Sixty years ago, Kenya gained independence after 68 years of British rule. It came after a decade of fighting, between 1952 and 1960,thanks to the Mau Mau rebellion. These freedom fighters, after decades of controversy on their use of violence, are now celebrated as heroes.
Kenya's President William Ruto arrived at the Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi where the country’s 60th 'Jamuhuri Day' celebrations are ongoing.
In Swahili, Jamhuri means “republic” and the holiday officially marks the date when Kenya became an independent country on 12 December 1963.
Ruto is leading the ceremony held to commemorate the day.
🇰🇪Happy Jamuhuri Day!🇰🇪
— UNDP Kenya (@UNDPKenya) December 12, 2023
As a culmination to the successful #YouthConnektAfrica2023 summit week, today's celebrations affirm the Govt's commitment to the youth & are themed around "The Youth, Creative Economy and Sports."#KenyaAt60 pic.twitter.com/uCi9ZjY8h9
Some of the stars of the shows are the surviving members of the Mau Mau movement, which led the rebellion.
Rebellion and repression
Gitu wa Kahengeri, is one of the rare survivors of the movement. He is now 89, and the secretary general of the Mau Mau War Veterans Association.
"Growing up, I saw how the people around me were treated by the leaders of the colonial administration and I began to wonder how it was possible for a head of the colonial administration to enter the home of a father and start beating us, for no apparent reason, other than being African and living under a colonial government. This is how my political awakening began," he told RFI's correspondent in Nairobi, Albane Thirouard.
The rebel group of the Mau Mau was mainly made up of members of the Kikuyu ethnic group.
The rebels' first goal was to recover the land and freedoms that had been taken from them by the British colonial authorities.
"As early as 1946, the Mau Mau movement began operating clandestinely. At the beginning, we mainly talked, we recounted the crimes that the colonial authorities had committed in order to make people understand what was happening in the country.
"Then we had to recruit, so that we could be together, united in a common goal: to liberate the country. We did all this for a long time before taking up arms," Kahengeri continues.
The movement organised campaigns of sabotage and even assassinations against the British settlers, claiming 32 lives.
"For many years, our ancestors wrote letters to the colonial administration to complain about the expropriation of their land, to complain about the mistreatment they suffered, to complain about everything the colonial government did. But they were not heard. Nothing has changed. So we needed other means," Kahengeri recalls.
In response, a state of emergency was imposed by London, during which the British army and Home Guards – soldiers recruited from the local population – were tasked with suppressing the movement.
Kahengeri was arrested in 1953, and freed in 1960. He was jailed in a British-run labour camp in Kenya, tortured and denied food.
Officially, at least 11,000 Mau Mau were killed, but according to the Kenyan Human Rights Commission the figure might be at 90,000.
But they achieved their goal: independence.
"I remember 12 December 1963," Kahengeri said. "I was very happy, we were all very happy. We all hugged our loved ones, from whom we had been separated for seven years. It was a moment of great joy."
Dark times
Yet, after independence was declared, the Mau Mau leaders were denied access to positions of power.
They were seen as a brief chapter in the country's history and were hardly mentioned in celebrations, until 2003.
The most influential politicians monopolised the most fertile land, despite many of the Mau Mau fighters being the original owners.
To avoid complaints and demands, the ban on the movement remained in place. The result was forty years of oblivion, which suited local officials and former settlers.
President Mwai Kibaki finally announced in 2003 that the Mau Mau should no longer be considered as "terrorists".
Six decades after Kenya's independence, they are regarded as heroes, but most of the archives from the time have disappeared.
That's why survivors and their descendants are fighting to ensure the movement finally gets the recognition.
"We want recognition, we want land and we want compensation, for the seven years we were imprisoned," Kahengeri concludes.
