Jean-Marie Seroney (25 July 1927 – 6 December 1982) was a Kenyan human rights advocate, legislator, and an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. He was detained as a prisoner of conscience for 1,155 days.
Seroney served as the Member of the Legislative Council for Nandi Constituency from 1961 to 1963 and a Member of Parliament (MP) for Nandi North from 1963 to 1966 before becoming the Member for the newly formed Tinderet Constituency from 1966 to 1975. As a legislator, he worked hard to introduce bills that would remove or at least check the excessive powers vested in the president as a result of the numerous amendments to the Constitution. He also brought in the first private member's bill to help ensure that Kenya's elections were free, fair, and inclusive.
Seroney decried what he described as the wanton abuse of power by the executive and condemned corruption, the unfair distribution of national wealth, theft of land from the poor by the ruling elite, and the failure to resettle the landless. He made powerful enemies, and his detention in harsh prison conditions for three and a half years set in motion the events that eventually led to his death.
Early life Jean-Marie Seroney was born Eric Kipketer Seroney on Monday, 25 July 1927 at Kapsabet, Nandi District of Kenya.From an affidavit sworn in his application to become a Member of the Kenyan Bar (Law Society of Kenya)dated 25 September 1958 He was the first child of the recently converted Africa Inland Mission (AIM) teacher/evangelist Reuben Seroney and Leah Jeptarus Tapmaina Seroney. Shortly after his birth, the Rev. Stuart M. Bryson took over the Kapsabet AIM Mission.. Bryson turned out to be a controversial missionary challenging the deeply held traditions of the Nandi in a bid to increase his numbers. He immediately sent Reuben Seroney to start a new Mission station and school at Surungai some 32 miles north of the Kapsabet Mission. Reuben and Leah taught at the Surungai School in the afternoons and spent their mornings preaching in the nearby villages.
The Seroney family lived in the Surungai Mission until 1933 when Reuben was asked to move to Kapsowar in Elgeyo-Marakwet area to pioneer the new Mission station together with Rev. and Mrs. R. V. Reynolds. The AIM had also started a hospital there which stands to date. Reuben Seroney stayed at Kapsowar as an evangelist and the lead teacher of the school for five years. He visited nearby villages and far-off areas teaching and preaching. It was during one of his visits to Kabartonjo in Tugen country that Reuben Seroney met Daniel Toroitich arap Moi, later to become President of Kenya. He became Moi's teacher and mentor and was instrumental in placing him at Government African School Kapsabet in 1938.
Education The young Seroney began formal schooling in 1935 at Kapsowar with his father and Mrs. Reynolds as his instructors. Following his father's return to Kapsabet in May 1938, he joined the Government African School at Kapsabet (now Kapsabet High School) from 1938 to 1940.School Records from Kapsabet High School then known as the Government African School – Kapsabet Seroney passed his Primary School Examination and was the only one in his class to be admitted to the Alliance High School in Kikuyu which was then Kenya's only secondary school. He obtained a scholarship from the Local Native Council (LNC) at Kapsabet which paid for him the required Sh. 200 annual fee. Seroney stayed at Alliance from 1941 to 1944, where he studied under Edward Carey Francis.School records from Alliance High School
He sat for the Cambridge School Certificate and obtained a Division 1, which meant he could then proceed to Makerere for higher studies. He enrolled at the Makerere College in Kampala, Uganda in 1945 taking the Higher Studies in Arts. At Makerere, he won the prestigious Arts Research Prize. He was the founding President of the Political Society and served as the president of the Dramatic Society in his final year. After performing well at Makerere, he got the Government of India Scholarship to study at the prestigious University of Allahabad in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. He began his studies there in September 1947 at the William Holland University College, a constituent college of the University of Allahabad. He completed his BA degree in 1949 obtaining a Second-class Honours, Upper Division. He began to study for his LL.B degree at the same university and completed it in December 1951 and obtained first-class honours.Records from his personal file at the Chief Native Commissioner’s Office (L.F.G. Pritchard) and Director of Education in Kenya (H.A. Curtis) now at the Kenya National Archives Nairobi
Religion In 1938, Reuben Seroney had a serious misunderstanding with outgoing missionary Stuart M. Bryson and his replacement Reginald V. Reynolds. Bryson was one of the most significant AIM missionaries to the Nandi people (a sub-tribe of the Kalenjin People) and helped translate the Bible into the Nandi language with Rev. Samuel Gimnyigei). Reuben Seroney disagreed with them over Nandi cultural practices that the AIM church continued to strongly oppose as well as the failure of the organization to grant him pastoral authority.
Reuben Seroney was then licensed to become an evangelist/teacher by the African Church Council of the 'Native Anglican Church' on 29 November 1942.His license is kept by his late grandson, Robert Seroney of Timbilil village in Mogoon, Lessos, Nandi County of Kenya.
Becoming Catholic The young Eric Seroney was baptized an Anglican in 1944 but also fell out with his own father in the matter of religion while attending Makerere College in 1946 where he became a Roman Catholic. It was from his conversion to the Catholic faith that he changed his name to John Marie Therese out of his devotion to St. Marie Therese of Liseux. He later Francized and hyphenated the name to Jean-Marie Seroney, dropping the active use of 'Therese'. He remained a practicing Catholic the remainder of his life devoted to St. Therese, even choosing to remain celibate.From his personal journals of 1973
Political activities While in India, Jean-Marie Seroney had kept the political pressure on the colonial government by various methods, even publishing an article in the Indian Review of January 1950 entitled 'Threat of South African Fascism to East Africa.'
The colonial administration in Kenya was impressed with his political activities and so it was felt that he should proceed to England for further studies. In February 1952, he was offered a loan by the Administration and in July 1952 he was admitted to the University College of the South-West of England at Exeter (now the University of Exeter) where he would study for an Intermediate LL.B of the University of London and at the same time study for the Bar at the Inner Temple London. Shortly before he went to Exeter, he attended and addressed the World Assembly for Moral Re-Armament in Caux, Switzerland in August 1952 and called for a new way of dealing with the issue of colonialism.From the archives of the World Assembly for Moral Re-Armament in Caux-Sur-Montreux, Switzerland, August 1952
After differences with university authorities at Exeter over what he considered a repetition of his degree from India, he opted to go straight for the Bar instead of going through with the intermediate LLB. After much struggle with the colonial authorities both in England and in Kenya, he eventually sat for his Bar finals in December 1955, and on 7 February 1956, he was admitted to the Bar of England by the Honorable Society of the Inner Temple. He made history as only the third Kenyan to become a barrister after Chiedo More Gem Argwings-Kodhek and Charles Njonjo, and the first to also hold a law degree. He returned to Kenya fully qualified to practice law as a barrister before Her Majesty's High Courts.Affidavit sworn on admission to the Kenyan Bar, September 1958
Employment and entry into politics On his return to Kenya in 1956, Seroney was appointed as a legal assistant in the office of the Registrar-General on 21 June 1956. In December 1957, he was promoted to the position of the public prosecutor in charge of bankruptcy offenses through a Kenya Gazette notice no. 4067 dated 3 December 1957.The Official Gazette of the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya (1957), the Government Printer, Nairobi
On 25 September 1958, he applied to be admitted as a member of the Law Society of Kenya which had just been formed in 1948. Seroney had made history as the second black Kenyan African to qualify in law after the late Chiedo More Gem Argwings-Kodhek. At the time of his application in 1958, the Hon. Justice Chanan Singh was the Chairman of the Law Society of Kenya.Law Society of Kenya Records, Nairobi. Kenya
It was not until 1959 that Seroney finally ventured into politics proper when he called for the formation of a political party that took the interests of the Africans at heart.Drum Magazine, July 1959, Nairobi, Kenya. The following year he announced his intention to vie for the Nandi open seat at the Legislative Council (LegCo) on Sunday 27 November 1960. Daily Nation, 28 November 1960, Nation Newspapers Ltd, Nairobi Kenya.
On 13 February 1962, he was in the Kenyan Delegation to the Lancaster House Conference and the final Independence talks in September 1963. In 1963 he was elected Member of Parliament for Nandi North Constituency on a Kenya African Democratic Union ticket and also took his seat in the regional assembly that met in Nakuru. He crossed the floor, however, and joined the Kenya African National Union together with Taita araap Towett the MP for Bureti and William Murgor the MP for Elgeyo on 21 November 1963. This rubbed many the wrong way especially his friend-turned-foe Daniel arap Moi who had remained in KADU. On 27 November 1963, he invited Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta to address a public rally in Kapsabet and Eldoret.Daily Nation 28 November 1963, Nation Newspapers Ltd. Nairobi
The Nandi Hills Declaration The document was deemed seditious and Seroney was arrested on Saturday, 20 September 1969 at Eldoret and transported to Nakuru with his friend Mitei. On Tuesday 23 September charged with sedition in a Nakuru court. The defense was led by P.J. Wilkinson QC, a former Attorney General of Uganda assisted by Sibi-Okumu. They were convicted and fined KShs. 6,000 each by Resident Magistrate R.P. Maini.Daily Nation, 24 September 1969, Nation Newspapers Ltd, Nairobi Kenya.
Fallout with Moi Some strong political forces in the Rift Valley started to gang up against Seroney ahead of the 1974 general election held on 14 October. Most notable was the then Councillor Ezekiel Barngetuny who was Moi's closest confidant in Nandi.Daily Nation, 3 May 1973, Nation Newspapers Ltd, Nairobi Kenya.
Detention without trial On 9 October 1975, Jean-Marie Seroney got in trouble again when as Deputy Speaker of Parliament after he refused to ask Martin Shikuku MP for Butere to substantiate his remark that "Kanu was dead". He replied to Kihika Kimani who had sought a substantiation of the remarks of Shikuku that "why substantiate the obvious...". This remark. led to his detention on 15 October 1975 at his office in Parliament at 7:15 pm.'Daily Nation', 16 October 1975, Nation Newspapers Ltd, Nairobi Kenya.
Seroney never spoke of his days behind bars. However, those who visited him there said he took it stoically. He suffered terrible withdrawal symptoms from his addiction to tobacco but soon became stable.Interview with Hon. Martin Shikuku, former MP for Butere, Seroney's co-detained, March 2011
Seroney was released from detention through a presidential pardon on 12 December 1978. He was released with 25 other prisoners, most of whom were prisoners of conscience. Among them were Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Koigi wa Wamwere, George Anyona, Martin Shikuku, Wasonga Sijeyo, and others.Daily Nation, 13 December 1978, Nation Newspapers Ltd, Nairobi Kenya.