Long before Gado, there was one Edward Gicheri Gitau.
This is the man behind the hilarious and long-running comic strip on Taifa Leo – Juha Kalulu.
The man who died on Tuesday aged 86 was unarguably the oldest cartoonist in the region.
Gitau passed on at the Gatundu District Hospital in Kiambu County and is survived by 11 children. He was born on December 8, 1930, at Gichuka in Kiambu.
Thereafter he attended Kenya Teachers College in Githunguri between 1947 and 1948 and his works were first published in Tazama newspaper, then Baraza,
He then moved to Taifa Leo, where he worked until his death.
The Juha Kalulu cartoon strip has been published in Taifa Leo since 1954.
According to moderatekenyan.wordpress.com, Gitau has an interesting origin as he worked as an electrician in what was then known as Tanganyika in 1948-50.
“While there, he struck up a friendship with Malawians and from them picked up that in one of their dialects, Kalulu is a hare. From his Kiswahili, he knew that a Juha is a person who is mostly clueless or ignorant,” the blog reports.
It adds: “In most societies, hares are known to be cunning – ‘Sungura Mjanja’ – but Gitau twisted that and Juha Kalulu is in his words “Sungura Mjinga” loosely translating to an idiotic hare. Therefore, Juha Kalulu is a creative wordplay.”
The blog reports that an accident while at work ended his career as an electrician in Tanganyika and Gitau returned to Kenya where he started drawing.
Interestingly, Gitau was taught English and Geography by Mzee Jomo Kenyatta at Githunguri High School but through Juha Kalulu he rubbed shoulders with the high and mighty. His proudest moment was when President Kibaki wrote the foreword to his book ‘Vituko vya Juha Kalulu’, the blog adds.