kaburi bila msalaba loosely translated ‘a grave without a cross’ gave me the first true feel of what went on during the struggle for kenya’s independence. before that, the civics lessons in lower primary school just gave me recitals of what went on during the struggle. the national anthem and national flag colors significance maybe set a foundation but it never made me understand what really went on. i would confidently answer during those exams that the red in the kenyan flag symbolized the blood that was shed in the struggle for independence, now i know much more than that.

kenya attained its independence on 12^th december 1963 with jomo kenyatta as its first president. this was after a six month stint of having attained self internal rule on 1^st june 1963 marked by appointment of kenyatta as the first kenyan prime minister. kenya later became a republic on 12^th december 1964. today, kenya marks 43 years of independence.

kaburi bila msalaba, if my memory does not fail me was a story of how kenyan families suffered in the struggle for independence as many were detained, screened violently whether they belonged to the mau mau and separated form their beloved, many forever. a young bride was robbed off the joy of starting a family when her love went through the harsh hands of the british colonialists. she also had to go through the cruel process as she traced him and many other villagers suffered at the hands of the british, the maumau and their own sons nicknamed ‘kamatimu’ or homeguards for their loyalty to the british army. the story recounts the tribulations and agony of the lady as she tried to trace the grave of her man, a grave that had no mark and hence could not be traced.

reading this storybook at a young age and mostly in a tin-lamp lit kitchen besides a firewood fireplace, gave me the questioning mind that bothered my parents and grand parents. they had to explain to me what exactly happened during the state of emergeny. those stories created the fear and eeriness that they faced each evening either in detention at the concentration camp or at the villages they had been hounded into in order to curb their collaboration with the mau mau. every night they faced the reality that they might not see the sun rise again. my grandpa spent almost four years at the manyani detention camp where torture was the order of the day. my grandma would relive the sorrow of separation and mental agony of trying to balance double allegiance in order to live. loyalty to the british by day and duty to the maumau at night.

according to wangari maathai’s ‘unbowed one woman’s story’:

“new research indicates that in spite of the hysteria in the british press and the government, of the approximately four thousand people who died of mau mau activities, a total of thirty two were white settlers. in comparison, recent scholarship estimates that more than one hundred thousand africans, mostly kikuyus, may have died in concentration camps and emergency villages-on top of humiliation, loss of property, and trauma that families suffered. it is clear that terrorism was not confined to one side. interestingly, it is only very recently that the law in kenya has been changed so that mau maus are no longer described as ‘imaramuri’ (terrorists) but as freedom fighters”

in our young days we were told that the mau mau term is some form of a kikuyu anagram for ‘uma uma’ meaning ‘go go’ directed to the british settlers. the unbowed woman states thus: “in the early 1950s, frustrated by the slow pace of change, a guerilla war for independence was launched: the mau mau. while there are many theories about the origin of the term ‘mau mau’, the only one i find most interesting is this: in kikuyu, when beginning a list, you say, ‘maundu ni mau’-‘the main issues are…’-and then hold up three fingers to introduce them. for the mau mau, the three issues were land, freedom, and self-governance”

the sad bit of the jamhuri day story is that thousands of graves never got crosses, a sign of decent and honourable rights. the first government never compensated the freedom fighters adequately and most of the property was directed to the ‘homeguard’ oppressors. subsequent governments have failed to mark these graves effectively. not necessarily by erecting white crosses but living up to the ideals these noble men and women laboured for. neo-colonialism, corruption, greed and selfish leadership have failed to give millions of kenyans the full rights that these unsung heroes fought for. in retrospect, a lot has been achieved since the mau mau war. our foreparents fought their war, it is up to the current generation to fight the war that kenya faces. kenyans owe it to their forefathers and to history, to ensure that they no longer enslave themselves again economically, politically and socially.

for more about the untold struggle for independence grab caroline elkins “imperial reckoning: the untold story of britain's gulag in kenya”