Too Early for Birds presents a production that becomes more than just a performance—it’s a reckoning with the past, and a call to remember. The Tom Mboya play serves as a reminder that some stories, no matter how lost, must be heard to shape a more conscious future.
By Frank Njugi
On July 5, 1969, Tom Mboya, a Kenyan nationalist, trade unionist, and politician who played a pivotal role in the country’s struggle for independence, was assassinated in Nairobi under mysterious circumstances.
His death sparked widespread unrest and suspicion of political motives. It also resulted in Kenya as a country grappling with a mind-boggling mystery, which for decades now has been distilled into two questions: who killed Tom Mboya? And why?
Mboya’s life story, his legacy as a politician, trade unionist, and Pan-Africanist, and also subsequent assassination, serves as the inspiration for Too Early For Birds’ most recently staged theatrical show, titled Tom Mboya.
Too Early For Birds is a Kenyan theatre troupe, one at the forefront of the ongoing cultural renaissance of East African theatre and performing arts, that retells, presents, and narrates the most scintillating parts of Kenyan history, specifically those that school books failed to mention.
Founded by renowned Kenyan oral literature narrator and storyteller, Bryan Ngartia, alongside the spoken word poet, Abu Sense, Too Early for Birds has since 2017 used experimental theatrical storytelling — incorporating other elements like reenactments and music — to narrate some of the most outrageous crimes in Kenyan history, rewrite the erased stories of female figures from Kenyan History, and tell the tales of key Kenyan historical figures.
Tom Mboya, the theater show, comes as an addition to a catalog that has seen Too Early For Birds narrate the stories of Nobel prize winner, Wangari Maathai, The Nyayo House Survivors, Zarina Patel, Timothy Njoya, Field Marshal Muthoni Wa Kirima, Otenyo Nyamatere, Syokimau, Paul Ngei, William McMillan, the resistance at Lumboka and Chetambe, amongst many others.
The show was staged 5 times, between 21st and 24th November, 2024, at the Jain Bhavan Auditorium in Loresho, Nairobi. In Tom Mboya , Too Early For Birds combine comedy, music, and oral storytelling to retell Mboya’s historical story with a modern, humorous twist. His life story is told as if the historical figure was an eccentric character from the present day, complete with relatable quirks, modern slang, and absurd situations.
The play starts with Tom Mboya, depicted by the actor, Ywaya Xavier, reading a letter from the political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr.
In the letter, King accepts a previous request by Tom Mboya for financial assistance for a Kenyan student who was to enter Tuskegee Institute in the fall of that year. This letter provides an adept harbinger for Too Early For Birds to explore the Kennedy Airlift Program, a student Airlift Program that Mboya spearheaded, which enabled many young Africans to study in the United States during the late 1950s and early 1960s. This initiative educated future African leaders, including Barack Obama Sr., father of former US President, Barack Obama.
Using flashbacks, the play provides crucial context to the Airlift Program, and how it had a political motive to it. This use of flashbacks is prominent throughout the play, as Too Early For Birds strive to gradually answer their central question, (What is Tom Mboya’s story and legacy?).
On occasion using symbolic and seamless transitions — props, gestures, and lines of dialogue that trigger a flashback— they reveal unknown layers to Mboya’s life story, often subverting audience expectations, and allowing the audience to piece together events across different timelines.
This adopted theatrical style or form, ensures that the troupe narrates on Tom Mboya’s life as a Trade Unionist in the early 1950’s, his life abroad in London and New York in the mid 1950’s, his instrumental years as a politician and advocate for independence in the 1960s, and also his lovelife as a proclaimed heartthrob and cassanova, whose escapades include an encounter with the legendary South African singer and civil rights activist, Mariam Makeba.
The narration of these historical stories is aided by projected photographs and historical footage onto the stage as a backdrop to immerse the audience in the historical narrative. Too Early For Birds also use choral interludes as the ensemble of the show’s cast narrate or emphasise what they are saying through song, jokes and dance in different scenes.
Tom Mboya is directed by Kenyan actor, Mugambi Nthiga, with the script worked on by Wanjiku Mwawuganga, Hellen Masido, Mercy Mutisya, Bryan Ngartia and Magunga Williams. This team showcases a creativity that shines through in the fluid production, which feels almost magical in their execution.
They do so by making the Mboya story a metaphor in which there is juxtaposition of the exploration of the life story of one of Africa’s leading Pan–Africanists, whose life was cut short, and the current happenings within Kenya and other States where oppression is witnessed such as Palestine, Congo, Mozambique and Sudan.
The cast includes an ensemble of actors such as Anubhav Garg, Chandni Vaya, Martin Kigondu, Doanno Owano and Elsaphan Njora. But the standout is the actress, producer and director, Nyokabi Macharia, who is known for her different roles in Netflix’s Big Mouth, Country Queen and the 2025 Kenyan Oscar’s submission, Nawi.
Nyokabi displays an incredible ability to balance drama with wit, bringing levity to even the most serious narrations in the play, which makes her performances feel refreshing and multidimensional. Her comedic timing is impeccable—whether delivering a one-liner or subtly injecting humor into a tense scene. She seems to know exactly when and how to land a line for maximum impact.
When Tom Mboya was assassinated, his death had an impact rippling outward in unforeseen ways. What seemed like a singular, violent act quickly evolved into a seismic event that destabilized and changed the course of Kenya’s political landscape. Too Early for Birds endeavor to ensure that his life story, which risks being buried in the sands of time, is brought to life, ensuring it will never fade into obscurity.
55 years on, since Tom Mboya died, through masterful storytelling, Too Early for Birds presents a production that becomes more than just a performance—it’s a reckoning with the past, and a call to remember. The Tom Mboya play serves as a reminder that some stories, no matter how lost, must be heard to shape a more conscious future.
Frank Njugi is a Kenyan Writer, Culture journalist and Critic who has written on the East African and African culture scene for platforms such as Debunk Media, Republic Journal, Sinema Focus, Culture Africa, Drummr Africa, The Elephant, Wakilisha Africa, The Moveee, Africa in Dialogue, Afrocritik and others. He tweets as @franknjugi.