But it is as an historian of Kenya that Atieno must be remembered by Kenyans.  All aspects and periods of Kenya's history interested him.  He was equally knowledgeable about white settler politics between the wars, the rise and fall of Kenya's black peasantries, the causes and character of post-colonial authoritarianism, the life and death and burial of Kenya's ruling elites, the ordinary men and women of Siaya, his spiritual home. The trilogy of books he co-authored with David William Cohen, on the historical anthropology of Siaya, on the burial of 'S M' Otieno and the death of Robert Ouko, the man who knew too much, will remain for ever classics of modern Kenyan history.  The book we produced together, Mau Mau and Nationhood did its bit to expose to reasoned argument the most controversial period of Kenya's past.

Atieno's sort of history frightened oppressive rulers.  But he himself refused to be intimidated.  He paid heavily for his honesty with his awful ordeal in Nyayo House and then his long years of exile from Kenya.  He knew how to explain the corruptions of power, but never to excuse them.  He could go straight to the heart of a political problem and give exploitation, ruthlessness and suffering their proper names.  He could give a voice as much to grave-diggers as to cabinet ministers.  He knew which historical lies benefited what dishonest political purposes.  He could write with equal sympathy for the poor of any ethnic group.  He could celebrate the daily entertainments of people whom the elite would think to be disreputable.  He had no time for any hypocrisy.  But he also had a marvellous eye for the odd or unexpected detail that could bring the past alive.    He loved Kenya, especially its young, and never ceased to enjoy their energetic ingenuity, while condemning the circumstances that caused them to devise such adventurous means of survival.  He was a patriot.  He wrote patriotic, which is to say critical, history. Kenya can ill afford to lose him. The loss to his family and to his friends is also a loss to his country.