James Nyamweya (28 December 1927 – 25 September 1995) was a Kenyan politician who served in ministerial, parastatal, and political party leadership positions in both the Kenyatta and Moi governments from 1965 to 1995. He was Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Assistant Minister in the Office of the President, Minister of State in charge of External Affairs Foreign Minister, Minister of State in charge of Provincial Administration, Leader of Government Business in Parliament, Minister for Works, Minister for Power and Communication, Minister for Labour, Chairman Electoral Boundaries Commission, and National Vice Chairman of the Democratic Party.
Early life and education Born in Kisii, Kenya, on 28 December 1927. Nyamweya was the fifth child of Pastor Paul Nyamweya and Louise Manyange. While still young, Nyamweya attended Nyanchwa Seventh Day Adventist Primary School and later moved to Kamagambo Mission School, where he excelled as a student and earned a reputation as an avid reader. Consequently, he qualified to attend Kisii Secondary School. He received a Bachelor of Laws degree from King's College London in 1958.
He served as a Barrister-at-Law at Lincoln's Inn. He served as the MP of the Nyaribari Constituency (now disestablished) from 1963 to 1976, representing the KANU party.Center for Multiparty Democracy: Politics and Parliamentarians in Kenya 1944–2007
After the multiparty system was revoked in Kenya in 1992, Nyamweya led the newly founded Democratic Party in the Kisii area.David Throup, Charles Hornsby: Multi-party Politics in Kenya James Currey, 1998 His son George Omari Nyamweya later served as the Secretary General of DP.
Legal education Nyamweya enrolled in a correspondence course through which he pursued his secondary education, culminating in obtaining the Cambridge School Certificate.
Nyamweya gained admission to Kings College at the University of London for undergraduate studies, where he obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1958. Nyamweya was called to the Bar in Lincoln's Inn in 1959 and became Barrister-at-Law in the same year.
Career After completing his university education, he returned to Kenya. While studying in the United Kingdom, Nyamweya had the worked with some of the individuals who played a role in the Kenyan independence movement, including Dr Munyua Waiyaki, Sam Waruhiu, John Seroney, Mathews Muli. Upon his return to Kenya, Nyamweya initially joined a colonial government legal secretariat meant to offer legal assistance to all, which substantially helped him expand his political network and allies.
Odinga trial Despite their position as public employees, Nyamweya and Seroney engaged in political agitation alongside Argwings-Kodhek and Mareka Gecaga, the three were also Kenyan pioneers in the legal profession. After a stint in the colonial civil service, Nyamweya resigned his job and opened a legal practice in Kisumu where he started working with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. The colonial administration charged Odinga with inciting Africans to rebel against the colonial government.
Nyamweya elaborated on the difficulties and intimidation African freedom fighters were encountering as they articulated the desires of African people to shed the chains of bondage in the trial. In his concluding submission, Nyamweya stated clearly that it is because of this struggle that African leaders were compelled to speak in such terms that the colonial regime misinterpreted as incitement.
In a manner characteristic of colonial magistrates, Nyamweya found himself a target of a contemptuous caution by the magistrate warning Nyamweya to stop turning the court into a platform for agitating African demands against the government. After this landmark case, Nyamweya stepped up his political activities in conjunction with other pre-independence leaders.
Elections Nyamweya was one of the pioneer KANU leaders who drafted the initial KANU constitution.
Nyamweya eventually ran for elections alongside Lawrence Sagini, Thomas Mongare, Zephaniah Anyieni, among others. During these elections, Sagini contested the elections as a KADU candidate while Nyamweya was in KANU.
Political style Nyamweya was a son of a pioneer Christian father, Pastor Paul Nyamweya, who was born in a religious home and schooled in mission institutions in Nyanchwa and Kamagambo. To cap it all, Nyamweya married Tabitha Moige, a daughter of Zachariah Nyaribo, a prominent Seventh Day Adventist church elder in Gesusu, Kisii. This background gave him a Christian worldview, which helped define his political style.
In one occasion, when Justus Mokamba challenged Nyamweya's election victory and lost the petition, Nyamweya refused to accept any compensation from him after the court threw out the petition and awarded costs. Instead, Nyamweya invited Mokamba for a discussion where he affirmed his desire not to seek compensation from him, and requested Mokamba to let bygones be bygones. Mokamba was stunned when Nyamweya volunteered to use his considerable influence in government to secure him a prime public service job.
Projects Throughout his political career, Nyamweya was instrumental in initiating many community projects throughout his Nyaribari constituency such as the building of schools, churches, and cattle dips. He is renowned for being the first to introduce Harambee schools in Kisii, mainly to stop students from the area travelling all the way to Bugema, Uganda to seek secondary education. To make these projects a success, Nyamweya first embarked on activities aimed at uniting all the thirteen clans in Nyaribari so that they may work closely with him. The said thirteen Nyaribari clans were Bonyamoyio; Bonyamasicho; Mwamonda; Mwamoriango; Bonyakoni; Mwaboto; Bomobea; Boguche; Boburia; Botondo; Bokimotwe; Bosigisa and Bonyabondo.
Whenever confronted by cynics Nyamweya's discreet nature set in graciously constraining him from making an irrational, ill-considered reply. It is only after he had thoughtfully considered what to say that he answered back his critics in the most accommodating manner possible. His diplomatic ways earned him a reputation as a peace maker.
Consequently, when Mzee Kenyatta received information that Seventh Day Adventist fanatics in Kisii were uprooting tea plants in the belief that the crop was ungodly, the President turned on to Nyamweya to go and plead with the fanatics to stop engaging in such retrogressive activities. Applying his persuasive approach, it did not take long before the problem fizzled out.
Mwalimu Hotel The teaching community in Kisii will remember Nyamweya for his significant contribution to the construction of the Mwalimu Teachers Hotel and Office Complex in Kisii. At the time, the local branch of the Kenya National Union of Teachers faced a shortage of office space and wished to build a major hotel in Kisii, but lacked the necessary resources.
Nyamweya was the Minister for Labour when KNUT Kisii branch officials approached him for advice and assistance to obtain resources to implement the project. Nyamweya persuaded the teachers’ union branch to use the salary check-off system to collect the money required and personally ensured that the system was duly approved by the authorities concerned. This single but critical support and advice enabled the Kisii KNUT branch to realize a dream project.
Ministerial appointments In addition to his everyday political activities, Nyamweya enjoyed a brilliant career as a trusted member of Mzee Jomo Kenyatta's government. Just before the 1963 general elections, constituency boundaries were redrawn and Kisii benefited with increased constituencies one of which was Nyaribari. Nyamweya once again entered the race and emerged a KANU winner a seat he retained for 16 years. After this well earned victory, President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta appointed him Assistant Minister for Constitutional Affairs, a ministry headed by his great friend and confidant, Tom Mboya.
After a while, Mzee Kenyatta appointed Nyamweya as Minister of State in charge of External Affairs. In a rare development in Kenyan political history, Nyamweya as a minister also served as Leader of Government Business in Parliament instead of the then Vice President. Politically, these were stormy days for Kenya as a country newly independent in an international environment characterised by the Cold War rivalry.
Inevitably, Kenya joined the Non Aligned Movement while faced with a Cabinet divided into two distinct groups, those who supported the Western Bloc and friends of the East. In his characteristic moderate stance, Nyamweya preferred the centrist position. Despite his preference, he pursued both centrist and rightist policies mainly because the largest group of the two, which enjoyed Mzee Kenyatta's ear and confidence, were rightists.
Legislation When Nyamweya later moved to the Ministry of Labour, he used his legal background extensively succeeding in transforming the Ministry into one of the best performing at the time. Indeed, his performance in this ministry has been considered by many as the greatest achievement of Nyamweya among all ministerial portfolios he held in government. When Nyamweya took over the ministry, many labour laws and regulations needed redrafting and harmonising e.g. wages, conditions of work, occupational health, hygiene, and other legal instruments.
These were formative stages when the Ministry of Labour was developing critical employment legal instruments, which required preparation of lay drafts before their submission to the Attorney General's chambers. Nyamweya led discussions aimed at developing an employment tripartite structure and articulated the country's concerns at both local and international fora. Working hand in hand with workers, employers and government, Nyamweya was able to fine-tune the various industrial codes, for submission to the Attorney General's Chambers, which provided a solid foundation for existing Kenyan employment systems still in application today.
Training levy On the other hand, the critical area of industrial training required legal instruments to govern training at the workplace, conditions of apprenticeship, and the training levy fund. Since in Kenya the training levy fund is industry specific, there were eleven separate funds to cater for, as a result each industry had to come up with its training levy order, which called for a rigorous legal drafting. Nyamweya made informed interventions and legal briefs, which assisted immensely in the development of comprehensive legal instruments. This work was even more challenging because each industry had unique requirements, which demanded submission of a separate draft.
Nyamweya's contributions in comparative analysis and research led to the development of watertight instruments difficult to abuse. The minister applied a participative approach in form of consultations among tripartite partners. Nyamweya ensured each lay draft was clear on the spirit of the proposed Act, which enabled the Attorney General's chambers to finalize draft bills quicker.
ILO Membership It is while Nyamweya was minister in the Ministry of Labour that Kenya was a member of International Labour Organisation governing body. This is the body, which had the responsibility of steering ILO conventions, and recommendations globally. The responsibility of reporting to the ILO on how the Kenya government was implementing agreed recommendations and conventions was part of his portfolio. Nyamweya adopted a focused and articulated manner of reporting during the organisation's forums, and expression of the position of the Kenya government, and offered well thought out explanations on which conventions Kenya was able to ratify or was in the process of ratifying, and the hurdles the country was experiencing.