading calls for a devolved structure in Africa under the control of Africans.
The ICFTU which later merged with the World Confederation of Labour, becoming the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in 2006 while Nairobi is no longer headquarters ITUC-Africa having opened its offices in Lome, Togo in 2007.