The hills above Nyeri in central Kenya are a vista of emerald coffee groves. As lustrous morning sunlight splashes gold amongst the green, an old man instructs his grandson in the art of cultivation.
”Please,” he says sternly, ”I do not want any games today. You must pull these ones out,” he adds, pointing to a group of withered trees. Turning away as the youngster grimaces, the wizened farmer sighs: ”The harvest is going to be bad. My coffee is not doing well.”
David Gicheru (74) is a former guerrilla who fought British colonial forces from hideouts in the dense forests of central Kenya ahead of independence in 1963.
As much as the prospect of a poor harvest gnaws at him, so do memories of his struggle against the British — and Kenya’s subsequent treatment of those who liberated the country from colonialism. However, moves are now afoot to acknowledge the role played by resistance fighters and other survivors of the war of independence.
Organised resistance to the ”white invaders”, Gicheru’s words, began in 1952. That was when he and hundreds of other young men from the Kikuyu, Kenya’s largest ethnic group, took an oath to rid the country of colonists and the Mau Mau rebellion was born.
”We hid in the forests. Then we would launch attacks on the British and the home guards [Kenyan collaborators],” Gicheru recalls.
”We only had knives and axes. Some had old rifles. The whites shot many of us — I still have bullets in my body. We were afraid but we had to fight for independence.”
Caroline Elkins, a historian from Harvard University and author of an acclaimed book about Kenya’s freedom struggle entitled Britain’s Gulag, estimates that British forces were responsible for the death of more than 100 000 Kenyans in the 1950s. Most died in concentration camps, built to contain the Kikuyu community and so prevent it from assisting the Mau Mau.
Anne Wahome (69) was arrested by home guards on suspicion of supplying food to the rebels and imprisoned in a concentration camp. Her husband, a former rebel, died a few years ago in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
”We put in the paper: ‘Mwangi Gachoka: Mau Mau warrior. He fought for our freedom’,” Wahome says. But, ”No-one visited us. No-one cared.”
”When Kibaki was elected president our hopes were high that the government would help us. But we are still remaining as we were when the British left: with nothing.” (Mwai Kibaki and his National Rainbow Coalition were voted into office at the end of 2002.)
Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s founding president, had little direct experience of the Mau Mau, spending the duration of the decade-long rebellion in detention. He was also absent from the 1960 conference at Lancaster House in London which paved the way for independence.
After ascending to power in 1963, Kenyatta kept the reins of power within his inner circle, while the former guerrillas returned to their previous lives as peasant farmers. Both Kenyatta and his successor, Daniel arap Moi, refused to repeal a colonial statute which had declared the Mau Mau illegal.
”They forgot us completely. All that my husband fought for, they stole and gave nothing to us,” says Wahome bitterly.
A high-powered legal team based in London and Nairobi is now working to ensure that the Mau Mau receive some compensation for their efforts. It intends to sue the British government for an unspecified sum of money that will be used to pay reparations to survivors of British colonial brutality in Kenya.
”We are primed and ready to go with the legal case; the only thing we are waiting for is our Kenyan team to find the funds to enable the case to be brought,” Martyn Day, a member of the legal team, told Inter Press Service. ”We remain hopeful we can get the case off the ground here in the near future.”
Day is well known in Kenya for instituting a successful legal suit against the British on behalf of pastoralists from the country’s northern Samburu district.
In 2003, the case was settled out of court. Almost seven million dollars were paid to cattle herders who had been injured in explosions caused by munitions abandoned on Samburu land by British soldiers who were on training exercises in Kenya, as well as to relatives of those killed by the blasts.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) also has the British government in its crosshairs.
”We are getting ready to file a reparations suit in the United Kingdom on behalf of more than 500 Mau Mau — which we expect to commence towards the end of the year,” says KHRC Executive Director Wanjiku Miano.
Lawyers acting for the Mau Mau will argue that the atrocities committed by British forces in Kenya were in violation of all international protocols on war and constituted crimes against humanity.
”We have spent years collecting the evidence,” says Macharia Wanyeki, secretary of the Mau Mau Veterans Association. ”We have examined British records documenting the terrible things that were done to us. We have done a lot of research and our case will be proven in London; we are only asking for fair compensation.”
According to Elkins, Britain launched a campaign to demonise the Mau Mau, described as ”savages” who would slaughter white people as they slept in their beds and rape white women and children. Yet records reflect that the guerrillas killed a relatively small number of white settlers — 32 — and about 50 colonial troops.
Gicheru admits, however, that the Mau Mau committed atrocities against several of their fellow Kikuyu who were accused of co-operating with the British.
”Those things, I do not want to speak about. It was war,” he whispers.
But, justice does not come cheap. The KHRC is struggling to raise $80 000 required simply to file the case (Day estimated that the total costs of his suit would amount to two million dollars).
Miano said the Mau Mau would present their case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague if the KHRC’s London suit did not succeed.
Under a new Constitution that has been proposed for Kenya, Kenyatta Day (October 20) will be renamed Mashuja (Heroes) Day, in honour of all who suffered for independence. Kibaki has also promised to build a museum to exhibit mementoes of Kenya’s past.
But a member of Parliament, Gachara Muchiri, believes this is a misguided initiative.
”Most former Mau Mau are dirt poor. Why spend millions of shillings on a building when the money could be used to help the freedom fighters?” he asks. – Sapa-IPS