Pio Gama Pinto
1927 – 1965 Kenyan journalist, socialist, freedom fighter
Kenyan of Goan descent, socialist organiser and journalist, the first person assassinated in independent Kenya.
- Religion
- Roman Catholic
- Affiliations
- Kenya African National Union, Goan and Indian anti-colonial networks
Pio Gama Pinto was a Kenyan of Goan Indian descent who worked as a journalist and behind-the-scenes organiser for the independence movement, supporting Mau Mau fighters and detainees. A committed socialist, he allied with Oginga Odinga's wing of KANU against the pro-Western direction of the government. In February 1965 he was shot dead outside his Nairobi home, the first political assassination in independent Kenya. The killing is widely read as an early sign of the crushing of the Kenyan left.
Connections
- associate of Makhan Singh — Fellow Indian-Kenyan on the anti-colonial left.
- ally of Oginga Odinga — Close socialist ally in the KANU left.
- ally of Oginga Odinga — Close socialist ally who worked with his wing of KANU.
In the timeline
- 1954 Pio Gama Pinto is detained for backing Mau Mau central figure
- 1965 Assassination of Pio Gama Pinto the assassinated organiser
- 1965 Pio Gama Pinto is assassinated central figure
- 1965 Pio Gama Pinto shot dead in Nairobi central figure
- 2013 Report finds a pattern of unresolved political assassinations mentioned