Makhan Singh Jabbal

Makhan Singh Jabbal was a Kenyan trade union leader from a Sikh family in Punjab, described by Nation Africa as the father of Kenya's trade union movement. He was born on 27 December 1913 in Gharjakh village, Gujranwala district, and grew up in Nairobi. The colonial government held him for eleven years, from 1950 to 1961, which Wikipedia calls the longest political detention in Kenya's history.

Key moments

• About 1927: he moved to Nairobi with his family, aged 13 or 14. The Better India says his father had gone ahead to work on the railways and later ran a printing press, where Makhan Singh worked.
• 1934 to 1937: he helped found the Indian Trade Union in 1934 and became its secretary in March 1935. He renamed it the Labour Trade Union of Kenya and opened it to all races (The Better India). The Better India does not date the renaming: Wikipedia says he formed the Labour Trade Union of Kenya in 1935, while Sikh Heritage (UK) says he founded the Labour Trade Union in 1937 and became its first secretary. Wikipedia says its handouts appeared in Kiswahili as well as Punjabi, Gujarati and Urdu.
• December 1939: he went to India and attended the Indian National Congress session at Ramgarh as an African delegate. The British imprisoned him for two years and then restricted him to his village for two and a half years. He was released in January 1945 and went back to Kenya in early 1947 (The Better India).
• 1949: with Fred Kubai he formed the East African Trade Union Congress, the first central body of trade unions in Kenya (Wikipedia).
• 1950: at a meeting in Nairobi he called for "Uhuru Sasa", Kiswahili for Freedom Now. The British arrested him as an "undesirable person" under the Deportation (Immigrant British Subjects) Ordinance of 1949, and held him for eleven years, moving him between prisons and allowing visits only from close family (The Better India). Wikipedia dates the arrest to 15 May 1950.
• 1961: he was released when the colonial government lifted restrictions. Kenya became independent on 12 December 1963. He joined Jomo Kenyatta's party, the Kenya African National Union, was granted permanent residency and was not invited to join the government (The Better India).
• 18 May 1973: he died of a heart attack in Nairobi (Wikipedia).

In his later years he wrote History of Kenya's Trade Union Movement to 1952, published in Nairobi in 1969 (Wikipedia). Zarina Patel's biography Unquiet: The Life and Times of Makhan Singh appeared in 2006, and a play based on it was staged for his centenary (Nation Africa). A reviewer in Scroll cites the multiracial character of the union movement he led as evidence of cooperation across races in Kenya.

Remembered for: building a union movement open to every race in colonial Kenya, and for eleven years in detention for demanding freedom.