JOE KARANJA and I arrived at Nairobi airport for the Conference of the Organisation of African Unity on Monday morning, February 22nd, 1965. Of the people who had come to meet us there was one important absentee. PIO was not there.

I wondered why. He had always seen me off and come to meet me each time I left or visited Nairobi. I learnt that he had accompanied the Vice-President, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, to the Coast Province. He returned to Nairobi on Tuesday and immediately came to see me. We arranged to meet again for a chat after a couple of days because I had to attend to official business at the Ministry of External Affairs. On Wednesday, February, 24th, at about 10.00 a.m. Odhiambo Okello ran into Joe Murumbi's office and told us that Pio had been shot dead !

And so my dear friend and brother, Pio, was no more.

What manner of person was he ?

I knew and worked with Pio for, a period of about four years. That period started from 1961 after I had come back from England up to the time of his death last year. As I look back to that period of very close partnership three distinct characteristics stand out, First, Pio was a very hard working person. He worked until the early hours of morning and woke up very early. He was prepared to do all the donkey work for whoever had extra work to give him. During the day he did not confine himself to one job. Apart from managing the Pan African Press, he helped with Party organisation, gave idvice to small business men and farmers who came to him and visited as many Ministries as he could fit in. He usually had working luncheons whenever he had any at all.

His second quality was that he was not a text book intellectual He relied very heavily on his native intelligence. Most of his ideas were based on common sense. Because of this attitude of mind, Pio formulated his ideas through discussions. He spent a good deal of his time discussing the various problems that face our country with whoever was prepared to discuss them. As a result of these discussions he was able to modify his own ideas. By and large he preferred a pragmatic approach to solving problems.

Thirdly, Pio was one of the most generous human beings that I have ever known. In 1962/63 those of us who were engaged in party organisation did not have what is known as a steady income. We relied on whatever assistance we could get from friends. At this time, Joe Murumbi and Pio were trying to start the Pan African Press and were paid an allowance of £50 per month each. We had a practice that whoever had some money to spare must try and spread it as widely as possible to help the more "needy" in our group. And both gentlemen literally placed their allowances at our disposal. But here I am mainly discussing Pio's qualities. He tried to help everyone. If he had any money to spare he kept it for his needy friends who came from rural areas and the so-called political refugees who were frequent visitors to Nairobi.

These are some of the qualities of Pio. What makes one think of him both as a Nationalist and Socialist? Nationalism has to do with the love for one's own country while socialism refers to the over-all organisation of the country's economy and the way that the wealth which accrues from that economy is shared amongst its peoples. Pio loved and cared for Kenya. Above all, he loved his fellow countrymen. From my dealings with him I noticed that he had a special love for the masses of our people and particularly the ex-detainees. Although he did not boast of the sufferings that he had endured during his period of detention under British Colonial administration, in his heart, he was very proud of that period of his life.

Perhaps even more important, Pio saw Kenya's development as mainly linked with that of the rest of East Africa. He wanted and worked very hard to see that the projected East African Federation should come into being. I remember on two occasions in Dar-es-Salaam and Kampala, during the Sessions of Central Legislative Assembly, when he tried to translate into practical terms the kind of co-operation which he had in mind. He urged those of us who were Representatives of Kenya to ask questions which were more to the advantage of Uganda and Tanzania and, in the short run, to the disadvantage of Kenya. These questions related to the distribution of jobs to people from the three territories. By a historical accident, in some sections of the East African Common Services Organisation Kenya had more people than the two sister States put together. Pio's aim was that those of us from Kenya should point out these anomalies and ask for a more equitable distribution of posts. He felt that in this way we shall be helping in cementing friendship amongst the East African peoples which was a prerequisite for a successful East African Federation.

Let me now say something about Pio, the socialist. His approach to socialism was non-doctrinaire. Because of the present confusion in our country about socialism, I would like to set out concisely but clearly what Pio's brand of socialism was. He believed in and adhered to socialist principles. But he was intelligent enough to understand that what was required for Kenya was the establishment of a mixed economy. He could never have advocated wholesale nationalisation. He knew that this would have been impossible because for one thing there was not very much to nationalise and for another the local people with managerial know-how was woefully small. For Kenya, he wanted to see the Government play a major role in economic and social reconstruction.

His concern about the lot of ordinary people was that we must try and build a society where differences in wealth should not penalise the poor. He, therefore, wanted to see development in all parts of our country, especially those areas that had experienced very little development under British rule. He further wanted to see the establishment of a rent control in urban areas as a way of protecting the tenants from being exploited by landlords. He also advocated the establishment of free health service and free education as a method of assisting the less privileged people in our community. And finally, Pio was opposed to the practice whereby a few individuals, in privileged positions were to amass excessive wealth at the expense of the masses. He believed that people in such positions should do more for the masses and that such public service would be a reward in itself.

These are seine of the impressions which I formed when working and taking with Pio. The assassin's bullet abruptly put an end to his life about a year ago. The best memorial for Pio, on this first anniversary of his death, should be for us to re-examine some of his ideas and see how best they could be implemented. We should also rededicate ourselves to carry on with the tasks which he and other veteran nationalists began so that our country can develop in an orderly and meaningful manner.