Fresh drive to honour freedom fighters as Mashujaa Day beckons

Nakuru,

Monday October 16, 2023

KNA by Anne Mwale /Dennis Rasto 

 A freedom fighters association wants the Government to set up a fund to cater for those who fought for the country’s independence and their families.

 It said on Monday that the fund would be an appreciation for the role the fighters played as the country approaches 60 years of its independence, adding that most of the liberators and their families live in abject poverty, unable to cater for their basic needs.

The Kenya African Mau Mau and Freedom Fighters Union (KAMFFU) has also expressed concern that while stories of those who advocated for independence through constitutional means have been amplified and glorified, those who waged the liberation war such as Field-Marshal Muthoni wa Kirima, General M’Anampiu Gaita, Mekatilili wa Menza, Elijah Masinde, Koitalel Arap Samoei, General Kuritu ole Kisio, Otenyo Nyamaterere among others do not get the same attention.

While noting that members of Mau Mau and other liberation movements who fought for the country’s independence had been left landless and ignored by successive governments, KAMFFU patron Mr Peter Tena hailed President William Ruto’s administration for undertaking to address the land question in the country that has remained emotive for the last six decades. 

 Such a move, Mr Tena argued, was the only way of ensuring justice for all Kenyans as the country celebrates Mashujaa Day.

The KAMFFU patron stated that Kenya had over 100,000 Mau Mau and other liberation movements war veterans, most of whom he noted have died but their families are landless in a country where their fathers fought hard to secure freedom from the British.

 Mr Tena indicated that the precedent set by the court in the United Kingdom for granting compensation to the Mau Mau victims should create impetus for the same claims by other Kenyan communities that suffered the brunt of the brutal colonial military.

In 2012, three Mau Mau veterans were allowed by the High Court in Britain to pursue damages for abuses they suffered during the rebellion in the 1950s.

The British government agreed in 2013 to pay Sh2.8 billion (£19.9 million) as compensation to Mau Mau victims and apologized for the atrocities.

The then foreign secretary William Hague even made a statement to the House of Commons, expressing that the government “sincerely regrets that these abuses took place”.

Mr Tena added that the government should ensure the remains of Nandi leader Koitalel Arap Samoei and Kisii Warrior Otenyo Nyamaterere are returned to the country for a proper burial.

Koitalel Arap Samoei, who led the Nandi people in the independence war was murdered in 1905, while Nyamaterere was condemned to death by a firing squad in 1908 when he led an uprising after over 8,000 livestock were impounded by the British.

Mr Tena challenged historians and other academics to stop underrating the role played by Asians such as Manilal Desai, Makhan Singh and Alibhai Mulla Jevanjee in the struggle for freedom adding that heroes and heroines such as Muindi Mbingu, Dennis Akumu, Joseph Kang’ethe, James Beutah and Jesse Kariuki among others should also feature in the School Curriculum for their role in voicing the tribulations faced by Africans during the colonial period.

In 1923 Desai and Jevanjee organised tax boycotts to protest the exploitation and oppression of the Africans by Europeans who had not only taken over all the prime land but had formulated tough policies and taxes to force Africans to work for them.

Desai also founded an anti-colonial newspaper, “The Democrat” and teamed up with Kikuyu Central Association leaders Kang’ethe, Beutah and Kariuki in voicing the tribulations faced by Africans.

Addressing the media in Nakuru to highlight KAMFFU’s preparations for Mashujaa Day Celebrations scheduled for October 20, Mr Tena said most freedom fighters were now more than 70-years-old and expressed fears that if their welfare is not taken care of, there would be no heroes to write home about in the next 10 years.

 “Majority of those who fought for independence are wallowing in poverty. The Government should set up a fund to assist them. They played an important role in the freedom Kenyans are enjoying,” said the Patron. 

This year’s edition of Mashujaa Day celebrations will be held in Kericho County. The celebrations are held annually and are aimed at celebrating all the heroes and heroines who took part in the struggle for independence and those that have contributed positively in the post-independence of Kenya.

 Mr Tena observed that the Kenya Heroes Act was enacted in 2014 to provide a framework for recognizing, identifying, and honoring heroes. He urged the State to map out families of pro-independence liberation movement fighters in a bid to find out their situation.

“We need proper documentation. The National Heroes Council should consistently tell us who these heroes are or were, the obstacles they overcame, and their character strengths and how, as a nation, we can share their qualities. Independence war icons are an indisputable point of our national pride,” he added. 

Mr Tena stated that there should be space for freedom fighters where their history and memorabilia should be preserved.

He called for the establishment of a full-fledged research centre to facilitate the furtherance of the liberators’ studies by scholars and researchers.

The Patron added “Already there is great interest by scholars. Many books have been written on the topic by writers as diverse as Maina wa Kinyatti with his book ‘Kenya’s Freedom Struggle’, while Carl Rosberg and John Nottingham have co-authored the book ‘The Myth of Mau Mau: Nationalism in Kenya. In more recent times have been the acclaimed contributions of Professor Caroline Elkins (Britain’s Gulag) and Dr David Anderson (Histories of the Hanged), who are Harvard and Oxford scholars, respectively.”

Koitalel, who has been immortalized as a national hero, was killed on Thursday October 19, 1905 during a peace truce after leading a rebellion against colonial invasion on Nandi land. His annual commemoration falls on the eve of Mashujaa Day.

The legendary freedom fighter’s leadership batons were sneaked out of the country after his death and to this day, the whereabouts of his head believed to have been taken away after the killing has not been traced.

 In 1908 British government officers from the Kings African Rifles landed in Kisii, made invasions in grazing areas known as ‘Ebisarate’ and forcibly took away over 8,000 livestock. A warrior named Otenyo could not take the acts of the Britons any more, having survived a number of earlier raids. He plotted a revenge attack which is said to have led to the killing of a colonial administrator. 

He was later tried and executed by a firing squad at Gusii Stadium and his trunk buried at the current Gusii Sports Club.

Muindi Mbingu a former Kenya Power and Colonial Police employee became the face of the Akamba freedom struggle after they were evicted from their lands and condemned to the Native Reserves in 1937.

The colonialists also pursued a destocking policy in which they forcefully confiscated Kamba cattle. In 1938, when Sir Robert Brooke Propham was the Governor of Kenya, Mbingu led a massive demonstration with protestors from Ngelani and Komarock areas trekking 60 kilometers to Nairobi.

They camped at Kariokor (then called Carrier Corps) for a month demanding to see Sir Propham whom Mbingu saluted in jest whenever he passed by. 

On seeing women breastfeeding young ones in the cold, Mrs Propham asked her husband to act. Mbingu got his audience and thereafter the cattle were released to their owners.

Another heroine of the anti-colonial struggle is Mekatilili wa Menza.Believed to be born in Kenya’s coastal county of Kilifi in the 1840s, she was named Mnyazi wa Menza, but after the birth of her son, her name was changed to Mekatilili meaning “Mother of Katilili”.

After becoming a widow, she organised the Giriama people to rebel against the British who threatened their sovereignty and freedom with forced labour and taxation. 

Menza travelled from village to village, drawing crowds before giving powerful speeches to mobilise public resistance.

Her leadership contributed to uprisings in 1913 and 1914, and despite multiple arrests and imprisonments, she was successful. 

The British ultimately relaxed control of the region, granting Menza and the Giriama people’s demands. Menza died in the 1920s of natural causes.

 At the height of the liberation struggle in the 1950s, Elijah Masinde took on the colonial authorities, earning a stint in jail and after he was released, he continued challenging the Western type of religion. He started his own sect, Dini Ya Musambwa and even after his death his mausoleum was turned into a shrine where adherents of his religion congregate once a year to pay tribute to him.

Mau Mau General M’Anampiu Gaita, fondly known as Muchori, was among the first people to take up arms against colonialists in 1952. 

The Late General Muchori was credited with enlisting renowned freedom fighters like the late Field Marshal Mwariama and Late General Baimungi into the Mau Mau.

Courtesy; KNA