Wednesday, February 18, was a very important day in the history of this country. Yet it went largely unheralded. Many Kenyans – young and old, male and female – got notice of, and ‘celebrated’ the February 14 Valentine’s Day more.
Our women ‘painted the town red’ as love filled the air. Yet Wednesday should have been a red-letter day for this country. This is the day when , the leader of Kenya Land and Freedom Army (Mau Mau), and the first President of the Kenya Parliament was executed by the colonial administration way back in 1957.
The successive leaderships of this country from Kenyatta to Kenyatta have tried, and almost succeeded, to obliterate the memory of Kimathi and the National Movement he led from the collective memories of Kenyans.
This is not surprising. In spite of having incarcerated in the name of Mau Mau, Jomo Kenyatta loathed it and the liberation ideology it espoused.
In an informal interview about 20 years ago, the late Bildad Kaggia narrated how Kenyatta was so enraged when Kariuki Chotara joined them in prison at Lodwar. He is said to have asked: "You people are still fighting? Do you want me to die in prison?"
Chotara's response was practical and left the old man with a reorganised dental formula.
Jomo, wrongly held by the colonial authorities as the leader of Mau Mau, was a disappointment on his release. Having ascended to the leadership of the newly independent nation on nationalist credentials, many expected Jomo Kenyatta to initiate radical restructuring of the state. This did not happen.
In his independence speech, Kenyatta did not propose any substantive change in the structure of the colonial state. On the contrary, he made it clear that the state and its oppressive machinery would remain intact. He retained the colonial army that had hounded, tortured, raped, maimed and killed the nationalists, inherited and retained intact the colonial police with its dreaded Special Branch, and the colonial administrative edifice known as the provincial administration.
Besides, Jomo never mentioned in that speech and subsequent speeches the heroic acts of Kimathi and fellow KFLA fighters as the force behind not only his release from prison but also the independence and ascension to power.
During independence celebrations, no Mau Mau freedom songs were sung and no Mau Mau leader to speak or be recognised at the functions. Instead, at the first anniversary of independence, he issued an ultimatum to the remnants of the movement who were still in the bush to surrender or face the wrath of the colonial military he had inherited. He made good his threat by sending war planes to bomb the forests.
During his rule, Senior Kenyatta tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to obliterate the memory of Mau Mau in Kenya. He ensured the history of the movement was not taught in schools and colleges, and that no former Mau Mau fighter was absorbed in the army or police.
History was rewritten to put Jomo at the centre of the nationalist struggle. October 20, the day colonialists declared the state of emergency and launched the infamous Operation Jock Stock, became Kenyatta Day to glorify ‘The Liberator’. No monument, statue or plaque was erected or displayed in the honour of Kimathi or other Mau Mau heroes and heroines.
Instead, streets, hospitals, schools, universities and even a lake were named after Jomo Kenyatta. Kenyatta became the history of Kenya. Kenyatta was the future of Kenya.
Under Senior Kenyatta’s leadership, Mau Mau remained a proscribed society – a status religiously upheld by his Nyayo follower, Daniel arap Moi. He promoted civil servants who had helped the colonial administration fight Mau Mau. Put bluntly, Jomo’s regime was anti-Mau Mau, anti-Kenyans and anti-democracy. It was a puppet regime that was a pliant client of Anglo-American imperialism, as eloquently narrated by Attwood, the first United States Ambassador to Kenya in his books, The Reds and the Blacks.
Any attempts to resist this betrayal was countered by assassination or jail as evidenced by the brutal and yet unresolved murders of Pio Gama Pinto and JM Kariuki, and detentions of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Bildad Kaggia and Achieng’ Oneko among others.
Even right wing politicians that posed a threat to the regime like Tom Mboya were not spared.
While Kimathi and the movement he so heroically led remain uncelebrated, the spirit of Kimathi, immortalised by his rallying call, "We would rather die on our feet than live on our knees", continues to inspire generations of Kenyans.
This is the spirit I saw in the children of Lang’ata Road Primary School, who were ready to brave the tear gas, police truncheons and bullets in defence of land and freedom.
The heirs to the colonial state may have succeeded in ensuring that those children do not learn about our struggle spear headed by the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, but they knew they had to come out and defend the land on which their school stood.
They displayed an unusual conviction to fight for the freedom to play (hence the defence of their playground) and the right to be children.
As another Kimathi execution day passes unnoticed by those enjoying the fruits of his struggle, let Kenyans stand and be counted.
As for me, I choose the right side of history. The side of Dedan Kimathi, Oginga Odinga and Bildad Kaggia. I choose progress over reaction; justice over oppression. How about you?
By: Oduor Ong'wen
Originally published by The Star
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