1/18 #HistoryKeThread: Short Story On Life and Killing Of Pio Gama Pinto 
2/18 Born in 1927, Pio Gama Pinto studied journalism in India before returning home to Kenya in the late 1940s.
3/18 He almost immediately plunged himself in anti-colonial activism and trade unionism. He not only served as an official of the Kenya Indian Congress but also worked with KAU, the precursor to KANU.
4/18 After the Kapenguria Six were put behind bars in the wake of the declaration of Emergency, Pio Gama Pinto continued to discreetly rally support for the Mau Mau.
5/18 In 1952, the commonwealth games were taking place in Vancouver, Canada. Pio, who was also a great sprinter, was tapped by the Kenyan colonial authorities to represent Kenya in the 400m and 800m races but he declined, arguing that the work he was doing...
6/18 ...couldn't allow him time to prepare for the games.
7/18 Two years later, in 1954, the colonial authorities got wind of his dalliance with Mau Mau and detained him in Lamu, where he would remain until 1958, when he was transferred to Kabarnet.
8/18 He was released in 1959 and immediately embarked on a defiant campaign to fight for the welfare of ex-detainees.
9/18 In the early post-Uhuru years, specifically in 1964, Pio Gama Pinto was nominated as an MP. He is seen here with supporters upon his nomination.
10/18 However, on 24th February of 1965, as Pio Gama Pinto was driving out of his residence accompanied by his daughter, three men stormed through the gate and one of them shot the MP at close range, killing him instantly. He was 38.
11/18 Days later, a handcart pusher, Kisilu Mutua, was arrested at New Rwathia Bar in downtown Nairobi and charged for the murder.
12/18 Interestingly, although he was sentenced to hang, Kisilu never met the nooseman while in prison.
13/18 After 36 years in incarceration, Kisilu was granted amnesty by President Moi in 2001.
14/18 He thereafter sued the state, alleging that he was crudely tortured and forced to confess by investigating officers that he killed Pio Gama Pinto.
15/18 Dead men tell no tales. Some allege that the Kenyan Goan was taken out by Kiambu mafia. Yet others believe there was a foreign anti-communism hand behind his death.
16/18 An epitaph on Pio's tombstone at the City Park cemetery reads:
17/18 "A light has been extinguished. Yet there arise a thousand beacons from the spark he bore.”
18/18 Pio Gama Pinto was the first prominent politician in independent Kenya to be assassinated. He left behind his wife Emma, and three children.
