“We wanted a better world”

(Laburra, Nyeri County) Although her health deteriorated, Miriam Muthoni Mathenge has not forgotten the hope that carried the Mau Mau rebels in the 1950s.

“We wanted a better world,” confides the 104-year-old woman, met at the beginning of November in the modest farm where she lives in the countryside, about a hundred kilometers north of Nairobi.

She remembers going into the underground without hesitation with her husband, Stanley Mathenge, one of the instigators of the uprising movement against the British occupiers.

General Mathenge, as he is now known, fled to Ethiopia as the repression intensified and has never been seen since.

His disappearance had serious consequences for his partner, who was questioned at length about the rebel’s whereabouts.

Miriam Muthoni Mathenge was detained for seven years in a maximum security facility alongside the wife of Jomo Kenyatta, who in 1963 became the first president of independent Kenya.

M^me Muthoni Mathenge, who uses a wheelchair, shows traces of injuries to her legs which, she says, are reminiscent of blows inflicted by the police to make her speak. Tens of thousands of people have suffered similar abuses.

The Kenyan lost contact during the conflict with her children, who lived with her on a plot of land ceded by the state after her release.

The ex-rebel lived there for a long time in a hut made up of a rough assembly of tree trunks leaving large openings for the wind and rain.

One of his grandsons, John Mathenge, notes that the family has repeatedly requested that the state come to their aid, without obtaining success.

The government, he notes, agreed a few months ago to pay the costs of a brief hospitalization, but offered nothing more, even though President William Ruto assured him of his support during ‘an encounter.

A request for help was also sent to the British government, but it went unanswered, like those of other veterans who are demanding justice from the former colonial power.

Many observers in the media hoped that the United Kingdom would recognize its wrongs during a visit by King Charles III at the end of October, but the mea culpa outlined by the new monarch on this occasion left many people unsatisfied.

“Horrific and unjustifiable acts of violence were committed against Kenyans as they fought a painful battle for independence and sovereignty. And for that, there is no possible justification,” he declared while avoiding an official apology.

The former colonial power had stepped up its muscular interventions to put an end to the uprising, which had its origins in the dissatisfaction of the country’s main ethnic group, the Kikuyus.

In a shocking work entitled The British gulag published in 2005 , American historian Caroline Elkins looked at the conflict at length based on interviews carried out in the field and unpublished documents which detailed the extreme methods used to restore calm.

The Kikuyus, who had lost large swaths of their traditional lands in Kenya’s central highlands to English settlers, were confined for several years to hundreds of villages surrounded by barbed wire. They are said to have brought together more than 1 million people during the state of emergency.

Tens of thousands of suspects were also taken to concentration camps, where forced labor, torture and starvation were common.

In a 1990 work, another historian, Robert Edgerton, noted that electric shocks and fire were often used to make prisoners talk.

“Women were suffocated or held underwater; gun barrels, beer bottles and even knives were inserted into their vaginas. Beer bottles were inserted into men’s rectums, they were pulled behind Land Rovers, burned or bayoneted,” he detailed.

The United Kingdom agreed in 2013 to pay compensation of approximately $6,500 to 5,000 abused veterans to settle a lawsuit led with the help of Mr.^me Elkins, but never pushed the exercise further, leaving many victims stranded.

According to historian Caroline Elkins, tens of thousands of Mau Mau were killed and a thousand hanged to quell the rebellion, which petered out after the execution of its leader, Dedan Kimathi, a historical figure who notably served as a inspiration to Nelson Mandela.

Patrick Gathara, a journalist and author who has studied the Mau Mau uprising at length, notes that Dedan Kimathi was a charismatic intellectual who managed to take the helm of the movement by ousting General Mathenge.

The latter’s departure for Ethiopia could be linked to the dispute between the two leaders, notes Mr. Gathara, who does not rule out the possibility that the missing man was in fact killed in an internal settling of scores.

The first Kenyan governments after independence increased pressure so that the historical importance of the uprising was kept silent, maintaining a form of “official amnesia”.

President Kenyatta, who was seen as a hero of the struggle for independence, had distanced himself from the Mau Mau in the 1950s. He promised, upon arriving at the head of the new state, to be conciliatory with the community British, relates Mr. Gathara.

“The Mau Mau fought to recover their lands and liberate the country, but it was Kenyatta who took them,” said an archivist met by The Presswho requested anonymity.

It was finally only in 2002 that the importance of the rebels’ contribution was officially recognized by the State and its leaders, who today do not hesitate to salute their achievements.

A ludicrous episode arose on this subject in 2003 after a respected Kenyan journalist claimed to have found General Mathenge in Ethiopia.

The government brought the individual to Nairobi with great fanfare, but then had to apologize after it was established that he did not speak any of the languages ​​mastered by the missing fighter, including Kikuyu.

Mr. Gathara notes that an unlikely number of Kenyans today identify with the Mau Mau movement and claim that a member of their family fought with the rebels.

M^me Muthoni Mathenge notes that she and those close to her truly paid a high price for independence.

“I hope people don’t forget it,” she said.

A community in revolt

The Kikuyus, who are at the heart of the Mau Mau rebellion, form the largest ethnic community in Kenya. A significant part of the land they traditionally cultivated in the country’s central mountains came under the control of English settlers as the government increased laws to limit their ability to develop. Tensions increase until the first unrest breaks out.

1950: Rumors began to circulate regarding the creation of a secret society to which members of the Kikuyu community joined determined to drive out the white population.

1952: After the execution of a local leader opposed to the intensification of Mau Mau actions, the British government announced the sending of troops to the colony. Unrest increases, leading to the declaration of a state of emergency.

1953-1956: Intense period of repression. Historian Caroline Elkins reports that tens of thousands of Mau Mau were arrested and tortured. The villages are surrounded by barbed wire to control the comings and goings of more than 1 million Kikuyus.

1957: The leader of the movement, Dedan Kimathi, was hanged after being captured by the British authorities. The protest quickly ran out of steam.

1959: Lifting of the state of emergency.

1963: Kenya gains independence.

2003: The colonial law describing the Mau Mau as “terrorists” is revoked.

2023: King Charles III declares, during an official visit, that his country regrets the “horrific and unjustifiable acts of violence” suffered by Kenyans during the war for independence, but refrains from presenting an official apology.