Between 1900 and 1901, several Kenyan tribes especially in the highlands and fertile land started receiving visitors who had a ‘strange’ colour.
The visitors, who could easily be described as aliens due to their “strange” appearance, would push the natives to less fertile and dryer lands, taking over their land.
The visitors with ‘strange’ colour were the white settlers; the Britons.
By 1920, Kenya’s most fertile land was occupied by unapologetic white settlers, who used any means possible to push out Africans from their land. The few Africans who remained in the fertile and wetlands of Kenya were retained as labourers under the most unattractive conditions.
The invasion, as historians record, was characterised by divide and rule technique, with the white settlers igniting intercommunity wars.
Several Africans were killed in the initial stages of the conflict, either by their fellow blacks or by the white settlers, who used their “magic sticks” (guns).
Several detention camps were created where resisting Africans were held, tortured, killed and survivors used as slaves to work in the farms.
In just 50 years of invasion, thousands of black people in Kenya had been tortured, killed and displaced from their ancestral land. Others worked for the white man either in the farms, or to help the white man oppress the Africans in the newly introduced form of government.
“Colonial military expeditions led to genocide and forced migrations of people among the Agikuyu, Abagusii, the Nandi, Ababukusu, Giriama and all the others who met colonial force with force. Colonial conquest led to the loss of sovereignty as colonial rulers replaced indigenous leaders. This was one of the ironies of British indirect rule. Based on empty platitude, British indirect rule often led to the recruitment of British collaborative agents and porters into leadership positions. Colonial military expeditions led to genocide and forced migrations of people. Moreover, British colonial administration reflected orders from Britain rather than the consensus of community leaders,” Peter O Ndege, an associate professor at the University of Nairobi stated in a public lecture at Moi University in 2009.
As the colonial rule persisted, most Kenyans, especially from the Agikuyu community, found themselves without land to till.
Resistance by Kenyans
This ignited a refreshed resistance from Kenyans in the 1950s, who held demonstrations seeking several interventions, including access to basic rights, higher wages, increased educational opportunities, return of alienated lands, and African self-determination.
The white man gave them a deaf ear.
This escalated the resistance, with more people from other tribes joining, forming a new movement dubbed Mau Mau. On the other hand, the white man escalated repression, killing a number of leaders of the movement and bribing others to abandon and betray the movement.
As a result, the resistance metamorphosed into guerilla warfare, as the movement agreed that they could not achieve independence through peaceful means.
There was massive bloodshed from both sides, as each looked to take or remain in control.
In 1952, the situation was dire, forcing the then Governor Evelyn Baring to declare a State of Emergency on October 20, 1952, before arresting 180 alleged Mau Mau leaders. The Mau Mau were accused of plotting to massacre all the white settlers in Kenya.
Among the major killings which triggered the State of Emergency declaration include the killing of a British woman on October 3, 1952, near her home in Thika and the assassination of Senior Chief Waruhiu who was shot dead in broad daylight in his car on October 9, 1952.
By 1954, several Mau Mau leaders had been arrested and even killed.
In 1956, Mau Mau leader Dedan Kimathi was killed after being betrayed by one of his tribesmen, marking the defeat of the Mau Mau movement by British rule.
“The insurgents’ lack of heavy weaponry and the heavily entrenched police and Home Guard positions meant that Mau Mau attacks were restricted to nighttime and where loyalist positions were weak. When attacks did commence they were fast and brutal, as insurgents were easily able to identify loyalists because they were often local to those communities themselves. The Lari massacre was by comparison rather outstanding and in contrast to regular Mau Mau strikes which more often than not targeted only loyalists without such massive civilian casualties,” David Anderson writes in his book Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire.
During the State of Emergency, thousands died with historians conflicting on numbers. Anderson estimates 25,000 people died while British demographer John Blacker’s estimate is 50,000 deaths, with half of them children aged ten or below.
Caroline Elkins, a historian whose numbers have been disputed by other historians, claims that over 300,000 could have been killed.
At the end of the Mau Mau showdown, 1090 Mau Mau fighters were killed through capital punishment with estimates indicating that over 20,000 Mau Mau soldiers were killed.
The deaths are attributed to increased malnutrition, starvation and disease from wartime conditions.
Struggle for independence
While Mau Mau engaged in warfare, other Kenyans, who did not agree with them, engaged in a political path to attain independence.
Among them included the famous Kapenguria Six including Fred Kubai, Jomo Kenyatta, Kung’u Karumba, Bildad Kaggia, Ochieng Oneko and Paul Ngei. The six were arrested on the night of the State of Emegerncy, with allegations that they had joined an outlawed outfit, Mau Mau.
The six were detained for years until Kenya achieved self-determination in 1963.
Political formation by Africans started kicking in, with the most notable being the Kenya African Union (KAU) which later became the Kenya African National Union (KANU) in 1960 and the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU).
While the Kapenguria Six were detained, Tom Mboya and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga remained as the prominent nationalists, who kept the pressure for independence and the unconditional release of other detainees.
In 1961, Jaramogi led KANU to its first victory in elections, but refused to form a government until Kenyatta was released, claiming that he was the rightful leader.
Kenyatta was released on August 21, 1961, while the remaining of the Kapenguria Six were released later.
In 1962, Kenyatta became the first African Prime Minister for Kenya before becoming the first President on December 12, 1963, when Kenya became fully independent.
Jaramogi became his Vice President before they fell out and he resigned in 1966 to form the leftist opposition party, the Kenya People’s Union (KPU).
As Kenya celebrates 60 years of independence, several heroes who fought for independence remain uncelebrated and a lot remains to be achieved.
