Sudhir Vidyarthi: Maverick who took on Kanu's regime bows out
National
By
Peter Muiruri
| Aug 16, 2025
The death of Sudhir Kumar Vidyarthi has robbed the country of one of the pioneering printers who kept the flame for multi-partyism alive during Kenya’s single party era.
Sudhir, who was also the director of Africa Cancer Foundation died on August 14, 2025, at the age of 79.
He came from a family of giants who shaped the future of East Africa, not just commercially but politically too. Through Colourprint, the family signature business venture located along Kirinyaga Road and where he was managing director since 1970,
Sudhir was among those who were in bad books with the ruling party, Kanu, for printing materials deemed too radical by the establishment. There were several attempts to burn down the printer.
Agitators of multipartyism in the late 80s and the 90s such as Kenneth Matiba, Charles Rubia, Oginga Odinga and son Raila, Gitobu Imanyara, among others had ready platforms to air their radical views in The Nairobi Law Monthly, Society, Finance and The People magazines that rolled off Colourprint, much to the chagrin of the Kanu hawks.
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His family remembers him as a quintessential “people’s person” who went out of his way to help those in need regardless of their standing in society.
“My father was a courageous man who fought not just for independence but what is known as the Second Liberation through the printing of radical publications. Some of his friends from our community would ask him why he was risking his life fighting against the government and his answer always was, ‘If I don’t, then who will?” recalls his son Amar.
His brother, Anil, was detained on sedition charges in 1998. His father, Girdhari Vidyarthi, had faced similar charges in 1945 for agitating for the rights of African soldiers returning to the country after their duty during World War 2.
Arjun, another one of Sudhir’s sons, recalls the anxious moments when their father would go into hiding for days as security operatives combed their home looking for him and any ‘seditious’ material. He once hid in Matiba’s Riara Ridge home for days as clandestine plans were made to fly him to London. “Keep quiet if questioned. Just don’t say anything about my whereabouts,” Arjun says of his father’s strict instructions.
Sudhir comes from a sturdy family stock that was not afraid of taking on the toughest assignments. His grandfather, Shamdass Bootamal Horra, arrived in Kenya from Punjabi, India in 1896 as part of the Coolies constructing the Uganda Railway.
Part of his assignment was to supervise the project within Tsavo region where the legendary ‘Man Eaters’—two female lions that had a fetish for human flesh created a nightmare for the Indian workers. He died in 1957.
He will be cremated at the Hindu Crematorium in Kariokor tomorrow.