Jeff Koinange Narrates How Father’s Detention Affected His Family
After several weeks of being missing in action, popular Citizen TV journalist Jeff Koinange has spoken out about how his close family members, including his father, were imprisoned before Kenya’s independence.
On Friday, December 12, Jeff spoke on Spice FM’s morning show, recounting how his father and grandfather were imprisoned and served 16 years.
According to the journalist, four years before Kenya attained independence, his father, Fredrick Mbiu Koinange, married his mother, Mary Nyambura.
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Kenya was still colonized at the time.
Jeff’s father, Fredrick Koinange, was no ordinary guy; he was the son of Chief Mbiu Koinange, a key figure in the war for Kenyan independence.
He described his father’s seven-year detention, his grandfather’s nine-year imprisonment, and their combined 16-year period of torment and agony.
During the duo’s arrest, there was no parole, trial, or guarantee of return, and the confinement was indefinite, designed to break both the individual and the family left behind.
“My dad was detained for 7 years, and my grandfather for 9 years. And together they served a total of 16 years,” Jeff narrated.
However, Jeff acknowledged that the anguish did not stop there. Several other family members, around 15 in total, were imprisoned throughout the precolonial period.
The journalist claimed that if put together, their detention period could span over a century.
“Other family members were also detained during that time. If you put together the years all these people served, they can reach 100 years. There was no parole,” he revealed.
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According to the journalist, on December 12, 1963, when Kenya finally became independent, his father broke down at Uhuru Gardens as he witnessed the realisation of his dream after fighting for the country for several years.
Jeff Koinange recalled how his mother later told them that his father wept openly that day, remembering the detention, pain, and sacrifice he had made.
“Four years after my parents were married, Kenya was granted independence and my father was at Uhuru Gardens,” Jeff Koinange.
“Our mother told us later on that my father shed tears. He could not believe Kenya was independent.”
Jeff Koinange Narrates How Father’s Detention Affected His Family
