It is warm and a humid afternoon. At this obscure homestead within Engashura Village in Nakuru County in Kenya, 78 year old Naomi Njoki undertakes her domestic chores amidst shrieks and animated chats by scores of her grandchildren.
The grand old lady though revered and respected in this desolate part of the world, remains an unsung hero for the role she played in the struggle for the country’s independence close to five decades ago. Born in Kinangop, the mother of ten is unhappy with the state of affairs and Kenya’s politics. “Politicians should stop bickering and inciting youths into acts of violence and lawlessness.”
Njoki Continues: “Politicians are no longer patriotic. They have no interest of common Kenyans and the country at heart; they are selfish and interested only in self aggrandizement. Kenyan politicians are over obsessed with acquiring wealth and power and will do anything to get it.”
“Taxation, food and fuel prices have skyrocketed beyond comparison to what we were paying in terms of hut tax; the government must act as a matter of urgency,” goes on Njoki.
The former freedom fighter is upset that rampant corruption, shameless grabbing of public land, ugly physical and verbal confrontations among politicians are clear indicators that they are not keen on serving the electorate. “Look around, all you see are suffering masses ravaged by poverty, disease and illiteracy in a country that has enjoyed independence for more than four decades,” laments Njoki. “Those were not the aspirations of Kenya’s founding fathers Jomo Kenyatta, Tom Mboya, Daniel arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki, Wycliffe Works Waswa, Achieng Oneko and Paul Ngei among others.”
She is among few remaining freedom heroes who continue living in poverty and dying poor people. She is not alone; Ngei, Oneko, Kagia and a host of others lived a desolate life and died sick, poor paupers. Njoki is lucky to have her children and grandchildren by her side to support her materially.
Njoki vividly recounts events that preceded the Mau Mau war of independence terming the experiences African natives underwent at the hands of colonialists as harrowing.
“Initial resistance to British rule was spurred by a decision by the colonial administration to bar boys from attending schools. Some were herded into labour camps while a significant proportion was conscripted into humiliating menial jobs such as grazing and milking of livestock,” she recollects.
Njoki reminisces that a white man had been tasked to enforce a rule that restrained the number of livestock a native could rear.
“It was decreed that the maximum number of animals that an African could rear was to be 15 whilst those who had excess had to dispose them off. The rule was enforced with alarming alacrity that was couched in brutality and intimidation,” she narrates.
Sustained onslaught on the natives by the colonial administration constrained the now furious mass to troop into the then nascent Kenya African Union (KAU), a clandestine organization.
“Once we were at a flower garden at Kinangop on Saturday when an airplane dropped copies of newspapers indicating that 6 million whites were due in the country anytime,” Njoki says.
Njoki shudders when she recalls how she sustained a gunshot on her left groin and had to contend with concoctions derived from tree barks for three days.
“It was a heart rendering experience as I could not visit any medical facility for that would be taking an obvious risk and would have promptly been locked up and eventually killed as a Mau Mau sympathizer,” Njoki explains.
During the period of pain and agony, Njoki was hidden under the bed unconscious due to the blast she heard when she was shot. She is full of praise and of gratitude to God that her life was spared miraculously.
As the crackdown on nationalists intensified, Africans were confined in a ‘’Kiugo’’ (trench) which was dug. At the end of the trench stood armed policemen to guard them not to run away.
Njoki recalls 1952 when the state of emergency was declared a crackdown on suspected members of the now vibrant Mau Mau movement went a notch higher.
“I count myself as lucky to be alive as the out of the 170 members of a squad I was in, led by Kigo Waboka, only three people survived. We came under attack from colonial forces backed by airplanes in the Aberdare at Kederedu forest,” she says.
Other squads that fought alongside Njoki’s platoon were led by the likes of Field Marshall Dedan Kimathi, LCM Wokabi among others.
She says that for the past 47 years of the country’s independence, the state has turned a blind eye to thousands of freedom fighters’ plight who are wallowing in abject poverty.
“Government officials always tumble running to funerals of freedom heroes to pay insincere homage and shout hypocritical pledges, We fought for this independence but genuine persons are not the ones who are reaping the fruits of that struggle as home-guards walloped us and impropriated huge chunks of lands rendering millions landless,” she says.
The freedom fighter is angered as she is yet to receive any cash from the government’s Older Persons Cash Transfer Programme where recipients are to be paid Kshs 3,000 ($40) per month.
“These funds are still on a lower scale. The state needs to get very serious and address strategies that will greatly improve our standards of living,” she adds.
President Mwai Kibaki is the first one to have offered some recognition to remnants of freedom fighters where they saunter in past main dais each during heroes’ day marked every year.
Peter Kahare is a freelance journalist based in Nakuru County of Rift Valley province in Kenya, East Africa.
Leave a Reply