When working at the DC’s office in 1940, for the first time in his life Kaggia realized what colour discrimination meant. When the African chief clerk had a simple quarrel with an Indian office clerk, the DC supported the lower ranked Indian office clerk and not the African chief clerk and let the Indian clerk sabotage the work of his senior.

One Sunday Kaggia was walking with a friend and they were lazily gazing at window shops. They noticed little of what was going on and suddenly they heard a car coming from behind. When Kaggia looked he saw it was the DC and when the DC recognized him he stopped the car. ‘When you see the DC you must take off your hat! You must have manners,’ he shouted. Kaggia felt very humiliated.

This type of incidents opened Kaggia’s eyes. It did not matter what position one held; what mattered was colour. All Africans from labourer to chief clerk were the same to Europeans and Asians. They could be ordered about, even when they were not on duty. This was the beginning of Kaggia’s enlightenment about the racial barriers among Africans, Europeans and Asians.

One day Kaggia, himself deeply religious, received a letter from a friend in the army who had visited many holy places in Israel. Before Kaggia had never thought about joining the army because he hated war, but now he changed his mind.

Kaggia was stationed in the Middle East and visited Jerusalem twice. A changing life event was his meeting with an American negro doctor who was posted to his unit. This man was a captain and he was living and dining in the officers’ mess! They became friends and one day the doctor asked Kaggia what his salary was. The doctor was shocked to learn that Kaggia’s work plus his rank, only resulted in a payment of 120 shillings and that he would never earn more as an African clerk as this was the maximum payment. He said he would recommend Kaggia for a higher pay and a place in the brigade headquarters. Kaggia knew that would never happen and told him with great bitterness: ‘Africa is not like America where you people can gain commissions. In Kenya whatever your efficiency, length of service or even education, no African can expect to be an officer. My colour bars me from a commission, and therefore no recommendation from you or anyone else will make any difference’.

Slowly Kaggia’s mind became occupied with what he could do to change things, first in the army and then in Kenya. He read political and revolutionary books which opened his eyes and broadened his vision. Other incidents increased his awareness further. Once he threw out a white soldier for unsoldierly behaviour and a few days later the Adjutant rebuked him: ‘I have been told that you do not respect Europeans when they come into your office . . I hear you threw out Corporal Oliver from your office the other day . . I know he is your junior but you must remember that he is a European, a civilized man, and a European is not to be judged by his rank, but by his civilization.’ Later, lucky enough, the Commandant heard of the incident and he was very annoyed with the behaviour of the Adjutant. He told Kaggia: ‘we must have cleanliness and discipline. Anybody coming to the Group Headquarters must be properly dressed and clean. You are in charge of this office and anyone coming here must respect you. I am even glad that you threw out the Corporal.’

The attitude of the Commandant lifted Kaggia’s spirits and later the Commandant offered to write a recommendation for Kaggia for the position of company quartermaster-sergeant in an African team that was to rehabilitate captured African soldiers in Britain. Until then no African had held the post company quartermaster-sergeant. Kaggia was delighted when he was selected for the rehabilitation team.

Kaggia’s visit to the UK opened his eyes further. When he docked at Liverpool the first thing that his friends and he noticed was that European dockers were carrying the big loads. In Mombasa the dockers were Africans, and they were Arabs in Aden, Suez and Alexandria. But in the UK they were Europeans. And these white people were very friendly to us.

His stay in the United Kingdom was enjoyable and peaceful. After a busy period, he had much free time, as few captured African soldiers arrived at their camp. Daily contact with white local people made him lose any sense of inferiority. He learned the virtues and weaknesses of these people. He no longer regarded them as different from Africans and he became convinced that with education and opportunity, Africans could do anything that Europeans did.

In the UK Kaggia had his first serious, free discussions with civilians. This helped him to reflect on issues other than the war. He made friends with people of different political convictions, all of whom contributed to his early political education. He met Labour Party people, Conservatives, Socialists, Communists and even Nazis. All these people expressed themselves freely and he learned from them. Kaggia traces his political ‘independence of mind’ to this exposure, because he was introduced to all these ideas at the same time. He became aware of both sides, the bad and the good, of each doctrine and theory as he compared one with another.

He intensified his reading of political books; the works of Gandhi appealed to him more than any others. Conditions were difficult, he realized. Kenya needed a movement that would not be bound by colonial laws, a movement which knew no laws but its own. When it defies the law it must do it without fear of the consequences. He started to believe that he had a mission to liberate his people from the colonial yoke.

This fire in him started even burning more when he traveled back to Kenya in 1946. The moment he and other soldiers arrived in the Middle East, they lost all the rights they had in the UK and became again ‘Africans’. In Sudan the African soldiers were herded in a few train coaches and later packed like cattle into three dirty barges. Staying and sleeping in a stable would have been better.

This made him very angry. It was clear that now the war was over, the British did not care what happened to African soldiers. They could die on their way home. His bitterness against the treatment of Africans by the wazungu was intensified. More than ever he wanted to leave the service and forget his years spent in the army.