Photos
Unhistories – Kenya’s Mau Mau: Resistance, Mass Graves and Compensation
9 min read.This third part of the Unhistories series covers some of the figures who shaped the fight on both sides among Kenyans and the British, and introduces members from the Mau Mau War Veterans Association and their stories.

In 2014, Belgian documentary artist Max Pinckers was invited to the Archive of Modern Conflict in London, where he came across a collection of British propaganda material relating to the 1950s “Mau Mau Emergency Crisis” in Kenya. Since then he has been working with various Mau Mau War Veterans Associations in Kenya, with a particular focus on using photography to (re-)visualize the fight for independence from their personal perspectives. This includes mass graves, former detention camp buildings, locations of former mobile gallows, cave hideouts, oral witness testimonies, portraits and demonstrations of personal experiences.
This ongoing documentary project titled Unhistories departs from the Hanslope Disclosure in which British colonial archives were destroyed, hidden and manipulated. Known as Operation Legacy in the 1950s, the British colonial administration in Kenya destroyed much of the documentation relating to the Emergency prior to their departure in 1963. Unhistories is a collaboration with Mau Mau veterans, Kenyans who survived the colonial violence, historians, artists, activists, writers, archives, universities and museumsto fill in the missing gaps of the archives.
This third part of the Unhistories series covers some of the figures who shaped the fight on both sides among Kenyans and the British, and introduces members from the Mau Mau War Veterans Association and their stories.

Field Marshal Muthoni wa Kirima
Muthoni wa Kirima (b.1930) attained the rank of Field Marshal. She entered the Aberdare Forest in 1952 and was never caught, although she still has a bullet lodged in her hand. She was nicknamed “Nina wa Thonjo” (weaver bird) by Dedan Kimathi because of her ability to weave brilliant war strategies. She was one of the last Mau Mau who laid down their arms at the flag of free Kenya at Ruringu stadium in 1963, where she met Jomo Kenyatta.
She still has the same dreadlocks she had when fighting in the forest, which she calls “the history of Kenya.” They are a symbol of her dissatisfaction with the new governments and she vows only to cut them when the deserved compensation is given to the Mau Mau veterans.
“I emerged from the forest after eleven years but was never given even an inch of land. I have nothing to show for those eleven years, not even a needle. It was only the sons of the supporters of the white men who benefited from the blood and sweat of our battered bodies.”
“I am still in the forest,” she says. She wants the “protruding bones of fallen heroes in shallow graves in Mt Kenya forests” collected and buried honorably. “The bones of my fellow freedom fighters are, like me, crying in the forests. We ventured into the forests to free the country from the grip of the white settlers. We thought that those we left behind schooling would fight for us, but things turned out differently.” The erasure of Muthoni and others like her from Kenya’s history books depresses her as she sites how unfortunate it is that “only white people” visit her inquiring about her story.









Peter Irungu Njuguna
In the whole of Central Province the British installed a villagization program for women and children. The villages were surrounded by a fence, a trench with spikes, and Home Guards in watchtowers. You’d leave early in the morning to go for forced labor, either digging roads, digging trenches; just out of spite so that you are continuously engaged.
At 5 pm you had one hour to leave the compound and search for food. One hour to go and look for food to feed your family. If you were late in coming back, you were arrested and taken to detention at the inner post, because it was alleged that you were helping the Mau Mau on the outside. When in detention you were beaten, whipped and you would sleep outside. In the morning you would be forced to carry a basin full of sand on your head for 12 hours, with your hands up, without putting it down.
— Peter Irungu Njuguna, Murang’a, 2019








Geoffrey Nderitu
This is my home, this land was our father’s and he left it to us when he died. There is a mass grave here. The ground I walk on is over people’s graves, but I found this one and I am taking care of it for the sake of tomorrow and the years to come.
This row is filled with young men, Mau Mau soldiers. They died between 1952 and 1955. They were murdered by Europeans while fighting for this soil. They are buried in deep and wide holes. In one hole there could be up to 30 people buried, based on how fast the bodies were coming in.
Here is a skull. This is an arm bone, these are leg bones, the skull, the jaw. I take care of this a lot. I take care of their bones because I don’t want to lose them. These are the people who gave us freedom. The warriors of independence have been buried here, and banana trees planted over them. Let’s preserve them here in remembrance of our freedom fighters. They don’t disturb me, they are my friends. They are my brothers.
— Geoffrey Nderitu, Tetu, Gititu, Nyeri County, 2019

Dedan Kimathi Waciuri
Widely regarded as the military and spiritual leader of the anti colonial movement, Kimathi fought against the British in the 1950s. When the colonial administration declared the state of emergency, Kimathi took to the forests close to Mount Kenya. He is credited with creating formal military structures and convening a war council along with his fellow Field Marshals. Kimathi was charged with possession of illegal firearms and sentenced to hang. He was executed on February 18, 1957 at Kamiti Maximum Prison. After his execution, his body was buried in an unmarked grave and has not been found to this day. He is now a celebrated national hero.

The spot where Dedan Kimathi was shot in the leg and arrested by Home Guard Ndirangu Mau. It is believed that the blood that soaked into the soil created an infertile patch of land where no tea has grown since. Kahigaini, Tetu, Nyeri County, Kenya, 2015.






Ian Henderson, CBE, GM & Bar, KPM (1927-2013) was a colonial police officer in Kenya. He is best known for his use of murders and brutal torture techniques against members of the Mau Mau movement, and for obsessively hunting down Dedan Kimathi. He was later deported to Bahrain where he was nicknamed “Butcher of Bahrain.


















More from the Unhistories series
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The Lifespan of Campaign Posters in Kenya
Over six months and counting after Kenya’s general election, the country is left chocking from political campaign materials left littering all over. In areas like Nairobi county, the old decolourized posters still remain plastered on the walls, electricity poles, and road signs to mention but a few.

According to the Environment Management Coordination Act, 2013, after the official campaign period all candidates must clear campaign materials to prevent pollution. The act also says that those found guilty of polluting the environment with hazardous waste will pay a minimum of Sh1 million in fines or serve jail terms, or both.
A tour of the city shows that the fact that there is a law that stipulates the removal of campaign materials to curb pollution of the environment many candidates have not started or even not thinking of clearing the mess. However, candidates have the option of paying a fee to Environment Management Coordination to facilitate the clearance of the posters.
There is a need for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to urgently put mechanisms in place to ensure that election posters and materials are promptly and effectively removed from the environment and properly disposed of after electoral campaigns.

A Candidate’s poster hanging on a major road sign on Manyanja Road on your way to Donholm Estate in Nairobi.

A road sign blocked by a tattered campaign poster in Jericho estate, Nairobi.

A campaign banner forms part of the wall structure of a local Mama Ntilie eatery in Juja town, Kiambu County.

A campaign poster of the current Governor of Nairobi Johnstone Sakaja hanging on a streetlight pole in Donholm roadside market.

A roadside barrier littered with posters along Jogoo road including aspirants from the August 2022 elections.

Campaigns posters hanging on light masts along Devki Road in Ruiru town, Kiambu County.

A political poster hanging dangerously along a road in Kikuyu town, Kiambu county.


Campaign posters on concrete electricity poles and roadside trees along Kenyatta road in Kiambu County.

A political poster on an electricity pole in Muthara area in Juja constituency.

A political poster on a tree along Kenyatta Avenue, in Nairobi Kenya.

Political posters plastered on the road barriers along Wood Avenue, in Kilimani area in Nairobi Kenya.

A political banner hanging between two electric posts in South C estate, Nairobi County.

Posters on the wall of buildings, perimeter walls, and electric poles along Jogoo road in the Nairobi Eastlands Area.
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This publication was funded/co-funded by the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of The Elephant and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
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Every day, tons of plastics are scavenged from various water bodies around the world. These plastics cause immeasurable damage to fragile ecosystems both on land and at sea. Cleaning up micro-plastics from the oceans requires concerted efforts by stakeholders across the board, and time is ticking.


Plastic waste dumped on the beach at Ras Ukowe, Manda Island on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast.

Plastic waste floating on Lake Solai, Koibanan Island. This waste is due to littering by local tourists who throw them on the Island and they get washed away to the lake.

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A herd of cows foraging for food among plastyic wastes in Kitengela town. Most post-mortem of dead cows has often revealed the presence of plastic waste in their bodies and choking from palstic bags as the cause of death.

A growing illegal dumpsite on a local community grounds in Huruma Eldoret, consisting of plastic water bottles, orange peels and plastic bags.

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Asection of a collapsed fence littered with plastic waste along the Sosian river in Uasin Gishu County.

A section of the famous Sosiani river in Uasin Ngishu county, is chocking with plastic waste washed away by rains from the surrounding areas.

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A kilometre away from Nakuru CBD is Gioto dumping site, a constact environmental nightmare, safety problem, and health hazard to local residents.
Photos
Chakula Mashinani
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Chakula Mashinani turns the gaze of our complex national culinary adaptation away from the cities and the urban, mostly educated elite, to the rural life and community.

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A dairy cow at Suyian Ranch in Nanyuki.

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Buchey Dairy farm in Nanyuki, famed for its milk and heifers.

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Dozens of cows at the Kiwawa Dairy production milking area.

An ewe and lamb at a sheep farm in Limuru, Kiambu County.
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This article is part of The Elephant Food Edition Series done in collaboration with Route to Food Initiative (RTFI). Views expressed in the article are not necessarily those of the RTFI.
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