Especially our own history.
I still can't fathom the fact that we used to hang a portrait of Jomo with the words Mutongoria Njamba
Good, can see we are togeza so far.
soma hii.
It was Kenya Land Freedom Army the psuedo Mau Mau was a slander..do you believe so... Kenyatta was made or decided to play safe by saying that the Mau Mau will go down like the roots of Ciongowa shrub.In few days after that announcement a judgement had been passed on him but as an example the chief who stood by his side when making the denouncing statement was brutality murdered.So the imperials had to take the next step to orchestrasize the trial and detention and structured trial to bring a new form of ruling.
When the Emergency was initiated in October 1952 it was in response to a guerrilla campaign launched by Africans against Africans. The Mau Mau was forcing fellow members of Kenya’s Kikuyu tribe to swear an oath of allegiance against the imperial power. Those who refused could have their houses burned, their cattle slaughtered or their families killed. Assaults on the white community were ferocious but relatively rare. The most dramatic occurred on January 24th, 1953 when the bodies of the Ruck family, including their six-year-old son, were found hacked to death: nearly all of the approximately 1,800 known civilian victims of the Mau Mau were Africans. The common view that the Mau Mau was ‘inhuman’ and that it only understood brutality was determined by its grisly behaviour. On March 26th, 1953 the Mau Mau forced villagers at Lari, north of Nairobi, into huts, barred the doors, poured petrol over the roofs and set fire to them; 74 Kenyans burned to death.Stories have been told and retold about how and why Chief Nderi died. To understand why we celebrated this man, let us go back in time.
His death came only 14 days after that of Kiambu Senior Chief Waruhiu wa Kung’u who was killed by the Mau Mau, forcing Governor Sir Evelyn Baring to declare a State of Emergency on October 20.
Nderi’s death impacted adversely on members of his family, age-mates and his subjects in the Thegenge Location of North Tetu Division.
It paralysed activities in the entire Nyeri District, throwing his loyal subjects into mourning while the Mau Mau faithful rejoiced over ‘elimination of an enemy.’
Ripples of fear and shock swept across the Kikuyu community as the administration of Mau Mau spread, with recruitment of fighters underway. Those who refused to take the oath were harassed and killed.
Turncoats and pro-government spies were on the receiving end, usually smoked out for exposing Mau Mau followers.
Waruhiu was one of the most loyal servants of the British. The State of Emergency declared after his death was expected to last only three months but continued for eight years. The emergency was effectively imposed in Central Province and the Rift Valley where there was concentration of Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities who were behind the Mau Mau insurgence.
Armed with the new emergency powers, the colonial governor ordered immediate arrest and detention of 186 African political leaders, adherents of the Kenya African Union (KAU) including its Party Chairman Jomo Kenyatta.
After declaring a State of Emergency, the Governor through his advisers appointed renowned archaeologist, Dr Louis Leakey as government adviser on the Mau Mau rebellion. Leakey recommended that suspected Mau Mau followers be forced to confess that they had taken the Mau Mau oath, and the institution of “counter-oaths” to cleanse those partakers.
Leakey teamed up with Dr JC Carother’s a psychiatrist at Mathari Mental Hospital in Nairobi. Carother had been commissioned by the government to study the psyche of the Kikuyu so as to shed light on the same matter.
Leakey, an expert on the Kikuyu tribe, had described the Mau Mau movement as “atavistic,” claiming it did not have political origins or purpose: “It was some sort of misdirected cult; that those indoctrinated of necessity required rehabilitation and to undergo a Mau Mau oathcleansing ritual to return to their normal life.” Dr Carother’s report outlining the psychological turmoil that afflicted the Kikuyu, however, pointed at their lack of security.The apologetic Chief waruhiu wa kungu donning imperial medals.
Of course none of these atrocities would have occurred had the British not colonised Kenya in the first place. But, having claimed the country as a protectorate in 1895, future generations of colonial administrator inherited a socially and ethnically stratified settlement that had to be managed carefully. Arguably the biggest losers of colonialism were the Kikuyu (roughly 22 per cent of the population), because white immigration had cost them access to fertile land. For the 20,000 Africans estimated to have joined the Mau Mau, an equal number joined the Kikuyu Home Guard or the prison service. British loyalists included Christians, non-Kikuyu, and Kikuyu who regarded the revolt as criminal and brutal.Below is the Chief Waruhiu wa Kungu donning the imperials medals with which rank only him knew.
