October 16 - 31, 2011
ISSUE 049
A bimonthly newspaper by the Media Diversity Centre, a project of African Woman and Child Feature Service
Sacrifices of
freedom heroes
Mashujaa Day honours men
and women who suffered
By KABIA MATEGA
As we mark the first Mashujaa
day as entrenched in the new
Constitution, Kenyans will be
celebrating their heroes.
The heroes that many Kenyans know of are not the only
ones who fought for independence. Among them remain
many who are unsung, and
most of them women who took
many risks to ensure that freedom fighters did not go hungry.
They even went to the extent of
stealing guns and ammunition
from the white man to take to
the men in the forest. Although
many of them died, many more
are still alive and in this issue
tell of what they went through.
Having changed Kenyatta Day
to Mashujaa Day, we celebrate
Kenyan men and women who
have in one way or another played
a role in ensuring that this country stands where it is today.
Honour
Other than the freedom fighters, there are Kenyans who play
other roles in our communities
that make them heroes and ‘sheroes’. They are our neighbours,
brothers and sisters who in one
way or another try in a small way
to make life better for other Kenyans.
To be a shujaa or hero means
one has to make sacrifices. These
sacrifices are big and for other
people to enjoy what one is fighting for, it is shujaa who suffers.
Just like all other heroes, the
men and women who fought for
this country’s made sacrifices that
brought this country to where it
is today. Their work was taken
to the next level when Kenya rewrote its constitution, and came
up with a new law that honoured
all heroes. Chapter 2(9) of the
Constitution clearly indicates that
Mashujaa Day would be observed
on 20 October, effectively changing the name from Kenyatta Day
to Mashujaa Day
However, our greatest heroes
are the people who fought for this
country against the colonial rule.
These men and women suffered
various atrocities in the hands
of the enemy, the British rule of
which have not been spoken of.
A one to one interview with
members of the Mau Mau War
Veterans Association from Narok
Continued on page 5
From left: Ex-freedom fighters Wanjiku Muthoni,
Njeru Ritho and Lucy Njeri at a political rally held
in Kangemi in 1996. Major-General Wanjiru, wife
of Field Marshal Bai Mungi at a baraza in 1964.
Stinging nettle and safari ants that were inserted
in the genitalia of Mau Mau tortured by colonial
forces. The Nyakinyua dancers.
Pictures: Reject correspondent and George Murage
Read more Reject stories online at www.mediadiversityafrica.org
2
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
Mourning Kenya’s
trailblazers
By WILFRED MUCHIRE
In less than three months Kenya has lost two
heroines in the academia.
The first woman professor of Mathematics
in the country, Cecilia Wangechi Mwathi died
on August 17 after a long illness. The Mathematics professor was born in Kaigonde Village
near Gichira in Tetu District, Nyeri County.
Coincidentally, this is the same district and
county where 2004 Noble laureate, the late
Wangari Maathai hailed from. Their homes
are separated by about four ridges.
Mwathi and Maathai were the trailblazers
in their academic fields of Mathematics and
Biology.
Although Prof Mwathi was not as widely
known as Maathai, she remained a force to
reckon with in the academic world. This is especially because she excelled in Mathematics,
an area of study that has long been considered
a preserve of men.
Apart from academics, the two also had
another thing in common; they had aspired to
represent Tetu constituents in Parliament.
Tetu seat
In 2002, when Maathai captured the Tetu
parliamentary seat, Mwathi had also attempted but gave up after losing in the nominations.
She had, however, vowed to be in the ballot
papers for the same position during the 2012
General Elections but this was not to be.
Mwathi died about nine months after she
hosted a colourful homecoming party in her
home after she was crowned the first woman
professor of Mathematics in the country.
The family did not disclose what killed the
mathematics professor who was buried in her
Juja farm on August 25, exactly a month before Maathai met her death.
The party, held on December 4, last year
was attended by scores of top scholars from
various parts of the country. It also included a motivation talk at her former primary
school.
In her informative schooling days at Kaigonde and Gichira primary schools in Tetu
District, Nyeri County, she endured walking
for about five kilometres while barefoot and at
times without taking breakfast.
After completing her primary education,
Mwathi was admitted to Mugoiri Girls’ High
School in Murang’a where she sat for her OLevel examinations and later at Chania School
(now Chania Boys’ High School) for her Form
Five and Six studies.
Thereafter, she went to Kenyatta University,
then University of Nairobi College where she
studied Mathematics and Physical Education
(PE). Mwathi dropped PE due to its teacher bias
towards girls.
After graduating she was posted to Garissa
Secondary School before being transferred to
Kenya High School. Later she stopped teaching and decided to ‘explore the world of Mathematics’.
Her moment of joy came 12 years ago when
she was honoured with a doctorate in Mathematics in Zimbabwe by the country’s president,
Dr Robert Mugabe.
This is a day that was still fresh in her mind
as she described it during the party: “Friday the
tenth of July, 1998 was a very special day for me
and a lot of other people. It was a fulfilment of a
dream I had since those days when words like
logarithm and algebra were ‘exotic’ to me. Little
did I know that those words and a host of their
relatives would be the vehicle to the realisation
of my dream.”
As of last year, there were seven women
holding doctorate degrees in Mathematics but
she is the only one who was elevated to the status of a professor after over 18 years teaching at
The departed trailblazers Professors Wangari Maathai and Cecilia Wangechi Mwathi.
Pictures: Reject correspondent and Wilfred Muchire.
Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology (JKUAT).
Until her death, she was teaching the same
subject at JKUAT in Juja and some of its constituent colleges among them Kimathi University
College in Nyeri.
“There is nothing which so difficult that cannot be handled by either gender, so long as one
has the willing power to counter it.” These were
Mwathi’s words during the motivation talks she
conducted in various parts of the country.
Mwathi was the fifth born in a family of eight
and left behind five children.
Professor Maathai
Nobel laureate Maathai was in the limelight
for most of her life. This is especially because of
her persistent fight to conserve the environment
that put her at loggerheads with the former President Moi’s regime. She almost single-handedly
fought Moi’s government bid to build a 60-storey
skyscraper at Uhuru Park.
She also fought the encroachment on Karura
Forest. In 2004, Professor Maathai won the Nobel Prize for peace. This further enhanced her
visibility locally and internationally. Through
working with grassroots women, Maathai spearheaded a tree planting campaign through her
organisation the Greenbelt Movement.
Maathai was the first African woman to be
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On the eve of her
final journey, the African continent was again
honoured when Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and her compatriot Leymah Gbowee
together with Yemeni Tawakkul Karman were
jointly awarded the Nobel peace prize, almost a
decade after Maathai.
Professor Maathai was the first woman to
earn a PhD in East and Central Africa. She was
also the first woman chair of a university department and the first woman professor in the
country.
Maathai’s role in the fight for the release for
political prisoners is well chronicled where she
led a group of women, mothers of political prisoners in an almost year –long campaign agitating for the release of their sons.
Despite the torture Maathai kept a low profile when her ill health became a challenge, according to some family sources. This explains
her marked absence from the public gaze during the referendum campaigns. Maathai left the
country on the eve of August 4 to seek medical
attention in the US. As the nation mourns, residents of Nyeri County mourn two of their illustrious daughters lost in a span of a few weeks.
Where are our heroines?
By WANJIKU MWAURA
The recent unveiling of a statue in honour of
post-independence firebrand politician Tom
Mboya has raised questions on the absence of
women freedom fighters in Kenya’s ‘hall of fame’.
The death of Wambui Otieno, one of the
women freedom fighters, reignited the debate.
“In her typically non-conformist nature, Wambui left home at 16 and joined the Mau Mau
in Nairobi during the emergency period,” says
Njoki Wamai, a peace and security scholar at
the African Leadership Centre in King’s College, London.
Yet, Wambui’s name may never be engraved
at the Heroes Corner at Uhuru Park.
Wamai and others argue that there has been
a long conspiracy to keep the role of women out
of the history of the fight for independence.
National
“The historical narrative is so bad that women in other parts of the country are non-existent in the struggle for independence. The truth
is women from the Coast to the plains and to
the lake contributed to the struggle,” says Cyrus
Koloshe, a history teacher.
That notwithstanding, there is little recognition of the role women played in the fight
for freedom. Few streets if any are named after
women heroines. For example, Giriama heroine Mekatilili wa Menza could only be afforded a back alley.
The country is littered with buildings, streets
or stadia named after male freedom fighters but
none is named after a woman.
Writer Muthoni Likimani, who has been
among those challenging the skewed freedom
struggle narrative, was once quoted saying:
“What upsets me is that of all the books written
about the movement, as much as women were
involved, no one has ever written about the extent of their involvement. To me, women were
unsung warriors. They were the fighters that no
one talks about. They went to the forest with
men. They were seeing that the people in the
forest were fed, that the sick were taken care of.
Women raised money, stole guns and medicine,
transported all kinds of goods into the forest,
they were even shooting. I know of one of the
women, Field Marshall Muthoni, who was trapping wildlife to cook. She went to fight alongside
famous warriors of the forest like Dedan Kimathi
Waciuri. In fact, this woman was one of the last
to surrender from the forest upon independence,
she was not sure to surrender until she saw the
African flag.”
Likimani who is a writer of several fiction
and non-fiction books on the social history of
Kenyan women, including Passbook Number
F.47927: Women and Mau Mau in Kenya and
What Does a Man Want? hopes women can be
recognised for their role in the fight for freedom.
She goes on to say: “While many died fighting for independence, it must be acknowledged
that one of the first people to be killed by the
colonialists in freedom fighting in Kenya was
Mary Muthoni Nyanjiru during the Harry Thuku uprising in 1922. Why is it that there is no
street named after her today?”
The author concedes that women have had a
very raw deal in the historiography of Mau Mau.
“This is precisely the reason I call the women who fought the unsung warriors. People say,
‘Oh, they cooked food’. Yes they did, but they
did so much more. Without them, men would
not have managed. Women were involved in all
the activities of freedom fighting.”
Historians say one reason for lack of research
on women’s nationalism is that scholars followed
the line taken by the colonial government.
“Even today, we still read the history that
the colonisers wanted us to. It is sad that after
over 40 years of independence, we have not corrected the wrong history,” says Claude Mwenda
of Kenyatta University.
“The only accessible history in books is
wrong. I fear that our children will have no
proper sense of where we have come from,” he
observes.
“It is no wonder widows of many freedom
fighters are poor and get no recognition. In this
country, there is no belief in the saying that ‘behind every successful man there is a woman’,”
says Rhoda Awino who is studying gender and
development in an American University.
Courage
“I think the story of courage and determination of the women who fought for freedom
was deliberately ‘blacked out’ to keep Kenyan
women oppressed for ever. Imagine if we had
the whole account about the struggle for freedom?” Awino poses.
On the issue of not honouring women freedom fighters, University of Nairobi lecturer Tom
Odhiambo observes: “Who comes up with the
criteria of who should be honoured? For example, why did it take so long to honour Mboya?”
Youth leader Janet Mbiuki observes: “Look
around and see, there is no place that honours
women.”
Even history books have scanty details on
the role of women in the fight for independence. Sadly, this may never change unless history is interrogated.
“I think the problem is the way the Kenyan
history has been written. Those who fought for
independence were classified by the colonialists
as resistors and those who did not oppose were
collaborators and only good things were written about them. Sadly, we inherited the same
history and have never felt the need to ques-
tion it. How is fighting for your freedom a bad
thing?” poses Macharia Kamau, who studied
history at Kenyatta University.
Muthoni says: “We played valiantly, sacrificially, against the opposing team. We sweated. We gave our lives. Then, at the end of the
match, when we had won, the spectators ran
away with the trophy.”
Even those who one way or the other participated in the second liberation are rarely recognised. “Look at the history of Saba Saba and
you will see women are barely recognised. We
continue distorting history,” says Kamau.
It is hoped that the establishment of the proposed Kenya Human Rights and Gender Commission will be one of the ways to correct the
‘wrongs’ on the missing history on women’s role
in independence struggle.
Some historians say civil society organisations should start a petition to put our history
in order. They say, perhaps, the historical perspective can help women make a stronger claim
when the gender ratio is not observed.
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
3
Community want former detention camp recognised
Incarceration site is now a mixed secondary school in a remote village
By JOSEPH MUKUBWA
A former Mau Mau detention Camp in Mukurwe-ini District of Nyeri County is now a secondary school.
As we celebrate Mashujaa Day, the school that
served as a detention camp for the Mau Mau during the colonial period now wants the Government to convert it into a tourist attraction zone
as it has historical sites that were put up by the
British colonialists over 60 years ago.
Mweru Mixed Day and Boarding Secondary School which is located about ten kilometres away from Mukurwe-ini town was used
as a detention camp in early 1950s by the colonialists where Mau Mau warriors were detained, tortured and forced to reveal their secrets to the colonialists.
The school has rich tourist attraction sites
which have been forgotten by the Government.
The sites should be remembered and recognised
in order to attract tourists.
Several Mau Mau veterans who passed
through the detention camp later after Kenya
got its independence in 1963 decided to turn the
detention camp to a boys’ rehabilitation centre
in 1968. In 1972, it became a secondary school
where sons of the Mau Mau warriors would go.
Torture room
In one of the rooms, the writings attract every
visitor who tours the school: “Mau Torture Room,
they hated injustice, they took the oath and went
to the forest, they were detained, harassed and
tortured. They died here for our freedom.”
Other sites include very old houses which
were used by senior police officers at the camp.
Some houses are over 70-years-old. The houses
are now being used as school staff houses.
Halls which were used for grilling the Mau
Mau have since been transformed into classes.
The reporting office which also was used as a cell
is still in good shape.
After independence the camp was taken by
the community who started a secondary school
in 1972 which they named Mweru. Among
the attraction sites include a ten by ten feet
room where Mau Mau followers were tortured.
Many of the Mau Mau followers were tortured,
maimed and died here.
Some of torture victims are still disabled or
barren. Many died a long time ago and have
been forgotten. Half of the room is made of
stones and the other half was made with iron
sheets. It has no windows.
Former Mukurwe-ini freedom fighters say
that the school has very rich history as the Mau
Mau members from Tetu, Othaya and Mukurwe-ini were brought to that detention camp
and tortured here.
Many still remember the dark days saying the
experiences are still fresh in their minds. Mwan-
gi Wambugu, 78, says the camp was the most
dreaded due to torture. Many people who were
taken to the camp rarely left alive. “The memories
of the camp are too painful to forget though we
have forgiven our colleagues who betrayed us yet
they still live within our midst,” he says.
Wambugu says that he was arrested in
1956 at Mackinon road in Nairobi and passed
through many prisons including Yatta, Kisumu,
Mageta Island, Gathigiriri in Mwea, Mukurweini and then Mweru where he says that the oneyear he was detained there was more than hell.
He says the camp had four small torture rooms
which measures ten by ten feet and were referred as compounds.
“It was a nightmare here. If one was booked
in here, one was not sure whether he would leave
alive. We saw many men die here. We could not
help since it was a detention camp. Only men
from the Kikuyu community were detained
here,” explains Mwangi who is among those who
spent their lives at the camp.
The father of eight explains that the compounds were more like the secondary school
education levels whereby in compound one, a
person was grilled by fellow Kenyans known as
home guards who were on the side of colonialists
and if one revealed more of the Mau Mau secrets,
he would then graduate to compound two.
He says they would be interrogated after one
month and it took four months for the person
who cooperated in revealing Mau Mau secrets
known in Kikuyu as ‘kuhungwo mahuri’ to be
set free.
“Though as young Mau Mau warriors we
had taken an oath in the forest to kick out the
mzungu in order to get our own freedom, we
were forced to reveal all the secrets due to the
torture we went through in this camp. Every
time I visit this school and see the torture rooms,
I always remember what we went through. I feel
bad when I see politicians taking this country
for granted,” he says.
Come out
Wambugu says that the word Mau Mau is a
reversal of the Kikuyu words that meant Uma,
Uma, (Come out, come out). This meant that
the Africans were tired of the white man ruling
them and they wanted their freedom. Wambugu recalls one of the painful moments when
he was shot on his left leg while at the camp
and a huge scar serves as a reminder of what
he went through.
Another freedom fighter, Joshua Gakuru narrates a similar ordeal to Wambugu’s and says the
old buildings which were earlier used to house
the colonialists are now being used as staff quarters of the school.
The buildings had a strong foundation and
no Mau Mau veteran being held there could escape as they were made of concrete and guarded
Clockwise: Mwangi Wambugu, gazes at the
room where he was tortured during the
struggle. The torture room is at present
day Mweru Secondary School. Some of the
freedom fighters walk into the school and
(seated) narrating their experiences. Staff
houses which were used by senior police
officers at the detention camp during
colonial days. Pictures: Joseph Mukubwa
24 hours. Asked why some of his fellow Africans
were not supporting them in fighting for independence, Gakuru attributes their commitment
to the white man due to greed for money.
“These people were not interested in getting freedom, all they wanted is money. They
still live together with us but we have already
forgiven them now that we have attained independence,” he says.
Ibrahim Mureithi 73, whose father was detained at the camp, says that he learnt much
about of the camp from him. Mureithi says his father had warned him that if a young man landed
in that camp, he would either leave it dead, impotent or crippled.
He says that the major reason why the camp
was turned to a school is because their fathers
were committed to ensure their children did not
go through what they themselves had suffered.
“Our fathers wanted us to get an education
as a way of reforming our country and to ensure
their sons and daughters did not get into problems like they did,” explains Mureithi.
He says that the school, which hosts 400
students has produced big people in Government and it continues to perform better. They
want the school to be recognised as an institution of fame as it contributed in making Kenya
an independent country.
The school’s principal Joseph Mugo Njaramba says that the mixed boarding is more of a
tourist attraction site which if recognised by the
Government would make those who fought for
independence proud.
“There are many colonial sites here since
this school which was a detention camp during
the colonial days since 1954 to 1960. These sites
should be rehabilitated and made tourist attraction sites. This will in turn help to improve the
performance of the school,” explains Njaramba.
He says the school’s performance will improve
greatly as the students will feel motivated that
they are studying in a heroes’ school and will not
want to disappoint those who were tortured. Another school which served as a detention camp is
Kangubiri Girls’ High School in Tetu District and
Prime Minister Raila Odinga toured the site
recently and said that the Government would
excavate the remains of freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi who hailed from Tetu from the
unidentified grave in Kamiti Prison and give
him a decent burial. Among the old boys of the
school include the former Mukurwe-ini MP
Muhika Mutahi.
4
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
Forgotten veterans raise the red flag
By GEORGE MURAGE
As the country’s leaders dine and wine, majority of war veterans can hardly afford a roof over
their head nor can they put a meal on the table.
They have been forced to rely on food donations from well wishers.
Incidentally, on most national days, the veterans are called upon to entertain the crowd in
attendance and one of them called to narrate to
the public of how they fought the colonial government.
This is where it all ends and the group, if
lucky, is given a soda and wished well until
the next celebration. For the over 500 freedom fighters in Naivasha, their lives have been
marked by suffering and regrets as the country
marks its first Mashujaa Day under the new
Constitution. Theirs has been a life full of painful memories, broken promises, heartache and
an unpredictable future.
Pangs of hunger
For them sunrise marks another long and
painful day and as the sun goes down, it marks
another uncertain night with many not sure if
they will live to see morning as their stomachs
rumble from pangs of hunger.
As many of our leaders go around the country grabbing all the available land, all the freedom fighters are asking for is place where they
can have a decent burial.
Under the Mau Mau War veterans association, the members, majority of whom are elderly meet in the ‘offices’ in Naivasha town every
Monday morning to review the past week.
Their walk and empty eyes tell it all – as they
troop to the meeting, many having resigned to
their fate.According to the association district
secretary Boniface Thuo, the Government has
forgotten the veterans who are slowly dying,
one after the other. He paints a grim picture of
the Mau Mau veterans adding that many are
just waiting to die in poverty and misery.
Forgotten
“The Kenyatta, Moi and Kibaki governments have forgotten us despite all the work we
did for this country,” observes Thuo.
He says that the association was formed with
a view of bringing the veterans together so they
could seek compensation from the British government. Their efforts to seek justice have been
blocked by senior government officers
who have never take them seriously.
“We have never received any assistance from the Government and as
a result we and our families are living
a life full of suffering and regret,” he
states.
According to Thuo, due to the suffering many of the war veterans cannot afford to educate their children
further worsening an already bad
situation. “We consider ourselves the
first internally displaced persons in
the country as we were evicted by the
colonial government from our land
and the incoming governments have
failed to listen to us.”
The war veterans’ hopes were lifted in
mid-2008 when Naivasha MP John Mututho
brought the Mau Mau veteran motion in
Parliament.According to the MP, the motion
which was passed was meant to give each of
the war veterans 2.5 acres of land and would
allow them get minimum medical attention.
“The Prime Minister answered the question in
Parliament and promised that the State would
look for land to settle the country’s heroes,”
recalls Thuo.
Two years down the line, no action has been
taken and the veterans continue to wait in vain.
Just like Thuo, Mututho points an accusing finger at some ministers who he accuses of
blocking compensation for the Mau Mau.
“The President and the PM understand the
pain of these people but some ministers are
against this,” laments Thuo.
The association was formed with
a view of bringing the veterans
together so they could seek
compensation from the British
government. Their efforts to seek
justice have been blocked by
senior government officers who
have never take them seriously.
From top: Nyakinyua dancers, a group made up of Mau Mau veterans. Some members
of the Mau Mau Veterans association attend a weekly meeting in Naivasha. Pictures:
George Murage
Mututho terms the suffering of the veterans
as a shame to the country adding that it is time
the group’s needs were addressed.
The suffering of the veterans is summed by
54-year-old Eliud Mathu Kimani whose parents were freedom fighters.
Though a child during the fight for freedom,
he remembers some instances when the colonial master raided their home in Githunguri,
Kiambu searching for Mau Mau adherents.
And once the country got independence,
he knew that the fearful nights and evictions
would be a thing of the past.
The family bought land in Upper Miriri in
Narok in 1975 where they settled ready to forget the painful and haunting past and develop
the country.
“All was well and we started farming in the
rich area as the past slowly slipped from us,” he
says with a painful look.
Freedom fighters want Kimathi’s body
By JOSEPH MUKUBWA
Over 2,000 former freedom fighters who met recently
under Mau Mau War Veterans Association said that
the Government should approach the British Government over Dedan Kimathi’s grave.
The war veterans want a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II to get Britain help them to locate Kimathi’s grave.
Speaking during a meeting held at Ruring’u Stadium in Nyeri County recently ahead of the Mashujaa
Day, the freedom fighters urged the British Government to confirm to the world whether Kimathi is still
alive or if he was buried in Kamiti or King’ong’o Prison.
The association chairman led by national chairman
Elijah Kinyua Ng’ang’a alias General Bahati said that it
was time to know the truth about Kimathi.
“We want Queen Elizabeth to help us trace the remains of Kimathi since it is still not clear where he was
buried after all those years,” said Ng’ang’a.
The chairman who was accompanied by the Secretary General Mwai wa Muthigi also called upon the
Government to immediately resettle all internally displaced persons to stop them from suffering. He said it
will not be good if the long rains in April will find
them at the camps.
Those who attended the meeting came from Central, Eastern and Rift Valley regions.
The former freedom fighters at the same time
urged fellow fighters to remain united as they wait
for compensation from the Government and British
Government as many were maimed, killed and tortured while others lost land and property.
Mau Mau Veterans
Association officials Elijah
Kinyua Ng’ang’a alias General
Bahati (left) and Mwai wa
Muthigi at Ruring’u stadium
in Nyeri County. Women at
the above meeting. Pictures:
Joseph Mukubwa
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
Maingi Maliti, Kimathi’s point
man in Ukambani
By KEN NDAMBU
Although his national identity card shows he was
born in 1918, Maingi Maliti looks younger than
his 93 years.
Memories of Kenya’s liberation struggle are
still fresh and vivid to the octogenarian and Mau
Mau ex-freedom fighter as he recounts the role he
played during World War II and his involvement
in the Mau Mau.
Born in Kaveta Village on the outskirts of Kitui town, Maliti only went up to Standard Three at
Kameme School, now Kitui Boys High School. He
later went to Mombasa at 14 to evade the mandatory tax imposed by the colonial government.
“Although the tax was only six shillings, it was
difficult to get the money and many people fled
their homes to evade the tax locally known as ‘koti
wa kyongo’ (head tax),” Maliti recalls during an interview at his residence in Kitui.
In 1941, he came back home from Mombasa
and was forcefully recruited by the colonial administration to the Kings African Rifles (KAR) and
posted to Garissa when the World War II was at
its peak.
Encounter
5
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
“I met the Mau Mau leader Dedan Kimathi
in Garissa. After four months of association with
him, I left the military and became the ex-freedom
fighter’s point man in Ukambani oblivious to the
fact that I was headed for a harder task of liberating
the country from colonialism,” Maliti remembers.
One of the tasks given to him was to distribute
pamphlets critical to the colonial administration
authored by John Gathingira.
“The pamphlets were brought and distributed
throughout the night. My duty was to ensure that
the pamphlets reached as many people as possible
and that they were translated to Kikamba.”
After distribution, Maliti would brief Kimathi
on the readers’ response.
Maliti’s participation in the Mau Mau movement gained momentum in 1951 when he joined
Jomo Kenyatta’s three appointees from Kitui at a
crucial meeting at Makongeni Sports Ground in
Nairobi. Others in the team were the late Samuel
Mulandi and Thomas Kiteng’e.
After the Nairobi meeting, Maliti explains,
Kiteng’e was appointed chairman of Kitui Mau
Mau Branch, Mulandi (secretary) and himself
assuming the position of the youth leader.
“Mzee Kenyatta personally mandated me to
recruit 2,000 remnants in Kitui and make weekly
briefs to Dedan Kimathi, an assignment I carried
out with zeal,” reveals Maliti, who is one of the
few surviving Mau Mau adherents from Kitui.
At one stage during the interview attended
by his comrade Robert Katisya who also participated in the Mau Mau struggle for liberation of the country, Maliti wept as he recounted
what he underwent during an oath taking ceremony in Thika.
“It was horrific and terrifying as we took a
concoction of blood and other substances as an
oath to forbid us from revealing the secrets of the
Mau Mau Movement and also pledging to kill and
drink the blood of anyone who blocked our way in
the fight to end the colonial administration,” recalls
Maliti.
One of the commitments they undertook was
not to reveal the whereabouts of freedom fighters,
the movement’s plans and compel their wives to
cook for freedom fighters without discrimination.
“One of many major advances was to fulfil an
order by Kimathi to crackdown on chiefs sympathetic to the colonial government,” explains Maliti.
He says it was then that the Kitui based freedom
fighters ambushed the late Senior Chief Kasina
Ndoo and cut off his legs. An operation was then
mounted by the colonial police led by Kitui District
Commissioner John Kelly. Twenty freedom fighters were arrested and taken to Manyani detention
camp where they spent three years.
“Unlike other chiefs, Kasina was a traitor in
our midst and revealed our plans and movement
especially when Kimathi visited Kitui,” says Maliti.
He dismisses belief that the Kamba community
did little in the struggle for liberation of the country
as most of the food supplies came from the region.
“As a youth leader, I got instructions from
Kimathi and was responsible for collecting money
Maliti displays a steel identification card
issued by Dedan Kimathi to all Mau Mau
youth leaders. He was instrumental in Mau
Mau activities in Ukambani.
Picture: Ken Ndambu
and coordinating food donation as well as ensuring
it reached the Mau Mau leaders,” says Maliti.
He, however, admits that the Kikuyus played
a major role in the struggle for independence citing Manyani Detention Camp where most of them
were tortured to death and scores left maimed.
“These are the people the Government should
compensate fully because they brought the fruits
the citizens are enjoying today,” avers Maliti.
Pension
He wonders why the pension the Government
set aside for those over 60 years is not benefiting
those who shed blood for the liberation of the
country.
“If the pension cannot benefit surviving freedom fighters who else should it benefit?” he poses.
As appreciation for his role in the Mau Mau
activities, Maliti was elected to County Council of
Kitui unopposed in 1981 and again in 1983 when
he became the chairman.
Maliti hopes in the new Constitutional dispensation, those who suffered to liberate the country
from colonial administration will be recognised
with creation of posts for them in the County governments.
The role
homeguards played
during Mau Mau
By RYAN MATHENGE
Homeguards or collaborators as they
were labelled during the crackdown on
war veterans remains isolated members
in the community owing to their past
deed to their villagers during struggle for
independence.
In many of the villages, families of
those who collaborated with white administrators are easily recognised and labeled as ‘ngati’, the Kikuyu pronunciation
of home guard which was used derisively
owing to misdeeds they did to the community as they spied on their activities.
Education
However after independence, many
of the collaborators’ children were
educated, making them prime candidates for plum jobs post independence
leaving their Mau Mau counterparts
uneducated. The children of the collaborators also had the opportunity to
proceed to Britain for further studies.
Benjamin Mwangi, a resident of
Murang’a remembers how he saw children from the collaborators families easily secure employment as the Mau Mau
offspring missed out on such opportunities due to their relative lack of education.
“They enjoyed a lot of privileges since
they were educated while other parents
struggled raising their families,” said
Mwangi, a resident of Weithaga location.
Retired Catholic Priest Father Joakim
Gitonga says early education benefitted
children of the administrators and collaborators. He however said some of
the collaborators leaked information of
planned attacks to the Mau Mau in addition to stealing ammunition from the
stores and passing it on to the fighters.
“Not all collaborators were bad, there is
growing evidence that some tipped war
generals on what the British military was
planning,” said Gitonga.
Honouring the men and women of the struggle
District exposed some of the harrowing experiences they went through in
the hands of colonial masters during
the struggle for independence.
As they effortlessly fought back
tears, some of the victims now in their
advanced age narrated how men had
their private parts exposed to safari
ants while women had stinging leaves,
thabai (stinging nettles) inserted into
their vaginas by British soldiers as they
tortured the freedom fighters.
Compensation
The elderly veterans expressed regret that although the British government had indicated some good signs
of possible compensation for those
who suffered during the colonial regime, it will never erase what they
suffered.
Majority of them will not live to receive and enjoy the benefits due to the
alleged slow pace of the compensation
case that has been filed in London that
is ongoing. They also accused the government of failing to protect identified
historical sites such as colonial prisons,
detention holding camps and mass
graves from grabbers.
”Historical sites can be used as
tourist attractions and money collected could directly benefit the now elderly Mau Mau veterans and their kin,
some of whom are now living in abject
poverty,” says Charles Karaya Nkare,
secretary of Narok branch of the Mau
Mau War Veterans Association.
The veterans regretted that a church
has already acquired a plot within the
area believed to have been used for
mass graves in the outskirts of Narok
town. Despite protests lodged by the
Mau Mau members to the provincial
administration, Nkare said a modern
church building has been constructed
at the spot where the independence
struggle veterans were buried in mass
graves. Deep open pits and colonial
prisons buildings nearby gave the surviving veterans good ground to argue
their case.
Silonka ole Kitikai saw it all happen
because he was a victim and claims to
have survived death by whisker when
he was booked in the prisons by colonial soldiers.
“The prisons which were popularly
referred to as jela ndogo (small jail) was
a reserve for those identified as ‘hard
core criminals’ from the locality. They
were killed one by one when they were
dropped in deep pits with their heads
facing down,” says the elderly Kitikai.
He adds: “All this happened after hours
of rigorous torture by the merciless
majohnies (soldiers).”
Amid deep moments of thoughts,
Mzee Kitikai says how those who exhibited remorsefulness and softened
their attitude towards the merciless
British were moved to less protected
detention camps at Entara area, about
11 kilometres away along the Mara
River from Narok town.
“The detention camp was infested
with wild animals and therefore any
attempt to escape from the camp automatically marked the death of the
escapee,” explains Kitikai.
However, he sadly recalls that
those who missed death through attempted escape were not lucky as a
good number died from poisonous
snake bites.
The other major cause of deaths in
the camps was over congestion, starvation and diseases among them typhoid, malaria and pneumonia. Majority of the casualties were pregnant
women and children.
“For as long as the detainees refused to confess their mistakes or reveal identities of those who had taken
oath to fight or plan attacks on colonialists, no doctor was invited to treat
them,” says Loice Kinga who witnessed four defiant pregnant women
clobbered to death.
Kinga herself suffered a thorough
beating that left her with wounds and
scars that dot her body today. She vividly recalls the undignified manner in
which the dead were buried then. Today the veterans are calling upon the
“Most deaths in the camps and prisons
occurred as a result of deliberate poor
hygienic conditions we were subjected to.”
— Miriam Kisio
The National chairman of the Mau Mau Veterans Association, Gitu
Kahengeri greets the association’s Narok branch secretary Charles
Karaya Nkare on arrival at Karatina stadium where the veterans met
recently. Picture: Kabia Matega
Government to exhume and rebury
at the freedom corner Mau Mau veterans whose graves can be positively
identified.
Ugali and salt
Peter Muturi, now approaching
his late 80s narrates how the captives
were given small tins of maize flour
with no vegetables. “We were forced
to lick salt to get the ugali to go down
our throats,” recalls Muturi who refused to tell more of his life in detention. Evidence of the existence of such
a camp is the perimeter barbed fence
and a vehicle inspection garage site.
Miriam Kisio, widow of General
Kirito Kisio is calling on the Government to set aside funds for freedom
fighters which could be given on a
monthly basis for their survivors.
Amid sobs, Kisio displays to the
Reject scars that dot her body which
she claims were inflicted during the
struggle for the country’s independence.
“Most deaths in the camps and
prisons occurred as a result of deliberate poor hygienic conditions we were
subjected to,” says Kisio.
The discovery of historical sites in
Narok district followed a major search
for historical data and information
related to struggle for the country’s
independence by the Maasai and other
communities. This was a project of the
Narok branch of the Mau Mau Veterans Association. The project is a brain
child of Karaya Ngare, the branch secretary who says some existing sites included prison rooms, restricted camps
and pits of death that have been positively identified by surviving victims of
colonial captivities.
Ngare wants the Government to
create a kitty to feed the independence
struggle veterans some of whom are
languishing in poverty.
6
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
Waithera, yesteryear’s brave Mau Mau spy girl
By JOHN SYENGO
When we approached her at Kyamwiu Village home in the remote Kyuso
District in Kitui County, we found the
aging but amiable Waithera Mutemi
reinforcing the iron sheet and wood
planks gate at her home.
“I wanted to make sure this gate
is firm because neighbours’ livestock
have been pushing it open and messing up the compound during my absence. Once I add extra poles and a
crossbar, the animals will no longer be
able to push the gate open,” Waithera
told the Reject recently.
Even as we explained the purpose
of our visit, as this mother of eight
and a grandmother of a legion did the
final touches of the gate repair, nothing on the surface betrayed that fact
that Waithera was part of the Kenya’s
struggle against the colonial masters in
the late 1940s and 1950s.
Resourceful
Not many of her neighbours in
the village just a few kilometres from
Itivanzou Primary School in the
newly created Kamuwongo Division
know that Waithera is a resourceful
person on the history of the Mau
Mau struggle.
As it turned out during our chat in
the early evening after she was through
with repairing her gate, Waithera is no
doubt one of the living but unsung heroes of the freedom struggle.
Sharing with her a wooden log
supported by two poles that served
as our seat, Waithera was willing
to give her story on the Mau Mau
struggle but with a bitter taste in
her mouth as she has not been recognised nearly 48 years after Kenya
attained independence.
Waithera is not sure of her age.
However, the national identity card
she holds gives her date of birth as
1950, a year when she was, as a bubbling and energetic teenage girl in the
thick of the Mau Mau struggle mainly
as a gun bearer and spy for the free-
dom fighters. That notwithstanding,
she easily agrees to a suggestion that
that she could be nearing her 80s.
Waithera was barely in her teens
when Mau Mau fighters forced members of her family, that at the time lived
in the area between the present day
Kahawa Barracks and the Githurai Estate in the periphery of Nairobi City, to
join them.
“When our father, Njuguna who
was a supervisor at a farm belonging
to a Mzungu in the Kahawa area, was
forced to have members of his family
take the Mau Mau oath we were all
bound as members of the freedom
fighting movement and would not disclose anything,” she recalls.
Waithera says both her parents
could not protest when the Mau Mau
Platoon that operated from the bunkers along the Githuri River and the
nearby thick forests demanded that
she and her sister Wanjiku become
part of the girls who would attend to
the needs of the freedom fighters.
“From then on we became active participants in the Mau Mau
struggle. We were part of the ten girls
who served the needs of a platoon of
between 30 to 40 forest fighters. We
provided them with food and water as
well as washed their clothes,” explain
Waithera. She says intimate relationship between the girls and the fighters
was strictly prohibited.
However, she says their services
came in handy when the fighters decided to use them to move their home
made guns although it entailed putting
their lives on the line.
“Because we were young innocent
girls, the fighters used us as gun bearers to carry their rifles and ammunition. It was unlikely for the colonial
askaris to stop and search us because
they did not expect we would to indulge in such dangerous activities at
our age,” she explains.
Waithera says during her two-year
stint with the Mau Mau group headed
by Kamau aka Mwana Mwende that
launched attacks on colonial targets
Ruiru and Thika areas, the girls would
take to the Mau Mau fighters vital information on the number of government soldiers, their routine and the
weakest area as well as suggest the best
time to launch an attack.
Besides, she says, the girls would
use their ingenuity to sweet talk sympathetic government soldiers to give
them bullets to be used by the Mau
Mau. Although the fighters had the capacity to make homemade guns, they
did not have the know how for making
ammunition. The girls at times stole
the bullets from the Government soldiers they befriended.
“It was unlikely for
the colonial askaris
to stop and search
us because they did
not expect we would
indulge in such
dangerous activities
at our age.”
— Waithera Mutemi
and installation from their hideout in
the Githuria bunkers and forests she
did a lot of espionage and gathering of
intelligence for the Mau Mau.
“We visited the homes of wazungus
posing as desperate girls from poor
families seeking employment but our
interest was to gather information that
would be shared with the fighters to
enable them to launch attacks,” says
Waithera. Such visits were also used
to beg food and money that would be
used for Mau Mau upkeep.
Besides the alms, during their beats
especially in the area along the present day Thika Road covering Kahawa,
Armed women
Waithera says since their assignment was extremely dangerous, the
girls were shown how to use guns to
ensure they could defend themselves
in times of trouble.
“We were taken through rudimentary lessons on how to handle the gun
and even shoot when necessary,” says
Waithera as she uses a torch to demonstrate how to release the gun trigger.
During her errand as a Mau Mau
operative she met and befriended a
Kamba tribesman from Kyuso, Mutemi Nzau who was to become her future husband. She says at the time they
met, Nzau was working as a driver of
a lorry that used to transport quarry
stones from Kahawa area to Nairobi.
“When I met my husband, he was
working for an Indian known as Kavu.
Initially I used to take all the bullets
we had marshalled to his house and
would hide them in a hole I had dug
under his bed. Because he was a Kamba, Government officials could not
suspect that his house would be used
for Mau Mau activities,” says the soft
spoken woman.
She recalls a time she had a near
brush with death as she ran errands for
the Mau Mau. She missed death by a
whisker when a Mau Mau fighter the
girls had accompanied was gunned
down by colonial government soldiers.
“We were walking side by side be-
fore I heard a gun shot and the fighter
collapsed in a heap. We knew he was
shot and the rest of us fled into the
bush,” recalls Waithera.
She was also tortured by government soldiers at Lang’ata Barracks for
her role in the Mau Mau onslaught.
“During a screening parade at Kahawa, a Mau Mau deserter identified
me as one of the Mau Mau operators. I was along with others taken to
Lang’ata Barracks where I was severely
and intensely tortured,” says the former freedom fighter.
“I have never seen anything like
that. The gun wielding soldiers were
extremely cruel. They forced us to
crawl on our knees and hands for a
distance of over one kilometre of ballast filled field. Those who could not
bear it were shot dead. I endured but
my knees and hands suffered serious
wounds,” she says.
Waithera says even with the pain,
she was undeterred and could not
spill the beans and confess that she belonged to the Mau Mau. She was later
released after the soldiers failed to get
any incriminating information that
could link her with Mau Mau.
New life
After her release even before the
Mau Mau uprising was over, she married Nzau and was taken to Ukambani
to start a new life as a wife and mother.
Today, as she approaches 80 years and
whiles away time in Kyamwiu Village, Itvanzou Location of Kyuso District, she wonders why nearly five decades after independence no one has
thought of recognising her for the role
she played in the freedom struggle.
“It is true I sacrificed a lot and put
my life on the line to fight for Uhuru
but I have nothing to show for it even
as I approach my sunset years. No one
has ever recognised the role I played,”
she says. Waithera laments having
been left out even as some of her colleagues in the struggle for Uhuru were
rewarded with portions of land next to
the Baba Dogo area in Nairobi.
Field Marshal Muthoni, damsel of the freedom fighters
By WAIKWA MAINA
She has an unquestionable air of authority about her. It is not difficult to
understand why she rose to the rank
of Field Marshal in the Mau Mau
Movement.
With a lot of bitterness, Mau Mau
freedom fighter Muthoni Kirima vividly recalls all about the fight like it
happened yesterday.
She is bitter with almost everyone and every institution. She feels
strongly that whatever they went to
fight for has not been totally achieved.
Not with black people of Kenyan origin still living in along road sides, as
squatters in villages, not to mention
the thousands of unsettled internally
displaced persons four years after the
disputed 2007 general elections.
“My father worked for a settler.
That is where I was brought up. Once
you lived with them, you had to fight.
We felt it was better to die in the forest fighting them than to live without
our freedom. We wanted our land
and our freedom but I have nothing
to be proud of today,” says Muthoni.
The Field Marshal recalls everything and how Dedan Kimathi died.
When she mentions his name, one
can easily notice the anger and desperation in her tone and eyes, she
drops some tears and gets emotional. It takes a few minutes before she
composes herself to continue with
the narration of her experience in the
forest. When she talks about the fate
of freedom fighters after independence, there is a choke in her throat.
She paints a haunting likeness.
“It’s like a competitive match. We
were the team, we played valiantly,
sacrificially, against the opposing
team. We sweated, sacrificed our lives
and families, but what do we have to
show for it?” she poses. She adds:
“Nothing, the glory went to the other
party, the spectators and traitors, it is
the children of Mau Mau and other
freedom fighters that are jobless.
They are the ones who live as squatters yet we are the ones who went to
the forest.”
Muthoni recalls that during the
war, there was no enmity between
black Kenyans, not even with those
that worked for the white settlers
since it was due to ignorance that
they worked for and supported them.
She adds that even the white man
was not the enemy of the black Africans by virtue of the difference in
skin colour but simply for taking
away their rich virgin land as well as
introducing draconian and oppressing laws to the African community.
Muthoni says that freedom fighters were betrayed while they were in
the forest, an injustice that she argues
is yet to be addressed locally by the
Kenyan Government or by the British government.
“While we fought and risked our
lives in the forest, another strategic
war was taking place in the political arena. Parties were being formed
to fight for the rights of Kenya all
the way to Lancaster House. Our
educated brothers were agitating for
the rights of the black man in the
legislature, through constitutional
means. Though their approach was
non violent, some of them were our
inspiration but they distanced themselves from us after independence in
1963,” she observes.
Muthoni says after independence,
freedom fighters willingly gave up
their weapons and returned to their
villages, unaware that as they were
in the forest fighting the enemy,
land consolidation had taken place
in 1960. That is how thousands of
freedom fighters were left landless.
Their land was taken away and given
to others.
The other disadvantage on their
side was that as they were in the forest, those who remained got educated. It is the educated lot and their
children who got to hold good jobs.
“We had no problem with that
since the hatching government needed the educated class to form the
Government, we felt it was a win-win
situation,” she recalls. She blames lies,
Field Marshal Muthoni at her house where a cherished picture of
Dedan Kimathi hangs on the wall. Picture: Waikwa Maina
selfishness, nepotism and corruption
as major issues that have led the country to where it is today. According to
Muthoni, patriotism died soon after
independence. She says had the spirit
of patriotism been cultivated even the
last general elections skirmishes could
not have occurred.
What lacked was equal distribution and sharing of natural resources, while due to selfishness and
nepotism, Kenyans were unable to
embrace each other as true brothers
and sisters.
The situation was aggravated by
emergence of groups of people calling themselves Mau Mau, a move that
created enmity between the true Mau
Mau heroes and imposters.
She strongly believes that the imposters are a project of prophets of
doom who want to frustrate justice
and capitalise on the confusion to either benefit or frustrate efforts by the
original fighters’ access justice.
Muthoni is of the opinion that
those who took over power at independence may have been scared and
thought that those who went to fight
in the forest will conspire and go back
into the forest to fight them. They then
decided to frustrate and condemn the
fighters and that is why it took years
before the law criminalising Mau Mau
was repealed.
Muthoni joined the freedom fighters in 1951, just three years after she
got married to her late husband.
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
7
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
Ex-freedom fighter agitates
Mau
Mau
witness
Mama Kaloki’s account on what she
for farmers’ land rights
observed during the struggle for self-rule
By OMWA OMBARA
Ask her about the Mau Mau struggle
and she instinctively bursts into song.
It is a song of freedom and celebration
that is loaded with the story of Kenya’s
independence.
Susan Kaloki Wambua, 82, witnessed the struggle for independence at
the heart of what has become one of the
darkest moments of Kenya’s history.
The day Jomo Kenyatta was released
from Kapenguria is alive in her memory. “When Kenyatta was released from
Kapenguria, we walked from Makuyu
to Kapenguria chanting. There were
thousands of us singing and jubilant.
You needed to have been there to know
the sweetness of freedom. We went crazy with joy,” an excited Wambua says
as she reveals an infectious, toothless
smile.
“We screamed, shouted, danced and
laughed hysterically. We hugged one
another, male and female and together
rolled on the ground as if we had an epileptic seizure. We did not know how to
express our joy. It was amazing,” she told
the Reject.
On that day others were transported
to Kapenguria in army lorries free of
charge. Kenyatta sat calmly in the middle of the crowd, waving his flywhisk.
They were with Mama Ngina. “Then
Mama Ngina was a young girl, as thin as
that pen you are writing with,” Wambua
recalls. What was even more interesting was that as soon as the white people
learnt that Kenyatta was free, many
could not handle the news and ended
up committing suicide in their farms.
Suicide
“I witnessed 30 bodies of white men
and women who had committed suicide,” says Wambua.
She calls herself a shero, not because
she took arms and moved to the forest
but because in her own little way she
contributed to the struggle for Kenya’s
independence.
Wambua lived in Murang’a, Makuyu
in the farms of the “wazungus”. The year
was 1956 and she was just a young girl.
Her father, who worked on the white
man’s farm, came home one evening
looking sad. He said the white man did
not want to see any cows belonging to
Africans in their farms.
“We owned cows but the white man
did not want to see them around. A
decree came from above that all Africans must remove their cows from the
farms. So my father got land in Makueni,” she recalls.
Wambua remembers that period as
one of the darkest in her life. Fear hang
around everywhere and they all suffered sleepless nights.
“We were children. We feared the
whites. If you took a Mau Mau oath, the
white man mistreated you. We could not
sleep. Those who refused to take the oath
were also killed. It was a terrible,” she told
the Reject.
Integrity
According to Wambua, the Mau
Mau never raped the women and children. It was the white majohni (soldiers)
who raped women and children.” Although the Mau Mau took away money
and the food we had prepared by force,
they did not indulge in sexual crimes.
We understood, though, when they carried our food away. They were hiding in
the forest and could not prepare their
By KEN NDAMBU
“When Kenyatta
was released from
Kapenguria, we
walked from Makuyu
to Kapenguria
chanting. There were
thousands of us
singing and jubilant.”
— Susan Kaloki Wambua
own food,” Wambua explains. She adds:
“We made a lot of food so that they had
enough to carry whenever they raided
the kitchens.”
She says the colonialists made the Kikuyu, Kamba and Luo work on the same
farm but separated their living quarters.
They put a police post in the middle of
the living quarters to ensure the communities did not socialise after work.
The only nostalgic feeling Wambua
has of the Mau Mau era is that there
was a lot of food. “During colonial era
there was plenty of food. There was no
hunger and inflation like what we have
today. We lived in Yatta but my father
worked in Thika Sisal Farm as a messenger to a white man called Wa Thika.”
In her version of the Mau Mau story,
Wambua admits that although many
communities helped in the struggle,
the Kikuyu bore the brunt as hundreds
were killed.
Deserved
“The Kikuyu really died in the Mau
Mau struggle. The Kikuyu women
bought land everywhere in Nairobi after
independence and in my opinion, they
deserve it. They deserve to rule Kenya
too,” she opines.
Wambua believes that despite the
Mau Mau challenges, the good side is
that it made women from the region
came out stronger — independent and
self-willed. The men were in detention
and women heard to struggle to make
ends meet. To date, they have remained
the most ambitious and progressive
women in the country.”
Wambua blames the colonialists for
denying her and other women as well
as children a chance to go to school. “I
never went to school. There are things I
don’t know . . . so many things. My father wrote in English and he became the
white man’s messenger but I don’t know
who taught him the strange language,”
she says.
At 81, ex-freedom fighter Bernard
Kogie Wathobio’s memory of his
struggle to help the freedom fighters
in Naivasha and Nakuru when the
Mau Mau war was at its peak is still
fresh and vivid. Despite the advancing age, he is still pursuing a worthy
cause to fight for farmers’ interests
especially relatives of the ex-freedom
fighters who have not been lucky to
get land to settle in Maragua and
Thika Districts.
In his tiny office in the heart of
Thika Town, it is a beehive of activities as fatigued-looking peasants
flock there to be helped to trace their
parcels of land after buying shares at
the trouble ridden Methi and Swani
land buying farmers co-operative
society. Methi, Swani and Kihiu
Mwiri schemes are the oldest land
buying companies established during the Mau Mau era with the latter
meaning a society of members who
underwent circumcision initiation
with the founding father of the nation, the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
Recalling his involvement with
the freedom fighters as a youth in
1952, Wathobio said he and other
age mates were sympathisers of the
remnants and used to take them
food in the forest at night. “I was
hired as the leader of the secret agent
in charge of the youth to inform
them of the movement of the colonial askaris so as to take cover,”recalls
Wathobio. He adds that to succeed
in the job, he was employed as a cook
by one of the white settlers in Naivasha and through the relationship
with the colonial administration; he
helped the Mau Mau fighters achieve
their mission.
Revenge
Oblivious that his mission as
a worker in the white settlement
schemes was known, he says he was
woken up one morning on October 6, 1952 and shot in the leg by
the bodyguard of his employer. “It
was after the incident when I knew
my mission was known and left the
working place and went to Naivasha Town to mobilise the youth to
revenge,” says Wathobio in an interview with the Reject in his Methi home on the outskirts of Thika
Town.
He says from that time, he became a sworn enemy of the colonial
askaris and after one month, he was
arrested as he planned to stage a
procession against the white settlers
who had acquired large farms in
Naivasha at the expense of the locals.
“This is when my struggle for
equal land rights started,” says
Wathobio adding that in December
1952, he was detained and jailed by
the colonial government at Marigat
and Naivasha detention camps.
Wathobio was charged with sympathising with the Mau Mau fighters, loitering in the streets of Naivasha and refusing to work for the
white settlers.
After eight months in detention,
young Wathobio joined other youth
groups who acted as helpers of the
freedom fighters in the forest. In the
course of discharging his duties, he
was again shot and wounded in the
leg, arrested and detained again at
Bernard Kogie Wathobio displays a scar on his leg where he
was shot and wounded by colonial askaris in Naivasha during
the Mau Mau war. Picture: Ken Ndambu
Marigat detention camp. He was
later transferred to Naivasha.
When Wathobio was at Naivasha Detention camp serving a six
year jail term, the Mau Mau broke
into the cells at night and set free
all those jailed there. “It became
hectic to the colonial administration and to silence me, I was given
a job at the Ministry of Agriculture
and deployed at Pekera Irrigation
scheme as a mechanic,” says Wathobio. He served in Jacaranda Coffee
Research Station, Nakuru, Garissa
and Nairobi before retiring from
the civil service in 1987 in the rank
of driver cum plant mechanic.
As former chairman of the
wound up Methi and Swani land
buying society, Wathobio says he
has been able to settle 3,187 shareholders of the society. “In a bid to
ensure that the society does not collapse before settling the members,
I have found myself on a collision
cause with the law. I have been
jailed for 28 days and detained severally at Makuyu Police Station but
the harassment has not derailed
my mission to see justice done to
the landless,” says Wathobio. For
15 years, Wathobio has been in the
court corridors to block the sale of
one of the estates of the society Makindi River Bank Estate by a local
bank for a debt of KSh2.7 million,
the bank claims the debt has since
accrued to KSh100 million.
Secret
Trouble with the society started
in 1995 when the former directors
authorised the sale of the estate to
offset the loan acquired from the
Co-operative Bank in 1978 without
consent of the members. He explains that the directors used part of
the money to repay a loan got from
the Agricultural Finance Corporation. However, the loan accrued
to KSh100 million which arose
suspicion among the members.
“When my team of directors took
over the society and even before
the files were handed over to them,
the Bank sold the Estate defeating
the purpose of the society to settle
some of its members in the estate,”
says Wathobio. Wathobio says the
move triggered prolonged court
battles until the matter was referred
to a constitutional court but the
shareholders ended up losing as
the society wound up before every
member was settled.
Our rights
“We fought the colonial government to get back our land but what
we are seeing now is no different
from what was happening during
the colonial government as most of
the settlement schemes owned by
the white settlers are owned by the
rich,” avers Wathobio. He blames
the problems afflicting land buying
farmers’ companies to the Government’s failure to come up with a
policy to safeguard the societies’
interests. “With liberalisation of
the co-operative movement, management of the societies have been
left solely to the farmers who lack
professionalism on how to manage
them,” observes Wathobio.
The former ex-freedom fighter
says greed among some directors
of farmers’ companies, inadequate
supervision, lack of proper records,
collusion of some directors with
banks to deprive the societies has
led to collapse of most land buying
societies. He says if courts finalised cases brought to them by the
societies in time, the marginalised
small scale farmers who used the
societies to buy land could not
be squatters. “Time is ripe for the
Government to regulate co-operative industry to safeguard the small
scale farmer who use land societies
to acquire land,” notes Wathobio.
8
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
Development
bars elephants
from breeding
By BUYO TUTI
Early this year, a team of Kenya Wildlife Service intelligence officers had penetrated the
enemy territory in an operation mounted to
capture poachers and impound a haul of elephant tusks on transit to Nairobi overnight.
The tense atmosphere was palpable as undercover officers and backup team had their
jobs cut out for them. Here, 81 elephant tusks
were at stake and recovering the ivory was doing justice to elephants. All the while, a contingent of armed officers in camouflaged patrol
land cruiser vehicles had sealed all exit routes
leaving Nthugi village along the busy Nanyuki-Meru highway.
The trader, on the KWS’s list of most wanted poachers who has several court cases has
been evading the dragnet over the past several
months. He was not escaping this one.
As the trader and his clients made their
way out of the homestead and onto the highway towards Meru town, the officers emerged
and blocked the road from all sides. With no
escape route, the men surrendered and their
consignment of 81 elephant tusks and the salon Toyota car were all in the possession of
KWS officers.
Ivory trade
Such cases of bold action to curb illegal
trade in ivory in Isiolo and Meru counties
are many. Over the past ten months, about
106 ivory tusks have been recovered in Isiolo
alone. In October last year, ten tusks were recovered and two men arrested.
At the beginning of the year, 81 ivory
tusks were recovered and three men arrested.
Three months ago, 12 tusks were impounded
on transit to Nairobi. As of August, a case involving three ivory tusks is pending before an
Isiolo court.
According to Isiolo District Warden Dominic Wambua, most of the jumbos are killed by
poachers when they stray into unprotected
areas.
However, he confirmed that some hardcore
poachers killed elephants in the parks at night
using sophisticated gadgets such as high sensitivity night vision binoculars and rifle scope
which is mounted on the guns to aid in accurate aiming.
But why do the jumbos widely known for
the sharp memory of their tracks stray into
the unprotected areas away from their normal
routes and fall victim?
The answer lies in the mushrooming trad-
ing centres along their migratory corridors
and heavily fenced crop fields in areas previously known to be elephant shades. These,
coupled with development initiatives coming up in both Isiolo and Meru counties, are
threatening the population of the jumbos in
the region.
One such development venture that has sent
panic waves in the elephant kingdom is the
expansive three kilometre Isiolo International
Airport.
“When designing a facility of such magnitude, planners should consult to avoid conflict
between wildlife and human beings since once
their corridors to other habitats are closed, the
animals tend to stray into unprotected areas if
not into homesteads or farms,” laments Wambua.
The elephant corridor crossing from Ruiri
and Meru forests to Shaba National Reserve
in Isiolo and those heading back to the forest
have been blocked by the Kenya Army 78 tank
battalion and the Isiolo International Airport
which is under construction. The situation
has been complicated further by numerous
vegetable farms on Gambela swamp along the
Isiolo-Garbatula road.
On the other hand, the jumbos altered
routes from the cold Mt Kenya Forest to warm
lowlands of Buffalo Springs and Samburu national reserves could not get easy passage since
the routes have been altered by large onion
farms stretching from Maili Saba along Isiolo
Nanyuki road to Leparua westward.
The destructive jumbos therefore invade
into farmland and unmanned rangeland
where poachers prowl.
According to Mzee Ibrahim Duba, a community elder in Gafarsa, a village along the
river Ewaso Nyiro, he has over the years learnt
that the months of May through to July is the
breeding season for the elephants in the region. He noted that, the long strip of acacia
forest along the river has attracted jumbos to
An elephant grazes
at Buffalo Springs
National Reserve.
KWS officers impound
a haul of 82 elephant
tusks from suspected
poachers in Isiolo early
this year. The officers
blame the blocked
elephant migratory
corridors for the rise in
poaching on elephants
as they stray into the
unprotected range
lands.
Pictures: Buyo Tuti
Gafarsa area where they are not hunted by locals.
“The long strip of acacia forest along the
river is cold even when the sun is hot around
here and the elephants love this particularly
when they have calves,” says Mzee Duba.
Though he could not confirm Duba’s
observations, Wambua blames the human
settlement along the corridors used by the elephants to migrate to other habitats. As seasons change, this forces the jumbos to stray
into other areas where they are vulnerable to
poaching since they are unable to retrace their
tracks.
Naturally, Wambua says the thick acacia
canopy is the favourite habitat for the jumbos
“When designing a facility of such magnitude, planners
should consult to avoid conflict between wildlife and
human beings since once their corridors to other
habitats are closed, the animals tend to stray into
unprotected areas if not into homesteads or farms.”
— Dominic Wambua, Isiolo District Warden
where they raise their calves after birth in the
nearby Ruiri, Mt Kenya and Meru forests. Others migrate from Marsabit and Samburu to the
banks of Ewaso Nyiro River in Isiolo during
dry seasons but their incubators have been destroyed by roaring power saws as demand for
charcoal in urban centres rises.
According to Wambua, the elephant population will keep dwindling if their corridors
are not respected and protected. He added
that their numbers had reduced by over two
per cent over the past decade.
Human settlement
“People have settled in their corridors
while government development plans such as
the Isiolo International Airport is one of the
activities which has configured the elephant
migration routes hence changing their breeding season,” said Wambua.
Though the five military establishments
around Isiolo are also blocking the corridors,
the undisturbed acacia forest has become a
sanctuary as the stranded jumbos take refuge in
the barracks during the breeding seasons.
“The officers often call us to drive away the
animals from their barracks but those acacia
forests have saved many elephants which would
have been poached if they wandered away into
the plains,” said Wambua.
Turning fish farming into a profitable endeavour
By WANDERI NJENGA
It is good news for fish farmers in Kiambu
County as the government unveils plans to turn
fish farming into a lucrative business opportunity. The Permanent Secretary in the ministry of
fisheries development, Professor Micheni Ntiba
said that the government will ensure that farmers who engage in fish farming gain good profits
by providing the necessary technical support
and infrastructure required for massive production and marketing of fish.
Ntiba said that due to the perishable nature
of harvested fish, farmers are being given adequate training of post harvest fish management
to ensure that no losses are incurred before the
fish reaches the consumer.
The government, he said, aims at constructing a fish cooling and mini processing plant in
each constituency where harvested fish can be
preserved and prepared for marketing. Ntiba
said that the project had already kicked off and is
expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The PS added that the government will also
be installing fish pellet production machines
in the constituencies to upscale the fishing
programme. Most farmers in the county have
complained about the high cost of fish feed with
some resorting to using low quality feeds such
as maize germ and bran which leads to stunted
growth in the fish and dismal economic gains.
Professor Micheni said that farmers will be
trained on how to use the machines to produce
fish feeds from locally available and cheap raw
materials adding that the standard fish feed
should have at least 25 per cent protein and be
in pellet form.
It was relief to the farmers when the PS announced that the government has recruited
more fisheries extension officers who will be
posted to the constituencies. This will ensure
that farmers get adequate technical assistance
in good time. He said that the county will receive 24 officers which will be distributed
equally with each constituency getting three.
The PS was addressing fish farmers and other
residents of Kiambu County at Gitamaiyu
during a fish festival dubbed ‘more fish for a
healthier, wealthier Kiambu’. Kiambu County
has realised KSh6 million from fish sale since
the government rolled out the economic stimulus projects on fish farming.
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
9
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
A roll of honour call for unsung heroes
By MUSA RADOLI
For decades through the successive post independence regimes, hundreds of Kenyan women have achieved tough feats that transformed
them into international heroines but unsung at
home.
Right from the struggle for freedom of the
nation from the British colonial yokes, hundreds of Kenyan women have fought alongside
their male counterparts through Kenyatta and
Moi regimes for democratic space. Most recently they put the name of the nation on the world
map through the new Constitution.
The women’s struggles and achievements
have also been felt in the academia as well as
gender and civil rights, equitable distribution of
national resources and Judiciary among other
spheres.
However, as their male counterparts are being feted as national heroes with monuments,
institutions, street names, roads and highways
as well as buildings and stadia, public parks and
gardens, women receive almost no recognition.
The story of such unfair imbalances in recognition of the nation’s heroines does not just
begin and end in the capital city Nairobi. It cuts
right across the country all the way from Mombasa, Nyeri, Embu, Machakos, Meru, Isiolo,
Garissa, Naivasha, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kisumu,
and Kakamega among other towns.
Recognised women
Perhaps the only prominent post independence heroine who has been recognised with
public entities being named after her is the first
lady of post independence Kenya, Mama Ngina
Kenyatta. There is Mama Ngina Street in Nairobi and Mama Ngina Drive recreation grounds
in Mombasa that bear her name.
Otherwise freedom struggle heroines like
Meketilili wa Menza, who led the rebellion
against British colonialists at the Coast remained unsung for many years. It is only last
year that celebrations were held in her recognition. When marking Mashujaa Day last year,
members of the Kenya National Cultural Council and the Malindi District Cultural Association gathered to honour the liberation heroine.
Elders erected a statue in honour of Mekatilili at Uhuru Gardens in Malindi. The garden
was renamed Mekatilili wa Menza Garden in
honour of the first African woman to resist
British rule as early as 1913. During these celebrations, the Malindi District Commissioner,
Arthur Mugira castigated area women leaders
for snubbing the celebrations saying: “The new
Constitution has given the women free seats
in the national and county assemblies, but it is
only those who will come out that will ascend
to those seats.”
Other heroines who struggled against British
rule include Mama Elsie Mukami Kimathi, wife
of freedom fighter Dedan Wachiuri Kimathi.
Right through the Kenyatta and Moi regimes despite the struggle and sacrifice that
the old woman made for the independence
of the country, she was completely forgotten
despite her husband having sacrificed his life
for the nation. None of the regimes including
President Mwai Kibaki’s have tried to locate the
remains of the late Kimathi for a decent state
burial. His grave remains unmarked at Kamiti
prison.
Forgotten
This state of affairs applies to Muthoni Baimunge, the wife of Kimathi’s closest friend and
comrade in arms, Marête Baimunge. Both heroines are still alive. These are crowned by the late
Wambui Otieno who died recently unfeted yet
she was among the tough women who stood up
for this country’s freedom.
Other personalities like the widows of the
late freedom fighter Tom Mboya, Pamela Mboya
and the late JM Kariuki’s widow Doris Nyambura. Whatever their husbands achieved, these
women were the pillars behind them.
Maendeleo ya Wanawake chair person,
Rukia Subow says: “This is a very sad state of
affairs because these heroines
are the mothers of this nation. It
is high time the anomalies were
corrected in accordance with the
provisions of the new Constitution and our heroines right from
before independence todate given the recognition they deserve
and feted accordingly.”
According to Subow, as per
the Constitution’s stipulations,
achievements in every discipline
should see the heroines getting
equal share of recognition. They
should be included in the naming of the streets, roads, residential estates, highways, public
parks, institutions and public
buildings together with their
male counterparts.
Heroines
“I am talking about national
and international heroines like
the late Nobel Peace laureate,
From left: Mijikenda elders at the
Professor Wangari Maathai.
unveiling ceremony of Mekatilili wa
Other include personalities like
Menza’s statue in Malindi last year.
Professor Miriam Were, sports
heroines like Catherine NdereMukami Kimathi, widow of the freedom
ba and Tegla Lorupe as well
fighter Dedan Kimathi. These women are
as political luminaries Grace
some of the unsung heroines.
Onyango, Grace Ogot, Phoebe
Pictures: Reject correspondent and AWC
Asiyo and Julia Ojiambo among
many more,” reiterated Subow.
Reports from Nyeri indicate
ordinator to rope in the other
that there are plans to honour Maathai by
government departments/minisnaming one of the town streets after her. They
tries and stakeholders to do this.
are talks of erecting a statue.
However, with the new constituInquiries at Nairobi City Hall indicate that
tional stipulations, this is going
the city planning committee in collaboration
to drastically change.”
with relevant government departments/minAccording to Mwangi, at the
istries and stakeholders are the ones who sit
moment the Ministry of National
to discuss and determine naming of streets,
Heritage is playing the leading role
highways, roads and residential estates among
in implementing the Constituother things.
tional demands as far as recogniPeter Mwangi, senior planning committion and feting of national heroes
tee officer says: “The history has been that
is concerned.
the planning committee acts as the main coMinister for National Heritage, William ole Ntimama says
the new Constitution provides
for a national day, designated as
Mashujaa Day to be observed on every October 20th, in which Kenya remembers those
who contributed in the liberation struggle
among other achievements.
Says Ntimama: “The Government through
the Ministry has undertaken several initiatives
to ensure our national heroes and heroines are
honoured and the role they played remains in
the consciousness of Kenyans who now enjoy
enormous freedoms as a result.” He adds: “As
part of this the Ministry constituted a Taskforce on 20 March 2011 to carry out a countrywide data collection on the criteria and
modalities for identifying, recognising and
honouring national heroes and heroines.”
“In their report the taskforce defined what it
considered as the core values of Kenya’s nationhood, which include patriotism, unity in diversity and mutual social responsibility. The core
values became the ground on which to anchor
the proposed National Heroes and Heroines
Honour System.”
“This is a very sad state
of affairs because these
heroines are the mothers
of this nation. It is high
time the anomalies were
corrected in accordance
with the provisions of the
new Constitution.”
— Rukia Subow
Honouring heroes
Ntimama says that the taskforce identified
functional areas with the relevant requisite
qualities from which heroes and heroines may
be identified. These include liberation struggle,
religious leadership, indigenous knowledge,
cultural values and practices, arts, sportsmanship, scholarship, professionals and research,
peacemaking, statesmanship, entrepreneurship
and industry as well as philanthropy. A special
case for people with disabilities was also proposed.
He says there are several ways of recognising and honouring heroes. They include high
respect that should be accorded to national
heroes and heroines by the Government and
the society at large; putting up monuments in
their honour; writing, publishing and displaying their names and histories depicting their
works for all to know; naming things after
them including buildings, stadia, and streets;
and popularising their names and acts in many
other ways.
Roll of honour
Other forms of honour include publishing a
National Heroes and Heroines Roll of Honour,
providing appropriate security for the heroes
and their families, and according them state
burials when they die.
“Despite its relatively short existence and
modest resources, the Ministry has successfully
implemented a number of these proposals in
honour of our national heroes. In 2003, the Government lifted the ban on the legal notice which
made it possible to recognise and honour the
members of the Mau Mau movement,” explains
Ntimama.
Ntimama said so far the mashujaa recognised are Mekatilili wa Menza, Mary Nyanjiru,
Koitalel arap Samoei, Waiyaki wa Hinga, Muindi Mbingu, Jevanjee Mulla, Markhan Singh,
Pio Gama Pinto and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga
among other names are examples of possible
national consensus.
Also recognised as heroes, are the Kapenguria six who include Jomo Kenyatta, Paul Ngei,
Bildad Kaggia, Achieng’ Oneko, Kung’u Karumba and Fred Kubai. The Ministry has constructed
mausoleums for the late Paul Ngei, Bildad Kaggia and Achieng Oneko.
The minister says that works are in progress
for the construction of a mausoleum in honour
of Fred Kubai while plans for the construction of
a monument for Kung’u Karumba in this financial year are underway.
10
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
Uncelebrated
heroine
Meet Nyar Usigu, a woman
devoted to teaching children
By OMONDI GWENGI
For the last 39 years, she has been in class
with children making sure that they get
the foundation of knowledge. Some people have appreciated what she does and
have recognised her as a heroine who
has made sure that the young ones get
a firm foundation, but some take it for
granted.
This is the tale of one Nyar Usigu as
she is popularly known by the locals.
Priscah Jura of Kanyibok Village, Bondo
District in Siaya County has weathered
many storms to be what she is today.
While she should be busy playing with
her grandchildren, the 62-year-old is still
going strong providing early childhood
education to the young ones.
Volunteer teacher
After completing her college education, Jura did not want to be idle and
therefore decided to volunteer as a nursery school teacher at Kanyibok Nursery
School where she still works to date.
“After college, I realised that being
idle would not help. I, therefore, decided
to volunteer as a nursery school teacher,”
explains Jura.
Today, she says, that the education system has really transformed. She, however,
hopes that one day the Government will
recognise the kind of work they do and
employ them just like other teachers.
“I am not giving up anytime soon because for the Government to implement
this, it requires a lot of patience. I believe
that we will be employed one day,” she
says hopefully.
Unlike the old days when would just
come from home to Standard One, Jura
says that time has come that a child must
pass through nursery school before he/
she proceeds to primary school. She be-
lieves that early childhood
plays a very important role in
the education sector.
“When we were growing
up, we would go to Standard
One without passing through
nursery provided that you
could touch your ear,” she
recalls.
However, Jura says that
teaching these children requires a lot because of the numerous challenges that come
with the job. A dilapidated
classroom with no cemented
floors is what greets one when
you visit some public nursery schools.
Jura notes that they lack furniture and
the children sit on the floor while some sit
on stones which put them at risk of getting injured.
“Some of our classroom roofs are leaking and this interrupts the learning process as well as posing a health risk to the
children,” she says.
Depending on the little money that the
parents pay as school fees, it sometimes
becomes difficult to provide quality education because some parents do not pay
and this keeps some children away from
school.
“Some parents are not co-operative
in terms of paying the money required
and this makes learning process difficult.
Some opt to keep their children at home,”
she says.
Another challenge that Jura cites on
the education of children in this area is the
lake. She confirms that most of the children come from families that do not value
education and do not encourage their children to go to school.
“Living along the lake really affects
learning of our children and it gives us a
lot of work to disseminate the importance
of education to them,” observes Jura. She
explains that fishing activities and the
money that comes with it makes children
drop out of school to start earning a living
at a tender age.
Armed with her vast experience in the
teaching profession, Jura says that she has
also trained some teachers who are still
new in the profession.
Training
“I am happy to have trained a number
of teachers who are from college and others that are planning to join the profession,” she boasts.
She says the job has helped her be independent. Jura enjoys spending most of
her time with the young ones.
“I would have been at home idle and
instead quarrel with neighbours over petty issues,” she observes.
Widowed three years ago, Jura says
that things have not been rosy for her. She
says that the society looks down upon the
widows.
“Sometimes there is aid that comes for
the widows and it is only a few who are
recognised by our local leaders that receive it. We’ve been left to struggle on our
own,” she observes.
Prisca Jura and a colleague in class with her students at
Kanyibok Village, Siaya County. She has volunteered to
teach at the ill-equipped nursery school.
Picture: Omondi Gwengi
Lack of anti-snake venom poses a threat to rural Kenya
By AYOKI ONYANGO
Snakes are reptiles that many people do not
like coming across. Millions of people live in
fear of at least one of three major groups of
venomous snakes, including vipers and cobras. This is because they have poisonous bites
which if not treated immediately may leave the
victim dead or paralysed. In most parts of rural Kenya, people become helpless when bitten
by poisonous snakes.
A local television station recently carried
a series of stories on how some of the deadliest snakes are posing a threat to people in
Mwingi District. However, this problem is
not confined to Mwingi alone. A recent tour
of rural Kenya was characterised by tales of
snake bites. The snake bites occasionally lead
to deaths and paralysis since most private and
government hospitals lack anti-snake venom.
In the small village of Mituri in East Uyoma,
Rarieda District, people complain that there are
many cases of snake bites but health centres do
not have anti-snake venom. They have been
forced to resort to herbs or traditional methods
of treatments.
In Machakos and Kitui districts, research
shows that snake bites are common, yet health
facilities do not stock anti-snake venom. Unlike Uyoma, Machakos is nearer to Nairobi,
where doctors and health facilities are concentrated.
Anti-venom
However, even in Nairobi chances of being given the life-saving anti-snake venom is
limited. There has been rather alarming situation in which surgeons at one of the leading hospitals recently resorted to amputation
of limbs to save victims of snakebites. These
are common in Machakos, Meru, Kakamega,
Isiolo and Kitui among other parts of the
country.
There is a shortage or lack of anti-snake
venom even in major hospitals because the
Government lacks money to purchase the
medicine. Doctors do not easily admit they fear
administering the anti-snake venom because
many of them are not prepared to cope with the
side effects it has on victims. This is why they
prefer to let them go for amputation. In some
cases, doctors fear that the anti-snake venom
may not be the right one.
Previously, there was demand that the
snake be hunted and killed to facilitate accurate identification of the anti-snake venom
needed.
“Venom from snakebites can cause intensive paralysis in humans. And misleading
signs of snakebites usually cause delays in the
treatment of snake poisons,” said Professor
David Warrell of Oxford University UK during a visit to Kenya.
He added: “Snakebites are also underestimated because of human suffering in Africa
and other tropical countries.”
Warrell noted that the anti-snake venom
is crucial for the treatment of snake poisons.
He regretted that there is a crisis in using these
anti-snake venoms because most doctors do
not understand how to apply the treatment.
“Snake bite victims need 24 hours surveillance to save their lives and any doctor administering anti-snake venom must keep surveillance on his or her patient till recovery is
achieved,” observed Warrell.
He said in Kenya fears of snakes killing
people have been put under control because
of the availability of highly purified polyvalent
anti-snake venom serum, which ‘neutralises’
venom of Africa’s deadliest poisonous snakes.
Indeed one of the most effective and handy
anti-snake venom, which could save lives, is
Fav Africa, which is made from horses hyperimmunised with increasing amounts of venom
from all deadly snake species.
According to experts, Fav Africa is a technologically advanced anti-snake venom with enhanced purity and safety. Fav Africa is not a vaccine as such but immune globulins. However,
just like all vaccines, Fav Africa must maintain
be kept refrigerated in order to remain inactivated to treat snake venom which are fatal. The
vaccine takes care of bites from vipers like the
Gabon viper, puff adder and saw-scaled viper.
Myths
“It neutralises poison from spitting, Egyptian and black-lipped cobra as well as the black
mamba. In rural villages of Africa, treatment of
snakebites range from the use of certain herbal
extracts to ashes made by burning of snakes head
or poison sac in combination with some herbs.
However, these skills which are loaded with
myths and misconceptions are fast vanishing
and can be easily replaced by use of effective
immune globulins or vaccines that can help in
the management of snake bites.
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
11
Africa women leaders
push for integration of
reproductive health services
By CAROLINE OYUGI
Commercial sex workers constitute a section of
society that is frowned at and stigmatised because
of the work that they do. However, African women leaders decided to lead by example and paid a
visit to commercial sex workers in Kibera as part
of their field work before holding a stakeholders
meeting on reproductive health in Nairobi.
The women who came from different parts
of the continent were hosted by the sex workers
who shared experiences and challenges they face
in relation to sexual reproductive health.
The sex workers expressed gratitude to the
Family Health Options Kenya (FHOK) for opening a youth centre for them in the slum. According to these women, they can now get access to
both preventive and curative services as well as
drugs at no cost or at very low prices.
“Through this organisation, I got a scholarship and I am pursuing a diploma course,” one of
the commercial sex workers said.
The women narrated how they are harassed
by the police whenever they report rape. They
said that the police usually dismiss them as commercial sex workers say that they asked for it.
Human rights
“Before being commercial sex workers, we
are Kenyan citizens and would like to enjoy our
rights like any other Kenyan as the constitution
states,” one of them said.
According to Sylvia Ssinabuya, a Member of
Parliament from Uganda, it is important to empower the women. “Although sex work is not
recognised as a legal source of income in most
African countries, they still have a right to sexual
reproductive health,” reiterated Ssinabuya. She
added: “They also need to be educated on different preventive methods and the right contraceptives to reduce the rate of sexually transmitted
diseases and unwanted pregnancies.”
The women leaders’ engagement in Kenya
was to provide a forum for different stakeholders to engage on its implementation this far, especially as concerns family planning. The second
objective of the strategy is to reduce unmet needs
for family planning, unplanned pregnancies as
well as social-economic disparities in contraceptive prevalence rate.
The African Women Leaders Network for reproductive health and family planning (AWLN)
members also visited FHOK Youth Centre in
Eastleigh. At this institution, the women took a
tour around the facility.
They were also entertained by the True Thespians, a group of peer educators who use their
artistic talent in performance through drama,
poems and choral verses to educate the public on
reproductive health.
The women leaders also got an opportunity to
buy bead ornaments and other pieces of art made
by Binti Africa. Binti Africa, Swahili for daughter
of Africa is a programme that offers vocational
training to young girls who have either dropped
out of school or are young mothers.
According to Angela Tatua, the youth coordinator at the institution, many young people
have benefited from this. “The age of marriage
consent in Kenya is 16 but we have cases where
girls get married at 13 and this makes it hard for
them to access family planning services because
they are always asked to bring their parents,” explained Tatua.
Binti Africa Project Manager Simon Wahome
narrated how they have met and helped many
girls who could not be accepted back to school
after giving birth.
“Though our Constitution states that every
child has the right to free basic education, many
girls are not accepted back in school (after delivering their babies). We, therefore, have to counsel
and train them on income generating activities,”
explained Wahome.
Women leaders who attended a reproductive health meeting interact with young
women to discuss reproductive health issues. Picture: Courtesy
“I have a passion for working with the youth
especially young girls. My dream is for them to
have the right information and access to reproductive health services. I would also want stakeholders to make this available,” said Dr Hilda
Tedna. Tedna is working on a similar project in
Uganda. The women also visited FHOK clinic
and maternity in Nairobi West. They met and
shared with the volunteer educators from different parts of Nairobi especially the slums.
One of the volunteers, Esther Njoroge from
Embakasi narrated the many challenges they
face in their efforts to educate women on family
planning.
“At times it is hard convincing other women to
join us so that we can reach more people because
we are not paid. They would rather be involved
in something that has financial gains,” observed
Njoroge. She noted that they were, however,
lucky that the Presbyterian Church had been supportive. The church has been giving them time to
“The age of marriage consent in Kenya is 16 but we have
cases where girls get married at 13 and this makes it hard
for them to access family planning services because they
are always asked to bring their parents.”
— Angela Tatua
pass the information to their congregation.
Addressing the stakeholders, Kenya director
of external relations and advocacy at International Planned Parenthood Federation – Africa
Region (IPFAR) Funmi Bolagun stressed on the
importance of women having access to basic
family planning commodities. She observed that
women get married early and have longer life in
marriage. “There is a very big problem when they
do not have access and freedom to choose which
method they are comfortable with,” said Bolagun.
During the meeting it was evident that women need contraceptives that are cheap and easily
concealed. Bolagun emphasised on the fact that
peace and security is also important because
whenever there is insecurity then women’s sexual
rights are violated.
AWLN’s role is to lead and accelerate national
domestic implementation of various sexual and
reproductive health policies as well as increase
budgetary allocations to sexual and reproductive
health issues in Africa.
The Network called on African governments to implement the Maputo Plan of action
on sexual and reproductive health rights, 15
percent national budgetary allocation to health
as per the Abuja Declaration, provide adequate
and sustainable provisions of reproductive health
services, including family planning commodities
that are accessible, affordable and responsive to
the needs of young women.
Unmet need for family planning leaves women vulnerable
By VALERIE ASETO
African governments have been called upon to
consider sufficient budgetary allocation to reproductive health and family planning in line
with the Abuja Declaration of 15 percent.
Globally there are 215 million women who
want to use modern methods of contraception, but are unable to do so, 78 million of
these women live in Africa. Meeting the needs
of African women would reduce maternal
deaths in the region by 69 percent; newborn
deaths by more than 57 percent, unintended
pregnancies by 77 percent and unsafe abortions by almost three quarters.
According to Africa Women Leaders Network for reproductive health, a budget for
family planning will help reduce maternal
mortality that has been increasing as a result
of inadequate access to health care services.
Health budgets
According to Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda, a
member from Zimbabwe, most African countries do not prioritise health budgets and thus
the limited access to health care services.
Gumbonzvanda said there is need to mobilise public support and political commitment in order to promote reproductive health
and family planning as an intrinsic part of the
broader goals for sustainable development of
a country.
Her sentiments were echoed by National
Coordinating Agency for Population and Development (NCAPD) programme coordinator
Karugu Ngatia who said the current budgetary
allocation is still insignificant since the country has robust population.
However, Ngatia urged the Network initiative to advocate for reproductive health budget especially on family planning. He said the
move will help manage population growth in
Kenya and realisation of the economic growth.
“It would not be easy to realise Vision 2030
if the country’s population keeps on rising.
Family planning is the missing link in development and, therefore, ought to be taken seriously,” Ngatia said.
A member of the Network, Jane Kiragu said
processes are underway to engage the Ministry of Finance to prioritise the reproductive
health issues during budgetary allocations.
Speaking at a workshop in Nairobi that
drew participants from 15 countries across
Africa, Family Health Options Kenya (FHOK)
acting director Dr Muraguri Muchira said
though Kenya is placed at a better position
with two ministries spearheading health,
much has not yet been realised.
“Kenya stands at a better position when it
comes to representation on health matters. It
is only this country that has the Ministry of
Medical Services, Ministry of Public Health
and Sanitation and within legislature there
is also a commission handling health issues,”
Muraguri reiterated.
Some of the women who participated in a reproductive health policy meeting at a
youth friendly clinic in Kibera. Such clinics help meet the need for family planning
services that are elusive for young women. Picture: Courtesy
Kenya also has in place National Reproductive Health Strategy (2009-2015) that
highlights family planning as well as the socioeconomic disparities in contraceptive prevalence rate that is yet to be implemented.
“There are very good health policies, if only
they could be implemented fully, maternal
mortality would be a thing of the past,” Muraguri observed.
He is, however, optimistic that with the
new constitution women will be better placed
in terms of access to health care services as indicated in Article 43 that says: “Every person
has a right to the highest attainable standard of
health which includes the right to health care
services, including reproductive health care.”
Muraguri urged the women leaders to advocate for women’s rights on matters pertaining to their health citing that women are the
backbone of the country.
12
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
Experts warn against
consumption of
counterfeit drugs
By Ayoki Onyango Counterfeit drugs are circulating Kenya in large
numbers. People are consuming them without
knowing the dangers linked to it. Counterfeit
medicine is one that is deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to ingredients.
They may have wrong ingredients, inadequate
amount of the correct ingredients or no adequate ingredients at all.
Counterfeit medicine may be targeted at the
market share of either a well established patented
or branded medicine of a well established generic
medicine. Counterfeiting medicines is therefore
an illegal activity by unscrupulous criminals
whose aim is to make money at whatever cost to
life, health and economic development.
Economic crimes
Counterfeit products gain entry into markets
worldwide by being disguised to look in virtually
all conceivable ways like the genuine medicine
that they pretend to be. The problem with counterfeit medicine manifests various levels mainly
interference with normal markets activities in
healthcare provision. As products of economic
crimes, they hinder economic development and
are associated with high morbidity and mortality,
says former chairman of the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya, Dr Dominic Karanja. “The highest attainable standard of health as a right provided for under the new Constitution articles 43
(1) (a) can only be attained through a partnership
between private sector, Government and indeed
the citizens themselves”, adds Dr Karanja.
The private sector provides health solutions
and medicine through heavy investments in research and development, production infrastructure and marketing. Provision has been made internationally to promote invention and innovation through intellectual property right protection by way of patents.
With the principle of solidarity of the international community in place, sustainability of
a system that guarantees continued availability of medicine depends on the operation of
normal market activities driven by the forces
of supply and demand. The resulting prices of
medicine should reflect equilibrium in a normal market.
The effect of counterfeit medicines is to disturb this equilibrium by creating an oversupply
that is not backed by the production fundamentals. This results in artificially lower prices and
an inability to deal with existing and emerging
diseases.
As a strategy to promote local production of
medicine the Kenya Government put in place
provisions in the Public Procurement and Disposal Act 2006 that as affirmative action provide
for a 15 percent price differential for supplies of
medicines from local manufacturers.
Local suppliers to KEMSA who declare local
manufacture as the source and therefore enjoy the
15 percent price differential must supply only local manufactured products. Importing such supplies and fraudulently mislabeling them as locally
produced makes them counterfeit. Although
such products may have adequate amounts of the
correct ingredients, they are counterfeit medicines, products of economic crimes that contribute to poverty through reduced job creation and
negative impact on technology transfer and even
death to consumers.
Consequences
“Wrong ingredients or inadequate amounts
of the correct ingredients in counterfeit medicine results in poor treatment outcomes in individual patients. In life threatening conditions
such as malaria and TB, it may have resulted in
the loss of inexpensive treatments for malaria
such as Chloroquin and the SPs (Sulfadoxine/
Pyrimethamine) and forced the introduction of
the more expensive ACT’s. “Rising resistance of
TB treatment has resulted in quick deaths. It is
and now serious public health concerns,” says
Dr Moses Mwangi, the Chairman of the Kenya
KEMRI officials burn counterfeit drugs that were seized from the market.
Counterfeit drugs endanger the health of those who consume them. Picture: Reject
correspondent
Association of pharmaceutical Industry (KAPI).
Counterfeits have therefore, increased morbidity and mortality among Kenyans. It has also
contributed to increased poverty, low productivity and poor health that are devastating to
a developing country such as Kenya” adds Dr
Mwangi. “Manufacturers of counterfeits ruthlessly manipulate to have wrong active ingredients or no ingredients at all.”
“But since the enactment of the Anti-counterfeit Act, there are now stiffer penalties for those
found with counterfeit medicines,” observes
the KAPI chairman. The Act recommends that
one is fined three times more than the value of
the goods he or she is caught with. The Act also
recommends a minimum fine KSh 500,000 for
the offenders. At recent workshops in Meru
and Nyeri, stakeholders used some of the strongest adjectives to describe counterfeiters- such
as merchants of deaths, dealers in death, cold
blooded killers, pirates, hard drug traffickers and
terrorists among others.
To avoid failing victims by using illegal and
dangerous drugs, one needs to get vaccinations to
prevent falling ill. This Dr Mwangi advises can be
achieved through vaccinations. He also calls for
constant patrols on the Kenya-Somalia border as
it is used to sneak in counterfeit medicines.
Consequences of taking counterfeit medicine include deaths, drug resistance, epidemics,
paralysis and mental health problems such as
insanity and schizophrenia.
It is clear from data available from studies by
National Quality Control Laboratory and the
School of Pharmacy at University of Nairobi
and elsewhere that counterfeiting medicines is
a real problem in Kenya, the region and the entire world. It requires top priority treatment by
a partnership between Government and the private sector. It also requires that the professional
bodies in health be empowered to contribute to
its eradication. The public must be sufficiently
informed to partner with professionals especially pharmacists in combating this vice. The Anticounterfeit Act 2009 needs to be strengthened
especially in the penalties to make them prohibitive. “We suggest that provisions for combating counterfeit medicines be incorporated in
reviewed Cap 244 provide the necessary focus”
suggests Dr Karanja.
Peace initiatives taken to schools to ease border tensions
By JOY MONDAY
After decades of elusive peace among pastoralists in the North Rift, a solution that has taken a
bottom-up approach is being pursued to bring
calm to the region.
Clan and tribal fighting has seen hundreds of
lives lost and property destroyed. While initially
the Government attempted to bring warring
groups to the negotiation table after force failed,
peace crusades have now been shifted to primary schools. It is hoped this will help change the
cultural attitude among the young generation
and bring about long lasting solutions to rustling
and tribal fights that have persisted between Turkana and Pokot communities.
To achieve this noble dream, World Vision
is pushing the Government to introduce peace
lessons in primary and secondary schools to
nurture the young generation on patriotism
and peace.
Cohesion
“To promote peaceful co-existence between
the warring Turkana and Pokot communities,
the organisation has unveiled a sport and educational exchange programme targeting common border schools. This will help change the
children’s attitude on outdated cultures such as
killing to prove braveness and raiding animals
to acquire wealth and pay dowry,” says Josaya
Rotino, World Vision manager in Orwa.
According to Rotino, the programme is
aimed at discouraging the younger generation
from harbouring animosity.
“We want to nurture them to be peaceful and
to shun cultural practices by the two communities blamed for bloody clashes and retarded development in the region,” explained Rotino.
Speaking during the inter-communal sports
activities at Turkwel, Rotino said their focus is
on discouraging the younger generation from
the current scenarios witnessed between the two
communities.
Education
He said they will use elites from the affected
communities to educate and sensitise the children on the importance of education and embracing peace.
“We want to use the elites to educate the
upcoming generation on the importance of
education and peaceful co-existence to enhance
development which has been ruined by insecurity,” he said.
The programme offers the children the opportunity to share life experiences and enhance
interaction. “Our target is to sensitise the children on the dangers of cattle raids and revenge
attacks and emphasize that education is the best
way to acquire wealth,” he said.
The programme intends to bring the children together, make them friendly and also
discourage fear among them through regular
interactions.
“We aim to make them ambassadors of
peace. We want to see them share resources and
help bond the warring communities,” reiterated
Dr Fride Nilsson
[second right], the
director of Faith
Homes of Kenya
joins children
of Sand-flower
Primary school in
song and dance.
Peace efforts are
now targeted at
young children
before they are
recruited into
cattle rustling.
Picture: Joy Monday
Rotino.
Pupils from Turkwel, Orwa, Marich Pass,
Lorongon and Kainuk primary schools participated in the one day sports event. They recited
emotional poems cursing cattle rustling as an
enemy snatching away from children and women their breadwinners and family members.
Bloody border clashes are common and occasionally lead to closure of the schools, paralysing learning. Farming along the agriculturally viable Turkwel River has been halted as the sound
of the gunfire remains the order of the day.
Local provincial administration acknowledges that insecurity is the biggest enemy of
development in the area.
District Commissioners from Turkana and
West Pokot counties have in the past weeks
stepped up reconciliation bids to restore peace
and bring harmony among the warring communities.
These efforts have yielded fruit with the recovery of more than 50 stolen heads of cattle.
Pokot Central District Commissioner Daniel
Kurui said Pokot herders had returned 40 heads
of cattle that were stolen from Turkana herders.
On the other hand, Turkana pastoralists
have recovered and returned 134 heads of cattle
earlier stolen from the Pokots in Salmach.
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
13
Potato growers opt for
contractual farming By SAMWEL KIPSANG
Joseph Kones, a horticultural farmer who has
been planting potatoes, cabbages, beans and
kales (sukuma wiki) is up beat about his farming
activities. Though he recently earned very little
money after selling sukuma wiki and cabbages,
potato farming gives him a reason to smile. Kones is not alone in this. He is among many
farmers in Bomet District who are upbeat about
potato cultivation. These farmers are now working in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture and other companies that require the vegetable to increase and improve on what is known
as on what is known as contractual potato farming. Through this arrangement farmers form
groups to get services.
According to Julius Kones, a member of Koitabai group, contractual potato farming is profitable. He says: “Farmers who are not contracted
are currently selling 150-170 kilogrammes of potatoes at KSh1700 while we sell at KSh1850 for
110 kilogrammes.”
In the last contract period, the farmers were
selling potatoes at KSh2100 for 110 kilogramme.
They were selling the same amount at KSh3000
in February and March.
Other than increased profits, there are other
benefits to contractual farming which include
training by extension officers and arranged loans
from banks. “Before contract farming, there were times
when we sold potatoes for as low as KSh600 per
sack,” observes Kones.
Seed multipliers are also happy because contract farmers are supposed to
buy from them. Before the Ministry of
Agriculture arranged for the contracts,
these farmers were earning little and at
times their produce went to waste.
Deepa and Norda are companies
that are now connected to the farmers
through the ministry which ensures that
they sign contracts.
Contract farming is expected to help
processors have a steady supply of high
quality clean potatoes meeting specific
Some of the potato farmers
needs. It also provides farmers with a
engaged
in contractual farming
ready market for their produce at fair
at their farms. This arrangement
prices.
has resulted in better yields and
Kenya Agricultural Research Instiincome for the farmers. Pictures:
tute (KARI) has had a collaboration with
many organisations that has seen an inSamwel Kipsang
crease in potato production.
To handle surplus and fluctuating
tato farming for some farmer’s
prices, the Ministry of Agriculture plans a magroups .
jor role in marketing by identifying potato seed
There are 42 potato groups,
multipliers and contractual farmers.
but at the moment only 15
It also advises farmers to go into value addigroups have been trained and
tion. “Value addition starts with planting clean
contracted. Contracted groups
high quality, and right type of potatoes. It inproduce certain amounts of
cludes best agricultural practices and moves into
agreed quality of potato for the
sorting and processing,” explains Joseph Kering,
contracting companies and sell
Bomet District Agricultural Officer.
supplies through other outlets.
Kering says he is trying to secure a market for
It is these supplies that require
farmers through Common Fund for Commodicool stores of processing by
ties, an affiliate of Food and Agricultural Organfarmers.
isation (FAO) that has secured contractual po-
Farmers reap from lime application in Kakamega
By TITUS MAERO Maize farmers in Kakamega North District have
in recent past been beneficiaries of calcium rich
lime, a chemical substance that is used to enhance health in acidic soils and increased crop
production.
According to soil scientists at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Kakamega
regional office, the general practice to reduce
soil acidity is the application of agricultural
lime. This is used to raise the soil PH resulting
in enhanced availability of nutrients required
by crops for improved crop yield.
In 2003, the Alliance for a Green Revolution
in Africa (AGRA), along with KARI launched
a critical effort to counteract soil acidity which
cuts maize yields by at least 30 per cent.
AGRA is a dynamic partnership organisation
working across the African continent to help
millions of small scale farmers and their families
lift themselves out of poverty.
Led by Senior Researcher on soil Mr David
Mbagaya, the soil scientists said AGRA programmes develop practical solutions to significantly boost farm productivity and income for
the poor while safe-guarding the environment.
“AGRA advocates for policies that support its
work across all key aspects of the African agricultural value chain from seeds, soil health and
water to markets and agriculture education to
farmers,” Mbagaya noted.
AGRA’s board of directors is chaired by former Secretary General of the United Nations,
Dr Kofi Annan and gets some of its support
from the Rockfeller Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and United Kingdom’s
Department for International Development
among other donors. AGRA maintains offices
in Nairobi and Accra in Ghana.
KARI and Moi University started research
in 2003 to look at how to contain soil acidity
in Kakamega North District. The project was
facilitated by the AGRA at KSh25 million.
Margaret Shionga, 62, a maize farmer at Kamanget Sub-location, East Kabras Location in
Kakamega North District, says before she started
using lime on her two acre farm, she could only
get five bags of maize. However, immediately
KARI Senior Research Officer David Mbagaya advising Margret Shiongo, a farmer who is using lime on her maize farm in
Kimanget Sub location in Kakamega North District. Picture: Titus Maero
she started applying lime on the farm the yields
increased to 20 bags per acre.
Speaking at a farmer’s field day organised
by Kakamega KARI office, Shionga said she
buys lime in small quantities due to inadequate
funds noting that a bag of 50 kilogramme costs
KSh200, while one acre requires 40 bags of lime
application.
“The cost of lime is high, but I don’t look at
that since the returns are great. I strive to buy
lime whenever I get some money because I know
I will harvest more bags of maize which I can sell
at a profit,” she noted.
KARI convenes field days to train farmers
and update them on latest lime technology. The
farmers also pass on the information acquired
to those who do not make it to the field day.
Shionga said she now in a better position
to educate her nine children and venture into
other businesses as a result of improved yields
from maize which is sold at KSh3,500 per 90
kilogramme bag depending on market forces. According to Mbagaya, lime is supplied by
Homa Lime Company Limited based in Koru,
Kisumu County and Athi River Mining Company in Nairobi County.
Narating her experiences, Shionga said the
chemical can be used in dry or wet conditions
one to two months before planting. The lime
can stay in the soil for as long as four years before another round of application is made on
the farm. She said yields are improved if fertil-
iser like DAP or Urea is used to compliment
lime.
“Due to the high yields of maize brought
about by lime use, farmers in the area have
formed a group to make monthly contributions
and assist each other in farming and other related activities,” observed Shionga.
Shionga noted that since they have two planting seasons, the situation makes them reap more
maize yields.
However, she decried the poor state of roads
adding that during the rainy season it becomes
difficult to transport maize to the market. Other challenges experienced include pests and
diseases which attack maize if not treated as
required.
14
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
Widows benefit from property Mobile clinics
help farmers
and land inheritance awareness cope with
pests, losses
By KEN NDAMBU
Memories of Ngei Mulwa’s death six
years ago are still vivid his widow’s
mind.
“Were it not for harassment and
mistreatment by his relatives probably I would not be remembering him
that much,” says Christine Ngei as she
narrates her ordeal in the hands of inlaws.
Talking of his death evokes emotions that often leave her in tears as she
recalls the tribulations she has undergone since her husband died.
After composing herself, Christine
gains courage to share her experiences with the attentive stakeholders
at a meeting held to discuss land and
property disinheritance of widows and
orphans.
After her husband died in 2006,
Christine was left under the care her
brother-in-law who first promised to
help bring up his late brother’s children. However, these would later turn
to be a thorn in the flesh.
Enemy
Two years later, the man who
Christine hoped would be the shoulder for her to cry on suddenly became
the enemy. He used all means at his
disposal to have her ejected from the
family home but the clan intervened
and she stayed put.
“When he failed to achieve this
mission, he devised another method
of ensuring that there was no food for
the family by letting his herd of livestock graze in my farms destroying all
the crops,” explains Christine asserting that she has lived with the problem to date.
Christine is not alone in this. The
story of Mithe Mulwa who lost her
husband five years ago is the same.
When she decided to sell one of the
pieces of land left behind by her late
husband to educate their children,
the clan objected fearing that she will
get the money and run away from her
matrimonial home.
Instead, the clan, through one of the brothers-in-law decided to dispense the sale on her
behalf. However, once the transaction was over,
she never got a penny and the children were
forced to leave school to provide cheap labour
to others.
Vicious cycle
The brother-in-law who helped the clan to
sell the land died before the transfer was transacted. Sensing danger of losing the land and
the money, the buyer has now turned to the
widow for refund of the money she never got.
“I am caught up in a vicious cycle as the
same clan is forcing me to repay money I do
not have,” narrates Mithe at the meeting held
in Kyusyani market, Lower Yatta District, Kitui
County.
Christine and Mithe are among widows and
orphans in the region who are traumatised by
myriad of problems of land and property disinheritance. They hope the new Constitution
will empower them to inherit property of the
deceased bread winners.
A programme dubbed Women and Property Watchdog has come out strongly to sensitise widows, orphans and other vulnerable
groups on their rights on land and property
inheritance.
Operating under the umbrella of Tei wa
Woo community based organisation, the programme being piloted in five sub-locations in
lower Yatta District seeks to equip widows and
By CHARLES NJERU
Peter Kaimuri can now afford to smile as his
crops do not experience high incidences of pest
and disease attacks. Six months ago, half of his
maize harvests were destroyed by the notorious
stem borer. This reduced his financial ability and
he was unable to cater for his family.
In his five acre farm in Wangige, in the outskirts of Nairobi, he has mostly grown maize and
cabbages.
However, help has come his way. He is one of
the 5,000 farmers benefiting from a mobile plant
clinic project introduced in Kenya recently.
Pests and diseases affecting crops can now
be identified by seeking advisory services of the
plant doctors.
The farmers in 16 districts are beneficiaries of
clinics introduced by the government and Centre for Agricultural Biosciences International
(CABI) six months ago. The clinics also provide
diagnostic services to farmers.
“I can say that it is a very good and efficient
service. The plant doctors come to my assistance
immediately. The mobile clinic specialists visit
our farms immediately we report problems to
them. As a farmer, I am not charged for my
query,” says Kaimuri.
“Once I notice that my maize crops are not
healthy, I report to them and action is taken
immediately. Since the mobile clinics were introduced, I have had very few incidences of unhealthy crops,” says Kaimuri.
According to the project’s doctors, they are
getting more than 5,000 queries per day from
farmers.
Some of the
widows who have
been victims of
land and property
disinheritance
share their
experiences.
Members of the
CBO, Tei wa Woo
stage a play on
land and property
disinheritance.
Pictures: Ken
Ndambu
Staff shortage
orphans with knowledge and information on
how they can be the sole beneficiaries of their
husbands’ or fathers land and property.
“Challenges including harmful cultural
practices stop widows and orphans from getting proper justice to have control over property once a husband or father dies,” says Jennifer
Nyumu, Coordinator of Tei wa Woo organisation.
She says unless all stakeholders are brought
on board to find ways of dealing with the vice,
widows and orphans will continue to suffer as
the society’s lust for wealth increases.
The Kyusyani stakeholders meeting was organised by Groots-Kenya. It brought together
various stakeholders including lands officials,
provincial administration, teachers, paralegals
and churches whom the victims turn to for
help when their property inheritance rights are
infringed.
Kitui Paralegal Coordinator Josphat Kasina
said most of the cases brought to his office by
widows and orphans on land and property disinheritance are clan related.
Legal
“Most of the cases arbitrated by the clan do
not favour the victims,” observes Kasina adding that there is conflict between customary
law and the country’s legal mechanism hence
need to draw the barrier between the two.
Customary law has always put widows and
orphans on the receiving end when it comes to
land and property inheritance.
“According to Kamba culture, a woman is
not to speak on issues related to land and cannot take the infamous traditional oath known as
‘kithitu’,” says Kasina. He explains: “This means
that a widow cannot come up and firmly defend
land she believes belongs to her late husband.”
However, he asserts that the community is not
only ignorant of land and property rights but
also lacks knowledge and information on how
to administer properties of deceased spouses.
Although the new Constitution recognises
the clan, traditional norms and cultural values
which tend to impede justice to vulnerable
members of the society should be done away
with for fair justice to all.
Orphans
Groots-Kenya Official Nyaguthi Mwangi
said the organisation strives to educate the
widows and orphans at the grassroots level,
where the vice is dominant due to high illiteracy levels, the best way to avert land and
property disinheritance.
“Property disinheritance in most communities of Kenya has seriously marginalised
widows and orphans. There is, therefore, need
to contain the vice through community driven
programmes,” observes Mwangi.
The organisation has projects in 18 regions
in the country including Kitui, Kendu Bay, Gatundu, Nanyuki, Limuru and Busia where the
communities have rich cultural practices likely
to deny widows and orphans their right to inheritance.
“So far the project is a success. The only obstacle is that we experience staff shortage. The few
mobile doctors already employed cannot cope
with the high demand,” explains Robert Mwaura,
a plant doctor from the Ministry of Agriculture.
He adds: “So far, maize has the highest incidence
of disease, followed by the banana plant.”
The project coordinators hope to expand to
the rest of the entire country. Kenya is second
after Bolivia to come up with such an innovative idea.
“The project is good but in future we will
spend more on equipment and staff. This is a
major challenge facing the project. It is very
encouraging considering the high number of
farmers who turn up for our assistance,” says
Mwaura.
He adds: “So far, we receive more than 5,000
queries a day from farmers in more than 17 districts across the country where the projects operate.”
With the exception of maize and banana diseases, nematodes (worms) in cabbages have also
been a nuisance to farmers.
Mwaura observes: “Another issue is to create
knowledge and awareness to farmers about this
project so we can assist as many as possible. As
we increase our budget, we hope to get access to
as many farmers as possible.”
John Kamau from Wangige is proud of the
plant mobile clinics and hopes they will be introduced all over the country.
“The issue of my crops getting diseases is not
as common as it was in the early part of last year.
A fellow farmer informed me of mobile plant
clinics. I cannot complain about them as I have
benefited,” says Kamau.
The project coordinators hope that within
five years, they will not only have extended
countrywide, but will cover the rest of East
Africa. Farmers who have benefitted from this
project have saved a lot of money.
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
In defence of the makuti
15
While fire threatens the coconut leaf, lovers say it is the best for the Coastal region
By KIGONDU NDAVANO For any visitor to the Coast, one plant emerges
as a most domineering and towering across the
farms due to its height and leaves. When not offering the green beauty of its
leaves to the eye while filtering the sea breeze,
the coconut tree’s leaves when dry gain a brown
and grey colour which dominates the rooftops
of small and huge houses.
The presence of small clusters of coconut
trees closer and away from the coast indicates
the presence of a homestead or settlement.
In majority of these homesteads, one will
always find houses roofed with palm fronds locally known as makuti.
While one piece of dry branch of the coconut is described as kuti, the Kiswahili plural of
the word which is makuti indicates something
different.
Popular roof
This is because the various branches of the
coconut require that they first be harvested before being artistically fixed into approximately
two feet pieces of holding wood to make one
piece of kuti.
It is pieces of Makuti which have today finally turned out to be the single most important
and popular roofing material for Coastal people
including investors in tourism.
In areas like Malindi, Italian investors who
control more than 80 per cent of the construction industry have fallen in love with the material that apart from gaining popularity for designing attractive roofs, it is even being traded
for income.
Malindi’s five star hotels are makuti roofed
and have hosted great names such as the former
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.
The Lion in the Sun, home and holiday resort of the wealthy Italian formula one racing
team owner Flavio Briatore is makuti roofed.
“Investors and Italian prospective villa buyers love the makuti roofed buildings,” says Fernando Vischi, Italian contractor.
Mijikenda makuti roofing artisans, some of
whom get contracts from as far as Zanzibar, will
create high roof structures before carefully tying makuti on them. The sales are mainly based on advertisements of high and well finished makuti roofs
in the international magazines. Most of those
villas are usually set against the blue waters of
the Indian Ocean.
Today, however, makuti which has been
of great economic gain to the Coastal people
could be facing threats due to fire accidents.
Property worth millions of shillings from hotels, villas, cottages and private houses have all
been reduced to nothing by fires in the recent
past.
“I have used makuti in many villas in Malindi and even in my own villa but now I am
worried about the roofing material due to heavy
losses being recorded in Malindi with fire accidents,” observes Vischi.
Fire
Former Malindi Mayor Mohammed Menza
faced attacks from the Coastal leadership when
he suggested that local authorities ban use of
makuti in the wake of the heavy loses incurred
by the hotel industry.
Menza’s suggestion came after a fire destroyed more than 100 villas and cottages including the Palm Tree Club Hotel in Kibokoni
area.
Coast legislators led by Malindi MP Gideon
Mung’aro defended makuti as roofing material
since it is a major source of income for the local
populace.
“Banning makuti as roofing material will be
tantamount to making useless one of the major
sources of income for Coast people,” observed
Mung’aro.
He explained: “The coconut tree products
including makuti are what coffee and
tea is to some upcountry people. It
is the main cash crop and to ban it
would be economically disastrous.”
Such a ban, Mung’aro lamented,
would affect the peoples’ income
because makuti remains one of the
most popular and easily marketable
local and traditional roofing materials competing strongly with industrial products such as tiles and iron
sheets.
“Instead of encouraging the banning of makuti, the product should
be improved to make it fire resistant
and beneficial to other Kenyans away
from the Coast,” Mung’aro suggested.
More than 100 female makuti
hawkers in Malindi appreciate that
the roofing material earns them a
steady income but feel they could
earn more from the product if proper marketing and centres of making
the products were established and
protected. The traders also worry over middlemen who end up ripping them
off especially when handling large
supplies for hotels and villas. Some
Italian contractors are also known
to acquire the material from the female traders and make a kill from
contractors.
Makuti traders
Ndovu Village
Hotel Restaurant
constructed with
makuti worth KSh3
million. A hand cart
puller transporting
the precious
commodity that is a
source of income for
both large and small
scale traders. Pictures:
Kigondu Ndavano
Gladys Kadzo Karisa who has sold makuti
for more than 15 years along the Malindi road
notes that when all is well earnings per months
reach between KSh7,000 and KSh10,000. She
and others acquire the finished makuti from
farmers in rural parts of Coast and profit per
bundle stands at KSh10.
Malindi based makuti roof designer and
pioneer Italian constructor of the now popular
high makuti roofs on villas Armando Tanzini
holds the leaves dearly. He regrets that many
makuti thatched houses which were built between the 1960s and early 1980s, and were an
attraction to tourists have had the roofs replaced by other materials.
It was Tanzini who designed the huge Nairobi Safari Park Hotel’s domineering makuti
roof creating an attraction even for designers
in Europe, several who till today borrow from
that design.
“Makuti as a roofing material is a major
marketing tool for Malindi and Coast in general and should be maintained,” says Tanzini
who markets Kenyan art under the title Do Not
Forget Africa.
According to Tanzini, Malindi’s coastline
and its old towns were once dominated by
beautiful roofs before residents started adopting iron sheets.
He says: “The makuti roof was once a tourist
attraction and way to identify the old towns of
Malindi and its architectural style.”
On sunny and dry days Makuti Club created
an ambience nearly similar to that of the Coast
and many revellers always ended up under the
makuti roof.
Several entertainment and eating places in
Nairobi have over the years been roofed with
makuti partly giving them a Coastal architectural design and ambience.
A well done makuti roof lasts between five
and ten years
after
which
time it has to be
replaced with
fresh fronds.
Coconut fronds have also been transported
to areas such as Nyeri and Meru all the way
from the Coast and this earns the Coastal residents income from the sale of the roofing material.
A leading architect Jerry Karisa who moved
to South Africa a few years ago notes that the
blend of Italian roofing styles with those of the
Malindi artisans have been spreading through
many tourist resorts in the coast of Southern
African states.
The Mijikenda have used the makuti as a basic roofing material for hundreds of years preferring it to the modern iron sheets to block the
hot sun from penetrating through their houses.
Reconstruction
Even after years of accidental fires, builders
have returned to reconstruct the ruins of their
dream hotels, villas, cottages and private houses
using the makuti.
Vischi, who has for years made himself a
name in Malindi for building some of the most
artistic roofs on ordinary looking structures
insists that the makuti offer designers the freedom and flexibility to play around with roofs
and create a rare beauty. For many years foreign investors in Malindi
have lost their investments from fires. In some
areas such as the Mtangani more than 20 villas which were destroyed by a fire more than 15
years ago have remained unreconstructed and
some were abandoned completely.
However, resilient Italian investors have always shown their appreciation of the makuti by
rebuilding hotels destroyed by fires. The Scorpio Villas which was destroyed by a fire close
“The coconut tree products including makuti are what
coffee and tea is to some upcountry people. It is the
main cash crop and to ban it would be economically
disastrous.”
— Gideon Mung’aro, Malindi MP
to two years ago is back to its feet with makuti
roofs as the main attraction.
To counter the fires, Malindi Municipal
Council introduced a fire inspection certificate
for all the hotels which must have fire fighting
equipment.
Malindi based fire experts led by Barrack
Oluoch defended makuti roofs amid heavy
criticisms that they were the cause of the easy
spreading fires. He argued that the fires could
be controlled before they spread if enough water was available closer to water pumps.
Certain Italian innovators come up with
a treatment to make makuti non-flammable.
Various displays and exhibitions were done
with hotel owners being encouraged to adopt
the treatment of makuti against fire. Few adopted the treatment and the idea was abandoned
and forgotten.
Tropical Village Hotel manager Bruno Fontana defended the makuti saying that if the investors were well prepared they could use water
distributed through the roofs in pipes to cool
the leaves by making them wet in case of a fire
or pumping water from swimming pools to put
out the fires.
Preventing accidents
Fire fighting mechanisms presented by various investors in defence of the makuti clearly
show that will continue to be the preferred roofing material for hoteliers and owners of villas
and cottages in Malindi and Coast in general.
However, another leading Italian contractor Giulio Bianchi notes that in South Africa
makuti is treated with a certain chemical which
makes the roofing material non-flammable.
Giulio, however, notes that the treatment
only makes the materials non-flammable for
three months. The treatment of the makuti
is also expensive because a simple four dimensional six metre roof would require up to
KSh50,000 to be treated. This would mean at
least KSh150,000 extra expense annually for a
house.
“Makuti is good and is still one of the best
means of roofing for the tourism industry only
when fire accidents are minimal and proper
response and care is taken in case of a fire,”
notes Giulio.
16
Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth
Ojijo Oteko stands out as an
independence freedom fighter
By DUNCAN MBOYAH
The struggle for Kenya’s independence occupied the most important
part of the country’s history.
Many things stories have been
documented of the liberation struggle. However, not all books have the
names of the people who fought for
Kenya’s freedom hence denying the
younger generation the rich part of
this country’s history.
One person who does not feature in tales of the liberation struggle is the late Daniel Ojijo Oteko.
This is a man whose name is today
visible on two roads in Nairobi and
Kisumu, yet most people born after
independence are unable to link
him with the struggle for the country’s freedom.
Save for the two roads in Westlands off Parklands in Nairobi and
Milimani in Kisumu, the man is a
subject of discussions in political
functions in his native County of
Homa Bay and the entire Nyanza
Province.
At promulgation of the Constitution, Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila
Odinga hailed freedom fighters for
their effort in ensuring that the
country attained self rule.
“The dawn of the new era also
portends tremendously well for
our national pride, prestige and
image in Africa and the world. We
have regained our honour,” Raila
said.
He named some of these heroes as Orkoiyot Koitalel Samoei, Moraa Moka Ngiti,
Waiyaki wa Hinga, Field Marshall Dedan
Kimathi, Ojijo Oteko, Mekatilili wa Menza,
Jomo Kenyatta and the ‘Kapenguria six’.
Unrecognised
But for this gallant son of Karachuonyo,
Oteko’s role in fighting for Kenya’s freedom
has never been recognised. No serious recognition has ever come his way, even posthumously, as has been the case with some
freedom fighters.
According to sources, Oteko waged a
war against the British Colonial rule in Kenya right from the day he and some of his
colleagues who were working in Maseno,
Western Kenya formed Kavirondo Taxpayers
Association around 1922. He later became its
Secretary General in 1926.
The Association became popular by the
name “Piny Owacho”, which loosely translates as “The Country has said” and forged an
alliance with the Kikuyu Central Association
(KCA) that was led by the late Harry Thuku.
Under this partnership, Oteko and his
peers led the struggle for freedom in Western Kenya by mobilised the people to rise up
against the British colonial rule.
The uprising became very powerful with
the local people who christened Oteko “Polo
mor Imbo” meaning the thunder of the west
due to his organisation skills.
Oteko left Maseno and settled in his native
rural home at Kanjira in West Karachuonyo.
ISSUE 049, October 16 - 31, 2011
Forgotten
women who
contributed to
the struggle
By RYAN MATHENGE
Ojijo Oteko’s
home.
Ojijo Oteko has been immortalized by having a road named after him. The
road is in the Parklands area, near Nairobi Museum.
Picture: Henry Owino
His leadership qualities were soon identified
by the local population who elected him to
the African Local Native Council (ALNC).
At the peak of World War II, when Oteko
was walking home, somewhere near Wagwe
Health Centre in West Karachuonyo, Homa
Bay County, he met with soldiers driving a
large herd of cattle, which had been seized
from their owners at gunpoint.
The soldiers were under the command of
a white man in the rank of a District Officer
from Kisii town, what was then the district
headquarters for South Nyanza, now split into
four Counties.
A man known for being outspoken, Oteko
inquired about the animals and where they
were being taken. He was told they were destined for Kisii to be slaughtered. Oteko was
told the beef would eventually be taken to
feed African soldiers fighting alongside the
British and allied forces against Adolf Hitler’s
German forces.
Trapped
This was not to be. Oteko engaged the officer in an argument, reminding him that the
Karachuonyo community had contributed
hundreds of young soldiers to the KAR, and
as such would not part with their animals.
He ordered the animals be returned to their
rightful owners.
The heated argument alarmed the soldiers, who were armed. They got scared.
Sensing the danger of possible rioting by
the natives, the white officer concurred with
Oteko and released the animals back to their
rightful owners.
A short while later, Oteko travelled to
Kisumu to have his tooth fixed but did not
return home alive. The information received
by the family at the time indicated that this
great nationalist had died while in an operation room for the removal of one of his aching teeth. The death raised eyebrows with the
local people.
It was true he died and his body was
brought back home under heavy police escort. The coffin was sealed. Nobody was allowed to come close to the coffin. The wailing
relatives were also kept at bay.
Up to this day, no one could tell whether
the casket containing his remains was interred in his homestead.
His death alarmed people because the
way he was executed resembles a similar incident the colonialists did to the Nandi leader
Koitalel Arap Samoei in 1905, after he was
lured into a fake reconciliation meeting and
shot dead by a white officer.
For Oteko and many other unsung heroes
of freedom in this country, something needs
to be done to make their contribution known.
By keeping silent over this rich history is in
itself a disservice to history students in this
country and future generations.
The colonial government did silence him
but we attained independence. Can this generation and government go in history books
as a people who care little about their heroes?
These unsung heroes too deserve recognition and equal treatment that other freedom
heroes have received in the past!
Executive Director: Rosemary Okello
Editor: Jane Godia
The war for independence was voluntary as no
one was forced to join in. However, courageous
men and women abandoned their families to join
in the fight against the self-imposed British rule.
Many were killed and many more were left
injured as they fought the well-armed British soldiers in various parts of Kenya.
However, as history of the war was written,
some prominent persons especially women were
omitted.
The name Nyanjiru from Weithaga Location
in Murang’a is one that will not ring in the minds
of many people in Kenya despite having been the
first woman in Kenya to die protesting against
British rule.
Owing to her courage, Nyanjiru demanded
the unconditional release of Harry Thuku who
had been detained for joining the struggle to drive
out whites from Kenya.
In full view villagers in Koimbi area, she defied orders to abandon the protest before a soldier
pulled the trigger.
Njanjiru hailed from Koimbi area in Murang’a
County and became the first woman to be killed by
colonial soldiers as she led protests demanding the
release of Harry Thuku in 1922.
This among other stories show that despite
women participating in the fight for freedom,
their tribulations have never been highlighted.
It was a countrywide protest organised to exert
pressure on colonialists to release Thuku who had
become a political threat to British rule in Kenya.
Women contributed to the independence
struggle but many remain nameless yet the foot
soldiers could not have managed without them.
Women ensured the injured were nursed and
that the soldiers were fed.
Mary Mumbi remembers how her mother
used to prepare food and place it at a strategic
point for the Mau Mau to collect.
“I was young but I remember how every evening my mother would prepare a lot of food and
then place it under a Mugumo tree only to find it
taken in the morning. I asked her about it but she
remained tight lipped fearing soldiers could lay a
trap for the fighters as they came to collect their
ration,” says Mumbi.
The late Beatrice Nyambura from Nyagatugu Village is also widely known as a Mau Mau
nurse.
Without any medical training, she used to
sneak into the Aberdare Ranges attending to the
sick and injured Mau Mau fighters.
Nyambura was the mother to Equity Bank
Chairman Peter Munga who describes her as a
friend. “I learnt a lot from my mother who ensured I went to school,” says Munga adding that his
mother followed up on everything he did.
“Even in my adult life, she would demand explanations over some of my actions,” observes
Munga.
Retired Catholic Priest Father Joakim Gitonga
says women played a key role in the struggle for
independence.
Many were left behind taking care of their
children as men took it upon themselves to fight
the British soldiers.
“They ensured the fighters were fed and got
medicine. They also acted as spies giving information to the war veterans on location of the soldiers
before they attacked their bases,” says Gitonga.
Write to:
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Sub-Editors: Florence Sipalla, Omwa Ombara and Mercy Mumo
Designer: Noel Lumbama
www.mediadiversityafrica.org
Contributors: Kabia Matega, Wilfred Muchire, Wanjiku Mwaura, Joseph Mukubwa, George Murage, Joseph
Mukubwa, Ken Ndambu, Ryan Mathenge, John Syengo, Waikwa Maina, Duncan Mboyah,
Buyo Tuti, Musa Radoli, Omondi Gwengi, Charles Njeru, Carolyne Oyugi, Valerie Aseto,
Samwel Kipsang, Titus Maero, Joy Monday, Ayoki Onyango and Kigondu Ndavano.
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