My grandfather and Obama’s father helped to establish democracy in Kenya — then it turned on them
Vikram Nijhawan
Click here to read the full article.
Inderjeet Singh Bhoi served as IDRC’s legal counsel from 1974 to 1982, under the presidency of David Hopper, then later under Ivan Head. Bhoi’s grandson, and Tavinder Nijhawan’s son Vikram Nijhawan, wrote and reported this article for a magazine class he took this past semester, as a student at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
As his grandparents did decades earlier, Vikram moved to New York City to study at the esteemed school, and even stayed at the International House residence on Riverside Drive, where his grandparents also lived as newlyweds in 1962. This story does not focus on Bhoi’s role on IDRC, but rather the broader strokes of his professional life, and how the historic moment he lived through and helped to shape – Kenya’s early independence (1963) – changed his political outlook later in life, while also connecting his story with that of another famous contemporary, Barack Obama Sr., In telling his grandfather’s professional story, Vikram enjoyed bringing his family’s cross-continental history full circle.
IDRC’s driving mission – to fund and support homegrown research in developing countries that contributes to the improvement of their citizens’ lives – was intimately familiar to Inder Bhoi. As a member of a thriving diasporic population in Kenya, he partook first-hand in the establishing the foundations for a post-colonial country, with the goal of shaping it into a prosperous and stable nation – one which could enjoy the privileges of its new statehood and membership into a larger intentional order that would support its flourishing national vision.
As Kenya’s Deputy Foreign Minister, serving under President Jomo Kenyatta, Bhoi brought Kenya into this emerging multilateral system. In his political capacity and equipped with legal training from the reputed King’s College law school and Columbia University’s global affairs school, he led the negotiations of new treaties between Kenya and other countries. As the country’s permanent delegate at the United Nations, he represented the country on the world stage – but, equally, he ensured that such global institutions were well-represented in Kenya. In 1972, this led to a connection that changed the direction of his life.
Maurice Strong, a Canadian industrialist-turned-diplomat, is a pivotal figure who drafted early environmental policy at a UN conference in Stockholm in 1972. Strong arrived in Nairobi that same year to head the emergent United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Kenya’s capital. It was there that he met Bhoi, who was also involved in the establishment of UNEP’s headquarters in Nairobi. Through their professional relationship, Strong became deeply impressed by Bhoi’s character and capability. When the Kenyan civil servant eventually confided in Strong his desire to leave his government role, after serving nearly 10 impactful years in the foreign ministry, Strong envisioned a new role for him in Canada. Lester B. Pearson, Canada’s Nobel-Laureate Prime Minister, had just established IDRC, and arranged an interview between Bhoi and Hopper. The interview was successful and Bhoi would soon take on a job as a legal advisor to the nascent organization. Bhoi, his wife Jaswindar, and their three children moved to Canada in February of 1974 to begin their new life in Ottawa.
Inder Bhoi passed away on 25 October 2017. His former colleagues, including Alumni Association president Claude-Paul Boivin and Gérald Bourrier, still fondly reflect on his presence and impact at IDRC during its formative years. Vikram enjoyed speaking with them to further flesh out his grandfather’s character in the article. They both reaffirmed the image of Bhoi as a humble and hardworking member of IDRC’s senior staff, who navigated his new life in an unfamiliar country with the sense of mission and diplomacy that defined his time in the Kenyan government.
Click here to read the full article.
Bulletin 73
July 2024