Career
Born around 1910 – 1912 in Kimilili, Bungoma District, Masinde wa Nameme okhwa Mwasame started out as a football player, who captained a football team from Kimilili. He also played for Kenyan national team in the Gossage Cup against Uganda in 1930. By the early 1940s, he had risen to the rank of a junior elder within his community in Kimilili area, and became increasingly anti-colonial.
In 1944, he led a number of localised defiance campaigns against the colonial authorities, and was imprisoned many times as a result.
At one time he was kept in Mathare Mental Hospital and in Lamu. Upon Kenya"s independence, Masinde was detained by the government of Jomo Kenyatta for almost 15 years.
He had been accused of fomenting religious hatred. He was released by the government of Daniel arap Moi in 1978, Moi also arrested him following his clashes with traffic policemen in Webuye and Kitale.
Elija Masinde remained defiant and always questioned post independence Kenya government especially on the issue of land distribution and citizen rights.
He died in 1987, a neglected freedom fighter. The family decided to bury him elsewhere, though, but were thwarted when a spot they chose for his grave turned out to be a hidden grave. They took this to be an omen and proceeded to bury him in the spot where the sycamore tree had been.
He left a widow, Sarah Nanyama Masinde.
She was still alive in November 2007 and was then reportedly 105 years old.
