Historical Reflection of Selected Women's Involvement in The

Historical reflection of selected women’s involvement in the struggle for Kenya’s independence, 1920-1963

Nyagosia Bichaine1, Zachary Ogamba2, Ian Moywaywa Kaunda3 and Evans Nyamwaka4 1,2,3Department of Humanities, Kisii university, P.O Box 408-40200, Kisii, Kenya Corresponding Emails: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. [email protected],

Abstract The study investigated the history of women‟s involvement in nationalistic politics and struggle for independence in Kenya; 1920-1963. The study focused on some selected women personalities from Kenya, that is Moraa Ng‟iti among the Abagusii, Mekatilili wa Menza among the Giriama, Muthoni wa Gachie, Field Marshal, Muthoni Kirima, Virginia Wambui all among the Agikuyu, Taibagoi Bartiony among the Talai of the Nandi, and Sutunewa Kithuke among the Akamba. This purpose of this study was to establish the role played by selected women in the struggle for Kenya‟s independence. The study employed both qualitative and descriptive research designs. This study was library based more particularly, but also oral interview information which was very useful was obtained from the field on Kenyan women involvement in the nationalistic struggle in Kenya, 1920-1963. Purposive sampling was used because it had the required information with respect to this study. This study used questionnaires with closed and open-ended questions which were used to source data that was analyzed and chi-square analysis was used. The findings from this study would be used to provide useful information for further research on women‟s roles in shaping the political landscape of our country. The findings also give very useful information towards achieving gender equity in our country and even the entire of Africa which has lagged behind on women issues, and for policing on gender inequalities on the global scene. Key words: Historical reflection; Women’s involvement; Struggle; Independence; Kenya

1.0 Background of the study in the fighting in Americas struggle for Throughout history women have been known to independence. In the same tone, women in participate in war liberation struggle. It should Zimbabwe played a very key role to their be noted that not only men went for war during nation‟s liberation struggle. Traditional gender the liberation struggle, but also women roles were subverted as many women were participated actively and passively. Therefore recruited as freedom fighters and were active this perception should be relooked at to also participants in the armed warfare, Gann 2 . include women in freedom struggle in Kenya. Therefore Gann asserts that not only did women Liberation struggle should therefore be looked motivated men to soldier on with the war of from the point of view of men and women at the independence but also actively participated in same time. This research unmasked that Kenyan liberation struggle. women had resilience and bravery, even in harsh Henda has also written on the role played by environments like women in any part of the women in the freedom struggle in Angola. In his world who were involved in freedom struggles. work Henda writes on Organization of Angolan Satwinder1, has studied the role of Women in Women that was a women liberation movement. India‟s Struggle for Freedom and who have been She notes these move,ment that was formed in forgotten for example Raj Kumari Gupta and 1962 by women as a wing for women of the Tara Rani Srivastava all of India. Marcela Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, Castro, wife of Marcos Tupac Amaru, took part

1 K. Satwinder, (2013) Role of Women in India‟s 2 L. Gann, (1981) The Struggle for Zimbabwe, Struggle for Freedom: GhaggerSarai, India. Praeger Publishers: New York. 1

played a significant role in supporting men seldom written by scholars. During the during the struggle in Angola. independence struggles, only the pursuits of In Kenya many scholars have tried to unmask male fighters were captured. This was so women‟s participation in the struggle for because of the prevailing patriarchal structures. freedom. Historical scholars of the recent times Women hardly take up key decision making have just quoted the role of women‟s positions owing to the lack of education and participation in Mau Mau movement without information, triple domestic roles, negative giving an inside about their participation in the cultures, and poor policies and therefore their Mau Mau war. These historical scholars have historical contribution may be forgotten. The outlined the role of men in the Mau Mau study Kenyan women have been approached activities but hardly do they mention the role from psychological, anthropological and played by women in the movement. Kershaw3 sociological perspectives. has written about women and their involvement Study of women‟s participation is not only to the issue of land where he also notes the roles important but necessary to establish the role of girls played in the bartering price of land. women in historical domain in time and space. Kanogo 4 has researched on women squatters Therefore this study is worth undertaking as among the Agikuyu, and though scanty mention there are few works focusing on the roles of them, she says that women‟s place in Mau women played in the struggle for independence Mau was of great deal in the Mau Mau war. in Kenya and in such works they are only Women were the Mau Mau stronghold mentioned. according to her in families as their male 1.2 Purpose of the Study counterparts had to either take an oath along The purpose of this study was to establish the with them or remain quiet about their beliefs. role played by selected women in the struggle Kanongo also notes from the Western Kenya for Kenya‟s independence. there was Mang‟ana Ogonje Nyar Ugu, the first African female colonial chief in Western; Moraa 2.0 Literature Review Moka Ng‟iti, a female freedom fighter from A lot of work has been written and covered on Kisii and Eiokalaine OM‟barugu an assistant women‟s involvement in the war of liberation in chief in Eastern part of Kenya. However, these various parts of Africa. While all this has been contributions have never been recognised for done a historical study on women‟s involvement their worth in the fight for independence. in the struggle for self-determination in Kenya Among the Agriama of Kenya the heroine, has not been done to its logical end. There are Mekatilili wa Menzas‟ contributed immensely in few written documents concerning the history of creating awareness among her people. She was women participation in the struggle for one of the first women in Kenya to rise up independence in Kenya. These documents give against the British in 1913. Mekatilili had good us some background information to our study. oratory skills, was charismatic and brave. These Women were able to organize themselves skills earned her a huge following and saw her through associations like the Market women to rally the Giriama to take oaths and sacrifices to fight a collective cause. The colonialists had restore their autonomy. introduced certain policies and regulations which curtailed the pleasure of social, economic 1.1 Statement of the Problem and political privileges of women. Women‟s Despite the immense contribution of women appointments to public offices were very low during the struggle for independence in Kenya, even though women were granted the right to their role in shaping Kenya‟s historiography is vote in the 1950s in the South and in the North in the 1980s. Women's War of 1929 “also 3 G. Kershaw, (1997) Mau Mau From Below, James known as the Aba Women‟s Riots”, in which Currey. Igbo market women protested British taxation, 4 T. Kanogo, (1987) Squatters and the Roots of Mau was a notable example of women using their Mau, London. traditional power against colonial rulers.

Therefore women saw themselves as the wives, the gender that was supportive of its victims of circumstance and victims of the mate. A woman was supposed to be confined at colonial oppression, these motivated them to the home, and this showed a mark of “gentility,” either directly or indirectly join the freedom and of a man‟s ability to support his family. struggle. Women in Kenya were on the Hence African men and women, aspiring to be at receiving end during the colonial period when the level of their colonial masters, began to their men ran away to urban centres to look for encourage women‟s docility as a mark of employment. Women experienced brutality from civilisation. The concept of “leisured” wife as the Europeans including rape, torture, land proof of “gentility” explains, why most women alienation and imposition of tax (poll tax, breast of African leaders did not compete to rise the tax and hut tax). Women also were forcefully social and political hierarchy at the same time as recruited to work on European farms when their their husbands. men were away, and due to this kind of It is against this background therefore that at oppression they were motivated to join their the beginning of the revolutionary struggle, male counterparts in the liberation struggle. Zimbabwean women, like their counterparts in Traditional practices largely dictated what Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and Angola joined became culturally accepted rights and duties of the war of liberation. Women‟s‟ intention was spouses. Because of various marriage rituals in that with the revolution, gender equity would be African tradition such as gift marriage, widow achieved on both men and women. Women who inheritance, forced childhood marriage, could not obey the rules to tradition saw the polygamy, bride-wealth and inheritance all revolution as a prospect to escape difficult favoured men. Women were regarded as wives situations. But feminist critique that at the end of and mothers, then as individuals according to the struggle, women‟s place in the society African customary law. actually fell as nationalist leaders and In addition Chogugudza says that the arrival nationalist-oriented societies. In the quest of of the British encouraged the migration of preserving tradition, women were expected to be African men to urban areas as workers, but guardians of culture and respectability, controlled the movement of women, hence mistresses of the emerging ruling elites, wives shifting the sharing of power and economy in and mothers, recruiters for political parties, and favour of men. Women were kept away from the labourers for the new market economy. As cash flow, but also as African men entered women were viewed from this angle, men were settler employment in towns, women who were engaged in competition for political power in the left behind had to fill in as heads of households. state and the accumulation of wealth.5 This led to increased in workloads for Therefore Zimbabwe‟s liberation struggle women but low wages. During the pre-colonial was based on Marxism, and contemporary and colonial period, African women “become an Marxism ideologies which encouraged the extension of African male bodies.” This made participation of women in the revolutionary women to live in circumstances that were vanguard, arguing that women‟s subjugation different or worse than those of the men. was a result of the class-based and colonial Women did not participate in the cash economy exploitation against which such movements which shifted their traditionally circumscribed would struggle. power to positions in which autonomy was Zimbabwean guerrilla movements, in almost impossible. acceptance of this ideology, meant that women‟s Additionally, to the perception of what was rights would be a self-evident part of a future “womanly” in the traditional culture, the “cult of democratic society. Urdang notes that Marxist domesticity,” a premise put forward by ideologies which advocated for equality helped Victorian Christian also entrenched what women to see themselves as advancing into became perceived as the woman‟s role. The traditionally male-controlled spheres such as “cult of domesticity” envisioned women as compliant, modest creatures, good mothers and 5P. Chogugudza, (2011), “Gender and War”. 3

those of decision-making. It can be understood themselves and for their families, others like that what women hoped to achieve through the Nhamo joined the movement to uplift herself as struggle, is gaining equal rights for themselves. she heard that some were being educated by the Ironically, a feminist critique of women and war nationalists. will show, that we cannot overlook the fact that Women in Zimbabwe actively were involved women also participate in war for personal in armed struggle and acted as combatant as well gains. The Zimbabwean war offered a way out as suppliers to the fighters. Women in Kenya both for the suppressed groups of people and for fought alongside their male counterparts in individuals, including women. The inclusion of Kenya the same way women did elsewhere in women in a guerrilla war, therefore, is not just a Africa and hence Chogugudza‟s assertion is way to increase the number of soldiers in relevant to this study. general and to have them serve in roles According to Nakanyike and Marie 7 they exclusive to women as male leaders might see it. assert that during the colonial period, women in But also joining the liberation war is also for Zimbabwe were directly involved in colonial women an act of seeking their own liberation. resistance. One woman in particular Charwe Thus, on the eve of independence the post- played a major role during the first Chimurenga colonial government downplayed the promises war in 1896-97. Charwe, the female medium of freedom and liberty and this made possessed by the spirit Nehanda, is notable in Zimbabwean women fighters feel betrayed. This Zimbabwe today as the leader of the uprisings. will yet again form the basis of this study, that Some claim that she took up arms herself and Kenyan women participated in Kenya‟s was a military adviser to the people. She was liberation struggle but their contribution and detained for the killing of Native Commissioner reasons for joining the war seem to be swept to Pollard and was sentenced to be hanged. On the the periphery. The above reasons also inspired scaffolding she refused to submit and stated that Kenyan women to involve themselves in her bones would rise again in the fight against nationalistic liberation and struggle for colonialism. Several years later, during the independence. second Chimurenga war, spirit mediums According to Woodard6 notes that women in claiming to be possessed by Nehanda advised Guinea Bissau‟s actual participation in fighting and inspired guerrilla fighters. Charwe‟s name hand-to-hand battle against the Portuguese was invoked by the nationalist parties to forces existed on various occasions. But when encourage young women to join the armed the PAIGC entered its phase of nationalist armed struggle. Nakanyike‟s assertion also formed the struggle, women were not encouraged to carry basis of our study. arms and fight because this stage of the struggle According to Myenzi 8 asserts that before was so powerful and risky that it was limited to independence in Tanzania, records indicate that men. These men had been trained more women were part of the struggles for national thoroughly, to fight. Instead of fighting, women liberation. They were assigned with responsive supplied the guerrillas with food and other roles for example security of the party, staffing essentials. Women were also trained as nurses, of new members, fundraising and mobilization teachers, and cadres to mobilize more women of mass support. Myenzi adds that the late Bibi and other villagers for the liberation movement. Titi Mohamed is frequently referred to as one of This yet again formed the background of our those women who moved around to mobilize study. women constituency. This constituency was The reasons cited by Chogugudza as to why believed to constitute additional values in the women participated in political liberation in liberation struggles without which the mission Zimbabwe will also be of benefit to this study. could not have been accomplished as planned. Such factors are; to improve the conditions for 7 M. Nakanyike, (1992), Colonial and Missionary Education: Women and Domesticity in Uganda. 6 S. J. Woodard, (1986), Women in Guinea Bissau 8 Y.E Myenzi, (2004), “Women in Politics in and Cape Verd Island; ETD Collection, Atlanta. Tanzania”: Karimjee Hall, Dar es Salaam. 4

However, the mainstream party leadership Urdang and Myenzi were critical to our study remained an exclusive domain of men as also. reflected in the list of the seventeen (17) In Kenya women participated in all phases of founding members of the party. From the above the ant-colonial war in Kenya as early as 1950s. cases it can be concluded that women played Women joined the secret Mau Mau organization key roles in the liberation of their countries and that emerged after 1948. The new recruits were this is going to form the basis of this study. One required to take an oath of loyalty. Though of the remarkable responsibilities Mau Mau swearing to abide by a solemn promise was women in Kenya did was to continue to educate traditionally reserved for males, when the Mau their children. Mau movement began women also took oaths Women would raise money and do all they and were often able to administer oaths to male could to smuggle the brightest children out of and female recruits. Mau Mau women adherents Kenya to study overseas through Sudan, were therefore breaking an important gender Ethiopia and Egypt. These women did so with barrier from their introduction to the movement the hope that their children would come home to by giving and taking oaths. be the future leaders of their government of Gender barriers were also broken in the area which they did. (Turner, Teena and Leigh )9. of leadership roles and combat roles. The According to Urdang 10 , the question of women‟s wing of Mau Mau had a prominent equality between women and men in the training female leader, Rebecca Njeri Kari. Another camps is problematic when we consider the leader, Wambui Waiyaki (later Otieno), differences between what most women were developed a system of women spies who actually engaged in during the war, and the collected data on British installations and expected criteria that are used to indicate operations. whether women had actually been men‟s equals, Women also emerged bas leaders at district or whether they had been successful soldiers. and village levels. During the rebellion, British Research on women and war, from Africa and political and military forces arrested, other parts of the world, has pointed out that imprisoned, and detained Mau Mau leadership only a few women are given the privilege, in and rank-and-file members. Women were war situations, to operate formally in among those who were arrested and detained. traditionally male domains. Prominent women leaders, including Kari, The majority women‟s work tends to be Waiyaki, and Wambui Wangarama, spent years consisting in assisting men to be the armed in prison for their political beliefs. forces they wanted to be. Hence women in war Many women were also put under detention situations simply help men to achieve their because they were armed combatants, as well as goals. Accordingly, most women are compelled non-combatants who performed support to fill all kinds of supplementary functions so functions for the rebels who lived in guerilla that the war can proceed. Thus, in the camps in the inaccessible forest zones in Zimbabwean revolutionary movement, women Kenya‟s Central Province. Many other women fighters were to make sure that supplies reached experienced short-term detention and the fighters in the forest by providing the supply interrogation because they were Mau Mau rebels line, a very important role. This role is often or accused of being Mau Mau rebels. During unrecognized, or at least treated as secondary. their imprisonment, detainees experienced abuses that included physical assault, sexual 9 E. Turner, J. T. Neal, and Brownhill L. S., (1993), assault, food deprivation, and other acts of Every Tool is a Weapon if you hold it Right; Oni torture. Difranco. Outside of the prisons, the Mau Mau 10 U. Stephanie, (1989), And Still They Dance: rebellion was ultimately crushed in 1954 Women, War, and the Struggle for Change through massive roundups, interrogations, and a inMozambique London: Earthscan. program of "villagization." Villagization involved the destruction of tradition villages and

the forced relocation of the Kikuyu population to Feminists want to women more power to fight new villages that were surrounded by barbed against the patriarchal institutions in order to wire fences and armed guards. Although the achieve true gender equality, what is famously villagization policy had the ostensible goal of known as a conflict theory. In nutshell Oakley land consolidation, its real aim was to cut off the says that the driving force since its emergence in support Mau Mau rebels obtained from village the 1960‟s, feminism theory has become part populations. A crucial part of that support and parcel within sociological study. comprised the network of women who smuggled Wallace13 says that the defining characteristic of food and arms to the rebel camps in the forested feminism is the view that women‟s areas of the three Kikuyu districts. With this subordination must be questioned and regard therefore women participated in all challenged. This involves a critical examination spheres of the armed struggle in Kenya. They of the present and past situation of women. It participated from being active armed combatants challenges the dominant patriarchal assumption to partial participants and that is by supplying that seeks to validate women‟s subordination as food and weapons to the Mau Mau fighters in natural, universal and therefore inevitable. the forest among other supplies. It also challenges knowledge that is put However, it should be noted that few women forward as universal and demonstrating that this took part in actual fighting. Mostly women acted „knowledge‟ views the world from the as spies, suppliers and mobilizers during the perspective of men. What is important is a world armed struggles in most of the countries in view from the position of women, who have Africa and to a larger extent Kenya.11 been put to the periphery from the production of knowledge. 3.0 Theoretical framework Such a world view will provide more When studying women, various feminist adequate knowledge because it will seek to theories are used. Feminism is a systematic explain what patriarchal knowledge does not movement which promotes equity for men and recognize as existing. women in political, economic and social areas. According to these scholars, there are five According to feminists they assert that women major concepts impeded in the feminism theory: are oppressed due to their sex and this is based patriarchy, prejudice, gender stereotypes, on the dominant ideology of patriarchy. economic dependency and emotional work. Eradicating society of patriarchy will result in These five concepts will form the basis for this empowering women. Patriarchy is the structure study and therefore the theory is best suited in which oppresses women through its social, finding out the involvement of Kenyan women economic and political institutions. Throughout in nationalistic politics and the struggle for history men have had greater power in both the independence in Kenya and also to this study. public and private spheres. To maintain this As much as feminists don‟t agree on their power, men have created boundaries and divergent view overall, they do seem to focus on obstacles for women, thus making it harder for the theme of patriarchy. One most important women to hold power. critique of feminism is that it focuses too much One of the famous proponents of feminism is on gender divides without giving much Oakley 12 . Oakley notes that the theory of emphasis to other forms of inequality such as Feminism is centrally focused on the status class struggle and ethnicity. difference of men and women and the Women and women‟s organizations were dominance of the former. Oakley suggests that highly involved in the struggle for self- the society is patriarchal and that all the social determination in many nations in the world. institutions act to serve the interests of men. Despite this, their efforts were usually not

11C. Robertson and r I. Berge, (eds.), Women and Class in Africa. Africana Publishing Company. 13 C. Wallace, (1997), An Introduction to Sociology: 12 A. Oakley, (2011), “Feminism”, History Learning Feminist Perspective. London. Site.co.uk. 6

rewarded in the shape of more rights for them. 4.2Area of study When the modern governments were formed, The study took the entire country but on selected there was apparently no need to separate women‟s involvement in the nationalistic women‟s agenda, since the ideal state was to politics and the struggle for independence in bring freedom and improvement for men and Kenya. women alike. This led to the loss of the 4.3 Target Population traditional double gender structures. The The study took place in Rift Valley, Nyanza, discrimination against women witnessed in the coast and Central Kenya as its study area. above analysis will form the backbone of this Kenya, whose capital and largest city is Nairobi study as it will try to uncover the reasons why lies on the equator and overlies the East African women heroines have not been applauded in Rift covering a diverse and expansive terrain Kenya‟s historiography. This theory will try to that extends roughly from Lake Victoria to Lake unfold also whether patriarchy is solely to blame Turkana and further south-east to the Indian for gender discrimination and in writing the role Ocean. Kenya borders Uganda to the west played by women in the struggle for Tanzania to the south, South Sudan to the north- independence in Kenya. west, Ethiopia to the north and Somalia to the north-east. It covers 581,309 km2, and had a 4.0 Research design and methodology population of roughly 45 million people as per This section focuses on the research design, July 2014. variables, location of the study, population, the There are over 70 sub-tribes in Kenya, sampling frame, sample size and sampling ranging in size from about seven million Kikuyu techniques, research instruments, reliability of to about 500 El Molo who live around Lake the study, validity of the study instrument, data Turkana. Kenya's ethnic groups can be divided collection procedures, data analysis and into three broad linguistic groups, that is, Bantu, logistical and ethical considerations. Nilotic and Cushite speakers. 4.1 Research Design While no ethnic group constitutes a majority During this study qualitative and descriptive of Kenya's citizens, the Kikuyu, makes up only approaches were used to collect data from twenty percent of the nation's total population, respondents in the participation of women in the The five largest tribes- the Luo, Luhyia, struggle for independence in Kenya, 1920-1963. Kikuyu, Luo, Kamba and Kalenjin- account for This kind of approach seeks information by seventy percent. 97.58% of Kenya's citizens are looking closely at people‟s words, actions and allied with its 32 major native groups. Of these, records. It involves close observation of the the Kikuyu, who were most actively involved in subject that is being studied. Qualitative the independence and Mau Mau movements, are approach will be used in this study because it excessively represented government, public gives participants the opportunity to directly life,professions and business. The Luo people answer in their own words, rather than forcing are mainly traders and artisans while the Kamba them to choose from fixed responses. people are well represented in defense and law Qualitative research will also be used in this enforcement and Kalenjins are mainly farmers. study because it is more flexible, it is conducted Inter-tribal rivalries and hatred over Kikuyu in most cases in the natural settings, it produces dominance in political arena and trade have rich and indebt (detailed), and it is subjective. slowed down national coercion. Among the Through the use of descriptive survey design Kenyan communities the Kisii, Giriama, luo, the study surveyed women‟s involvement in Kikuyu, Akamba, Kalenjins, Luhya and Ameru nationalistic politics and struggle for are among the communities that participated in independence in Kenya, 1920-1963. The the struggle for self-determination in Kenya. descriptive design was relevant due to its ability 4.4 Sampling Techniques to identify various methods employed by women This study used purposive sampling technique in Kenya during the struggle for independence in was used. Purposive sampling is selecting of a Kenya. population on the basis of one‟s‟ own

knowledge of the population, its elements, and strikes and harvesting boycotts in order to the nature of one‟s research aims14. In this study, improve their earnings out of the work they did the populace was non-randomly selected. The in settler farms. 15 This boycotts and protests individual characteristics were selected to could be construed to mean that these women answer respond to questions about the were negotiating for space to carry out their own involvement of selected women in nationalistic production rights.16 This made the Europeans to politics and the struggle for independence in view the Kenyan women in a negative way and Kenya, 1920-1963. The researcher was able to even looked for ways of taming them. select participants based on internal knowledge The Europeans saw women‟s loose moral of said characteristic. This method was useful behaviour as the seat of women‟s control over given that that a small subset was required for men. This resulted in the unrest among the this study. Europeans as they saw the unreliability of 4.5 Data collection procedures African labour for British agriculture.17 Women The researcher sought for permission from Kisii in fact, appeared threatening and uncontrollable. University of which he was given; he was then In wider African contexts, women‟s reactions given a letter to go to the field. This research towards specific localised events which had was library based and scholarly articles, raised their anger, or earned their disrespect, publications and books were used to source the portrayed the use of sexual insult by women as required information. Therefore, the researcher an effective method of resistance.18 This action was given a permit to visit various libraries, that showed that women had nothing more to do with is, public, private and institution based libraries. the offending person, or group, and that they The internet was also of significance to this reject the authority of the person or group who study as it had rich information that had moved them to behave in such a way. complemented library sources. Finally the It was this action in 1922, during a protest at researcher pre-visited the region under study the arrest of Harry Thuku, Leader of the East after getting permission from the provincial African Association that ignited a riot, resulting administration. in the death of four women leaders. 19 Ardner 4.6 Data analysis and presentation gives the example of Kom women who have After collecting enough information from both been insulted sexually, calling other women of primary and secondary sources it was subjected the village together to encircle the offending to research analysis to validate their accuracy culprit, sing abusive songs, accompanied by through proper editing of the information. obscene gestures and to demand recompense. Materials that had serious errors were discarded. This was usually in the form of a large animal or Library research materials and archival sources money. The use of sexual insult was considered were subjected to accurate and careful content to be serious. According to the African analysis for validity purposes. The information communities such insults concern not only the was read repeatedly for proper judgment. woman directly abused, but all women in the This work is chronological in terms of society. Compulsory militant action followed chapters to capture the assessment of women‟s which supersede loyalty to kin and ethnic involvement in the struggle for independence in Kenya, 1920-1963. The chapter are also arranged according to the objectives outlined 15 C.Robertson and r I.Berge,(1986),Women and their above. Class in Africa. Africana Publishing Company. The Kenyan women can also be viewed from 16 A.Wipper, 1989 „Kikuyu Women and the Harry the premises of conversation of struggle, Thuku Disturbances: Some Uniformities of Female defiance and rivalry. To improve their working Militancy.‟Africa. conditions at work, these women organized 17 KNA 12281912/13. Notes on the Nandi. 1907/8, 1254 Nyanza Province Annual Report. 14Babbie and Mouton, (1996), The Ultimate Goal of 18S.Ardener,(1973) „Sexual Insult and Female all Science is the Search for Truth, Pretoria: Militancy.‟ Man. New Series. University of Pretoria. 19A.Wipper, Kikuyu Women. 8

groups. Women demonstration was for the of my children survived. We had victims and for themselves as a sexual group.20 been shamed. I felt like I was no The use of sexual insult was a statement that longer Kikuyu”.22 an event of major social disruption had occurred. For these, women war was a battle waged within Its use during the arrest of Harry Thuku domestic life as the British incarcerated and or highlights this fact. The women were disgusted forced into villages more than one million at the cowardliness of their menfolk‟s attitudes Kikuyu people. The aim of this villagisation was toward the colonial administration. By lifting not only to rupture Kikuyu rural society, but to their skirts, women seriously devalued the men create domesticated women, with a clean, tidy of the group, symbolically stating that their home life, and involvement in women‟s groups inaction had bought shame on the clan, its where they would build a new community, heritage and its very survival. More than that, based on rearing children and home care. There these men had lost their right to life. “Women was to be no re-establishment of the „pesky, shrug off their garments in an ultimate protest to rebellious‟ women who demanded respect from say “this is where life comes from. I hereby their menfolk, and protested outside government revoke your life.” offices demanding better wages or joining the Thus, by these actions the women questioned forest fighters or political groups agitating for the power of moral authority in all its aspects. political change. Kikuyu women would become From the colonial administration point of view, small time shamba farmers, no longer the events of these women reinforced their controlling the produce they grew or more opinion that women were dangerous, subversive importantly, enjoying the economic and political wanting to maintain the beliefs of the past and power that this farming brought. It was to be the hence hold back the development of their end of women‟s moral power, knowledge and its localities link to fertility. The construction of women as trouble makers The resistance of women to the European in episodes of blatant public resistance to the administration that ruled over different parts of colonial regime claimed for these women, at the the African continent, concentrated around the very least, a presence in the colonial record, and constructs and responsibilities of the marriage ultimately an image of these women as heroines, institution. fighters for women‟s rights and in the context of In most of the African countries including the Mau Mau period, fighters for an independent Kenya, it is realized that when the men folk state.21 This is a common construction of women went to work on the European farms and also in in the armies of many independence wars, towns, women performed all the duties that Zimbabwe, Eritrea, and Sri Lanka for example. concerned them and those of men. These In Elkins examination of the women who were dynamics provided a fertile ground for women imprisoned in „The Pipeline‟ during the Mau to venture into activities that concerned them Mau war, not only casts a valuable light on the more and which did not depend on men. injustices wrought against these women by the These experiences brought into sharp relief colonial administration, but gives voice to the the issue of what constituted marriage, the type of war these women fought. expectations that were associated with it and in “Everything was gone, my particular the complexity of women‟s status in mother my co wife. I lost our relation to that of men. Men needed their cows. They took my husband’s womenfolk to hold households and farms land. I had no shamba. Only two together whilst they dealt with the pressures of the colonial administration. Daughters, widows, and wives became the link between the past world of land entitlements based on marriage

21C. A.Presley (1998),Mau Mau’s Daughter. A life History. Wambui Waiyaki Otieno. Lynne Rienner. 22E.S.Odhiambo le J.Atieno & Lonsda,(2003), Mau London. Mau &Nationhood. James Currey. London. 9

alliances, and patronage, and the accepted and timed Omorumbasi and understandings of male status, lineage and clan speared him but never killed him”. stability. Conversely women condemned wage-earning Later on the Europeans reorganized themselves men as impotent because they were unable to and killed many Kisii‟s which Mama Sabina fulfil marital duties, and wasted household referred as the Gusii genocide26. With this regard resources on cigarettes and beer. 23 Churches therefore Moraa organized the Gusii people to offered a way out of this impotency, laziness and revolt against British rule. This left G.A.S marital strife by providing discipline, salvation Northcote, a British officer in Kenya wounded and god. Moreover, women and men who joined by one of Prophetess Moraa‟s troop. Later Christian churches found a degree of certainty to Moraa was captured by the Europeans and taken balance out the moral and social chaos caused to Kisimayu where possibly according to Mama by land loss, wage employment and the evils of Sabina her head was chopped off. During the urban life. Kisii revolt on the other hand a woman by the 5.2 The role played by selected women in the name Kemunto contributed immensely to struggle for independence in Kenya. fighting the Europeans. Kemunto was against Before engaging in comprehensive analysis on also land alienation, confiscation of livestock the position played by women in the struggle for and burning of Kisii‟s houses by the self governance this study first embarked on Europeans27. Kemunto raised an alarm whenever women personalities who contributed in the she saw the Europeans. freedom struggle. Between 1907-1908 the Abagusii led a uprising led by a Kisii Prophetess Uuuuui! Chiombe chiaito chiachire! named Moraa48. Moraa prophesied the coming Chitangere rogoro na moino! of the European rule, and warned that if Whites Omorumbasi oirire chiombe chiaito! were permitted to stay, they would colonise the Uuuuui! Chiombe chiaito chiachire emoraire Abagusii people. Moraa was an inciter among minto!52 the Kisii‟s and with this respect she incited the Translation Abagusii against the Omorumbasi (European)24. Uuuuui! Our cattle have been stolen! Moraa feared that the Europeans could take their Let us keep watch from all sides! land and confiscate their animals which were The Europeans have taken our cattle! their livelihood. According to Mama Sabina25 of Uuuuuui! Our cattle have been stolen, let us not Montine village she says, sleep!

“at one time Moraa told men The above song according to Mama Bosibori when they feared that, is it that we Salome is an example of Abagusii scream by don’t have men and if you have women whenever they saw the Europeans. The failed let us exchange clothes I above song gave the Gusii men encouragement wear men’s cloth and I give you and motivation and to be vigilant to the women’s, give me the spear also Europeans mischievous movements. It should and aloud she shouted. Mama also be remembered that it was Moraa who Sabina narrates still that Otenyo introduced “Enyamumbo cult” 28 which was the famous Gusii warrior was mistaken by the Europeans as a religious challenged and took up the spear movement and many Kisii‟s joined this cult.

26 O.I with Mzee Ogeto, Ruora Village-Kisii County 23D.Peterson, Wordy Women. 01/04/2014. 24 O.I with Mzee Keraita, Riabore-Nyamira County 27 O.I with Mama Nyanchama, Bomobea village-Kisii 11/04/2014. County 03/04/2014. 25 O.I with Mama Sabina, Montine village-Nyamira 28 O.I with Mzee Namu, Abagusii cultural welfare- County 01/04/2014. Keroka 04/04/2014. 10

During Enyamumbo the Kisii‟s congregated as decade of the 20th century, the demands of if they were praying but their aim was to confuse British rule had begun to clash with the model of the Europeans so that exchange ideas of the expansion and individual accumulation on which forceful occupation of the white man in their the nineteenth- century expansion had relied on. land. Mama Naom Nyanchama notes that, the The supply of slaves and runaway slaves from Kisii‟s had special women called „Chinting‟ana‟ the coast had withered after the obliteration of (Chief‟s women) and this also motivated them to slavery and slave trade. press on with the fight29. British administrators at the coastal region The Giriama were one of the most organized were more and more concerned over the state of and successful colonizing communities of 19th the coastal economy. Because of this scenario century East Africa. The Giriama settlement the coastal people sought to promote new spread during the nineteenth century to cover a plantation ventures, as well as supplying labor great area from a relatively small area around for the growing needs of Mombasa town. Proof the ritual center known as Kaya. This region taken for the Native Labor Commission in covers the hinterland of Mombasa and Malindi, (1912-13) identified the Giriama as an important crossing the Sabaki River in the 1890s. This potential source of waged labor. In October process of expansion was driven by a 1912 a new British official, Arthur Champion, conjuncture of conditions. This includes long- was appointed to improve the supply of labor standing tensions over resource control within from among the Giriama. Arthur did this partly the Giriama society. This was accentuated by the through the exercise of extralegal coercion and new opportunities for accumulation created by hounding, which was commonly used in early the rapidly expanding coastal economy and the colonial states to "encourage" labor recruitment. growing availability of servile labor, female, and It was also done through the collection of taxes, male. which would force young men to seek waged The growth which took place northward took work. Champion tried to work through elder the form of a steady establishment of new Giriama men but demands for tax and for young families by men. This sought to amass new men to go out to work struck directly at the dependents of their own, and to affirm a control pattern of accumulation on which these men over these dependents that could not be relied. challenged by others either their own kin, or the This made them to seek to acquire "gerontocracy" of other elders who claimed dependents, not to send them away to work for power through association with the kaya. The others. British restrictions on the ivory trade ambitious expansion northward of these pioneers were equally unwelcome. Champion found was encouraged through engagement with himself and his camp effectively boycotted by coastal society. Similarly, this was undergoing a the Giriama community.30 period of northward expansion, driven by the This embargo was encouraged by the growth of commerce with the hinterland in activities of a woman called Mekatilele among ivory, aromatics, and other products. The the Giriama. Mekatilili drew on an established growing regional demand for foodstuffs tradition of female prophecy to speak out against encouraged the opening up of new areas of the British and who encouraged many Giriama slave-based grain cultivation. men and women to swear oaths against cooper- During the early years of European rule in ation with the administration. This was a Kenya, this growth continued. This made the complex phenomenon, for it drew on an early administrators to strike an accommodation established accommodation between women‟s with the most successful accumulators of the prophecy and the power of kaya elders. It also Giriama society that served the very limited exploited tensions between old and young and needs of the early European rule. By the second

30M. P. K Sorrenson, (1968), Origins of European 29 O.I with Mama Nyabeta, Bogesisnsi village Settlement in Kenya Nairobi: Oxford University Nyamira County 04/04/2014. Press. 11

between kaya elders and the accumulators who no leaders with whom to deal and British policy pioneered the expansion to the north, as well as had largely eroded the power of elder men. on revolting to colonial rule. Soon Mekatilele Finally this campaign was called off in January was detained and sent up-country. Later 1915. There were no military fatalities. A mekatilili escaped and returned to the coastal continued armed police presence in the Giriama region but again she was rearrested and removed land and the threat of further military reprisals again. For the meantime, in retaliation for the ensured the clearance of the trans-Sabaki oaths and for some rather gentle displays of Giriama, the collection of a punitive fine, and antagonism, the colonial government first closed the recruitment of a contingent of Giriama the kaya in December 1913 and then burned and porters for the Second World War.32 dynamited it in August 1914. After returning to the area in 1919, Mekatilili British administrators were quick to and a group of elder men took up residence in understand Giriama resistance as motivated by the kaya. This continued to be a much-contested prophecy, oaths, and the power of the kaya. This source of ritual power, but the idealized probably reveals less about Giriama motivations gerontocracy of early nineteenth century society than it does about colonial perceptions of male was never reconstructed, and ritual and political household authority as essentially good and power among the Giriama has remained diffuse stable, and magical or prophetic power as to date. The trans-Sabaki was settled again in the fundamentally rebellious. In reality, the Giriama 1920s, but Giriama society never regained the resistance to European demands emanated from relative prosperity of the late nineteenth century the devastating impact of colonial they had. administations‟ policies and demands upon the Among the Agikuyu community there were authority of ambitious household heads.31 numerous women who aggressively or inactively The destruction of the kaya coincided with participated in the Mau Mau war. According the outbreak of World War I. The outbreak of Corfield,33 Kikuyu women joined the nationalist this war led to renewed efforts to recruit Giriama organizations to propmote their economic status men, this time round as porters for the European in the community. On the other hand, they armed forces. The Giriama resentment was wanted to gain admittance to the political further inflamed by European‟s plan to throw process, to assist the return of alienated land and out the Giriama who had settled north of the also to further their education. Muthoni wa Sabaki. This was to punish Africans for Gachie was a member of Kenya Central noncooperation and to deny them access of land Association and Kenya African Union in the and eventually force them into waged labor. In 1940s. Gachie also recounted women's motives an act of routine colonial brutality, one of as being political in origin. From the oral Champion‟s police, searching for young men, testimonies obtained, Muthoni wa Gachie joined raped a woman and but was himself killed by the Mau Mau in April 1945 so that she could Giriama in revenge. become a politician of the country. Jointly she British officials launched a punitive assault was with a group of women from the whole of on the Giriama, using two full companies of the Central Province, that is, many of them were King‟s African Rifles because of panic and fear already members even before she could join the of a Giriama rising. This made the British to find struggle. The basis for joining the struggle as she themselves in possession of an unusually notes was to make the Europeans kicked out of powerful coercive force. This counter attack led the country. As per the oral testimonies Wa to 150 Giriamas being killed, and hundreds of Gachies‟ position was to cook for the visitors. houses torched. The British officials found it had She also contributed for Mzee Kenyatta to go to bring the campaign to an end since there were to Europe to know how to become sovereign34.

32 C.BRANTLEY, „ MEKATILILI. 31 33 M. P. K Sorrenson, (1968), Origins of European C.BRANTLEY, „ MEKATILILI. Settlement in Kenya Nairobi: Oxford University 34 F.Corfield,(1960), The origins and growth of Mau Press. Mau: an Historical Survey, Nairobi: Kenya. 12

Wa Gachie was also taken to prison when the argues is yet to be addressed locally by the war started and in 1958 she was jailed three Kenyan Government or by the British times and in 1959 once at Athii River and then government to date. While they fought they later taken to Embu. risked their lives in the forest, another strategic Among the Kikuyu also there was Field war was taking place in the political arena. Marshal Muthoni who had an indisputable air of Political Parties were being formed to fight authority about her. Field Marshal rose up in for the rights of Kenya all the way to Lancaster ranks in the Mau Mau Movement because of her House. Their educated men were agitating for courage. With a lot of bitterness, Mau Mau the rights of the black man in the government, freedom fighter Muthoni Kirima brilliantly through constitutional ammendments. remembers all about the Mau Mau war like it Even if their approach was not violent, some happened yesterday35. of them were inspirational to the Mau Mau Muthoni narrates her time in the Mau Mau movement but they distanced themselves from movement; “My father worked for a settler. That other Mau Mau fighters after independence is where I was brought up. Once you lived with in1963.37 them, you had to fight. We felt it was better to Muthoni says after self-rule, freedom fighters die in the forest fighting them than to live freely gave up their arms and returned to their without our freedom. We wanted our land and villages. As they were in the forest fighting the our freedom but I have nothing to be proud of enemy, land consolidation had taken place in today,” says Muthoni. The Field Marshal recalls 1960 and that is how many of freedom fighters everything and how Dedan Kimathi died36. were left landless.38 Muthoni continues to say that the struggle for Another Mau Mau heroine Jane Muthoni freedom is like a competitive match. “We were Mara was born around 1939 at Nguguini in the the team; we played valiantly, sacrificially, Embu District, and is now 74 years old39. In against the opposing team. We sweated, 1954, when she was about 15 years old, Mara sacrificed our lives and families, but what do we was taken from her home, accused of being a have to show for it?” she poses. She adds: Mau Mau adherent and she was arrested. Mara “Nothing, the glory went to the other party, the was transported to Gatithi Screening Camp, and spectators and traitors, it is the children of Mau while there she was taken to a tent and Mau and other freedom fighters that are jobless. interrogated and interrogators compellingly They are the ones who live as squatters yet we inserted a glass bottle full of hot water into her are the ones who went to the forest.” genitals. This kind of torture was supervised by Muthoni remembers that during the Mau a white administrator and was administered to so Mau war, there was no hatred between black many other women. Mara knew of several Kenyans, not even with those that worked for women who were gravely injured as a result of the white settlers. This was due to lack of this abuse. Mara was then transferred from camp knowledge that they worked for the British and to camp where she was thoroughly beaten with supported them. She adds that even the sticks and whips and deprived of food and water. Europeans were not the enemies of the black Mara knew of so many people who died in the Africans by virtue of the difference in skin camps because of the abuse they received. colour but simply for taking away their rich Finally she was released in 1957. Jane narrates fertile land as well as introducing draconian and her torment in her own words in her witness oppressing laws to the Africans. Muthoni says statement, an extract of which is below: that freedom fighters were betrayed while they were in the forest. This was an injustice that she 37 O.I with Jane Wairimu, Gichagi-ni village Kiambu 20/03/2014. 35 O.I with Kairegi Wanjiru, Kairuria village-Runyenjes 38 O.I with Wangechi wa Mutaro, Mombo village 25/04/2014. Murang’a 21/03/2014. 36 O.I with Muthoni Wanjiru, Muthu-thi-ini village 39 O. withI Gitu wa Kahengeri, Nguguini- Embu Nyeri 28/04/2014. District 28/04/2014. 13

“Suddenly there were four guards hovering colonial government detained her and sent her to around me. I was then pinned down to the floor a detention camp at the coast. by one man when held my shoulders. "Two Among the Talai, a community which has other men held each arm and one man prised been forgotten for long had a woman freedom open and held my thighs apart. Edward was fighter by the name Taibagoi Bartiony. The sitting on a chair directly in front of my spread death of Margaret Tabaigoi Bartiony, passed legs and was pressing on my bare feet with his unnoticed. Her name may not ring a bell in the spiky army boots. "I was screaming and resisting ears of many Kenyans, but Tabaigoi‟s and trying to wriggle and free myself from the contribution to the defeat of the British men who were holding me down. Suddenly colonialists should earn her a place in the Edward produced a glass soda bottle. Waikanja country‟s Hall of Fame. Tabaigoi was the told him to push the bottle into my genitalia daughter-in-law of the legendary Nandi freedom which he did. I felt an agonizing pain and then fighter Koitalel arap Samoei who was a revered realised that the glass bottle contained very hot Orkoiyot (Seer) from the Talai community. water. "Edward literally forced the bottle into British enemy Tabaigoi was instrumental in me with the sole of his foot while Waikanja was holding together the Talai community as their looking on and directing him.” fathers and sons were sought after, detained and I was in so much pain and I could not stop killed by the British colonialists. 40 crying and screaming. I felt completely and Due to their divine powers as seers, the Talai completely violated by this sexual abuse. became enemy number one of the British who Despite all this horrible torture I continued to viewed them as a threat to their colonial insist that I had not taken an oath. "The ordeal administration60. Before they ventured into lasted for about 30 minutes and it was very Nandi, Koitalel saw in a pot a long snake painful. While I was in the tent, I saw this act spitting fire and smoke invading. His father being done to the other three women I with. I Kipnyolei Arap Turugat would later interpret it. had never seen anything so atrocious and His vision came true, only that it was the frightening in all my life like this one. British who invaded Nandi and built a railway with trains (snake) that helped them colonise the "The abuse has affected my whole area. Koitaleel and his brothers then launched a life and I relive the events I lived resistance that saw them leave home to fight the through on a regular basis. I do British although many ended up detained and not understand why I was treated killed. The women, like Tabaigoi, were left with such brutality for simply behind to fend for the families and this they did having provided food to the Mau with extraordinary strength and courage. Mau. I killed no one, I harmed no Tabaigoi‟s step son, David arapSaina, one, and all I wanted to do was to recalled how the late Tabaigoi would play hide help those who were fighting for and seek with the British colonialists who the dignity and freedom of our sought after boys and men from the Talai people. I want the British citizens community to annihilate them. “She would hide of today to know what their them because the British had appropriately forefathers did to me and to so branded them wizards and sorcerers to create many others. These crimes cannot more enemies against the Clan (Talai) including go unpunished and forgotten.” the host Nandi community,” he said. Saina recalls an incident when Tabaigoi was spiriting Virginia Wambui Otieno was a Gikuyu woman but married by S.M. Otieno, a prominent Luo lawyer. Wambui was arrested for her attachment in mobilizing the women's wing of the Mau 40M. P. K Sorrenson, (1968), Origins of European Mau's riots. Towards the end of the State of Settlement in Kenya Nairobi: Oxford University Emergency that took place in 1952, the British Press.

boys from the community into hiding when their identity and sought employment in British white settlers pounced on them demanding to families and the colonial Government so as to know whether the boys were from the Talai clan. spy on them. “She confidently told them off saying they “And when the men planned detention breaks, were Nandi and were on an excursion. However the women would help sneak in weapons on further prodding, the women who were with undetected to the detained Talai men,” he said. Tabaigoi got intimidated and gave them away Tabaigoi‟s granddaughter, Judy Koskei said her leading to their detention. The British then grandmother was widowed at an early age, but started a plan to separate the older generation stood firm and gallantly soldiered on, protecting of the Talai with the younger ones, detaching and catering for her children. “At one time after them to have the latter lose identity.’’… “They she was released from detention, she escaped took the young ones to Luo land to integrate further harassment and imprisonment with her them with the community there while leaving the family to Mt Elgon on the Uganda side,” she older generation in detention areas in Nandi,” explained. After Koitalel‟s death, life became Saina adds with a faraway look. George Samoei unbearable for his immediate family as the Kemboi, a grandson of Koitaleel arap Samoei, colonialists hunted them down. Tabaigoi would recalls his mother throwing him over to his aunt later find her way back to Kenya after the British after they ran into a roadblock. 41 “We were had forgotten about her and sought employment going to rejoin my father, Barsirian arap Manyei as a Prison Warden in 1952.She used proceeds who had escaped Nandi to go to Laikipia when from the job to educate our parents, especially we ran into the British along the way,” he said. the girls since the boys were either in detention Instinctively, his mother asked the aunt to or hiding with the men,” said Koskei. Tabaigoi quickly go through the check and catch the baby had nine children and through the great boy she would throw on the side of the vehicle injustices meted out to her by virtue of her being they were travelling in. The aunt caught Kemboi married to the Talai clan, four of them passed and secretly slid with him through the dragnet to on.42 return to Nandi as the rest proceeded to Laikipia. Below is the analysis of women detained in “Had I been discovered to be a Talai, worse still various camps during the Mau Mau war. from the Koitalel family, we would not be here sharing this story,” said Kemboi, 59. Kipchoge 30.000 Arap Chomu, Secretary of the Koitalel family in charge of Logistics and Research, said apart 25.000 from shielding the boy child like it was in the Bible during the birth of Jesus, the women also 20.000 acted as spies. 15.000 When men from the clan were arrested and hounded into detention camps, Chomu said it 10.000 was women like Tabaigoi who gathered intelligence on the British. “They were allowed 5.000 to visit their husbands and sons in detention and they would tell them what the British were 0 planning and doing out there,” he explained. 1 2 This helped the men plan how they would counter the white settlers. Chomu added that Figure: 5.1 some women from the community even faked Source: Researcher

41B.Rutto,(2009), Kenya‟s Talai; The end of a 42 B.Rutto,(2009), Kenya‟s Talai; The end of a dynasty. Pan-African voices, Kenya. dynasty. Pan-African voices, Kenya.

earnest in 1954, when they undertook a series of During the year 1954 Kamiti prison had women major economic, military and severe detainees and out of 2, 345, 1,335 were prisoners initiatives.43 and 1, 010 detainees a clear testimony of 44The second step had three main planks, a women‟s participation in the struggle for large military-sweep of Nairobi leading to the independence in Kenya. imprisonment of tens of thousands of the city's In 1955 out of the total 13,265 women suspected Mau Mau members and sympathizers. detained 1,714 were discharged and 11,467 were The inactions of major agrarian reform in Kenya sentenced during the Mau Mau war. (the Swynnerton Plan), and the institution of a immense villagisation programme for more than a million rural Kikuyus. These punitive measures were spread throughout the country women detainedFirst andoffenders where Africans showed resistance to the colonial masters. imprisoned at Kamiti The harshness of the British response to the 1 African resistance was overblown by two major 2% factors. 45First factor, the British in Kenya was, most likely the most openly racist one in the British empire, with the settlers' violent prejudice attended by an unbending determination to retain their grip on power and half-submerged fears that, as a tiny minority, they could be plagued by the indigenous population. Some Europeans felt that a good 2 sound programme of obligatory labour would do 98% impris more to raise the nigger in five years than all the oned millions that have been sunk in missionary efforts, Its representatives were so eager on hostile action that George Erskine referred to Figure: 5.2 them as "the White Mau Mau". Secondly, the Source: Researcher brutality of the Mau Mau attacks on civilians made it easy for the Mau Mau movement's Figure 5.2 indicates that during the state of opponents, even for African and stalwart emergency in Kenya 2% of the women were security troops, to adopt a dehumanized view of detained and 98% imprisoned hence an Mau Mau adherents. indication of women‟s active role during the 46 Indeed,a variety of influential techniques mau mau movement in Kenya. were initiated by the colonial government to European reaction against the freedom punish and break Mau Mau's support. The fighters in Kenya and more particularly the Mau colonial secretary of state by then Everline Mau insurgent, the European effort to defeat the Baring ordered for punitive communal labour, movement broadly came in two stages; the first stage, relatively limited in scope, came during 43 D.BRANCH, (2007), "The Enemy Within: Loyalists the period in which they had still failed to accept and the War Against Mau Mau in Kenya". The the seriousness of the revolts in Kenya, and the Journal of African History. 44 second came afterwards. In the first phase, the CARTER, M.,(1954),"The Kenya Land Commission British tried to behead the movement by Report". London: Government Printer. 45 declaring a State of Emergency before arresting CLOUGHM. S.(1998),Mau Mau Memoirs: History, 180 alleged Mau Mau freedom leaders and Memory and Politics. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner subjecting six of them to a show trial (the Publishers. Kapenguria Six). The second step began in 46Lovatt S. D.(2005),Kenya, the Kikuyu and Mau Mau. Mawenzi Books. 16

collective fines. Other collective punishments London. The trial itself was claimed to have and further confiscation of land and property featured a suborned lead defence-witness. There was put in place. By the beginning of 1954, were also other serious violations of the right to large heads of livestock had been taken, and a fair trial which led to the permission of African were allegedly never returned. Detailed political activity to resume at the end of the information of the policy of seizing cattle from military phase of the Emergency.50 Kenyans purpoted of supporting Mau Mau and The declaration of the state of Emergency led other rebel communities were finally released in hundreds of Mau Mau insurgents to run away to April 2012.47 the forests key among them women, where a On 20 October 1952, a state of emergency decentralized leadership had already begun was declared in Kenya by Governor Baring. setting up platoons. The main area of operation During the next day morning, Operation Jock of Mau Mau military strength was the Aberdares Scott was officially launched and the British and the forests around Mount Kenya. At the carried out a mass-arrest whereby 180 Mau Mau same time an inactive support-wing was fostered leaders within Nairobi. outside these areas. In four years, that is, The day after the capture, another well- between (1952–56) the British fighters defeated known stalwart chief, Nderi, was killed, and a Mau Mau fighters due to the better weapons chain of ghastly murders against settlers were they possessed and also using a more expansive committed by the Mau Mau fighters throughout version of coercion through exemplary force. In the months that followed. The random and May 1953, the decision was reached to send violent violent nature of British strategy during General George Erskine who was to oversee the the months after Jock Scott, served purely to restoration of order in Kenya. 51 estrange ordinary Kikuyu and drive many of the By September 1953, the British knew the irresolute mass into Mau Mau's arms. 48 leading personalities in Mau Mau after the arrest Three battalions of the King's African Rifles of General China in January the following year. were recalled from Uganda, Tanganyika and Erskine's arrival did not herald a significant Mauritius. This gave a boost to the brigade five change in strategy immediately, thus the battalions in Kenya a total of 3,000 African continual pressure on the gangs remained. But troops. To conciliate settler opinion and also to Erskine‟s created more mobile formations that reinforce European troops, one battalion of delivered what he termed special treatment to an British troops, from the Lancashire Fusiliers, area. After "special treatment" once gangs had was also flown in from Egypt to Nairobi on the been eliminated and driven away loyalist forces first day of Operation Jock Scott. 49 and police were then to take over the area Baring requested assistance from the Security immediately. Military support was only brought Service in November 1952. In the next year, the in thereafter to conduct any required pacification Service's A.M. MacDonald reorganized the operations. After this successful dispersion and Special Branch of the Kenya Police, to promote restraint, Erskine went after the Mau Mau forest collaboration with Special Branches in adjacent fighters' source of supplies, money and recruits. territories. This was also meant to oversee This took the form of Operation Anvil, which synchronization of all intelligence activity. Six commenced on 24 April 1954. of the most prominent detainees from Jock By 1954, Nairobi was regarded as the nerve Scott, including Kenyatta, were put on trial in centre of Mau Mau operations. Operation Anvil January 1953, this was done chiefly to defend was adetermined attempt to eliminate Mau the announcement of the Emergency to critics in Mau's presence within Nairobi once and for all.

47 50 W.ORMSBY-GORE,(1925), Report of the East Africa C.WALTON, (2013), Empire of Secrets: British Commission. London: Government Printer. Intelligence, the Cold War and the Twilight of 48 I.Henderson, Goodhart P.(1958),Man Hunt in Empire. London: HarperPress. Kenya. New York, NY: Doubleday and Company. 51c.Elkin, (2005), Imperial Reckoning: The Untold 49L.Oliver,(1962),The Memoirs of Lord Chandos. Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya. New York, NY: London: Bodley Head. Henry Holt and Company. 17

To carry out this operation, 25,000 British did not foresee the rehabilitation of the Mau security forces under the control of General Mau suspects through brute force and other ill- George Erskine were deployed as Nairobi was treatment. This is as per Askwith's final plan, completely sealed off and underwent a sector- submitted to Baring in October 1953. by-sector flush out. All Africans were taken to This programme was used as a blueprint for temporary barbed-wire enclosures, whereby winning the Mau Mau war using socio- those who were not Kikuyu, Embu or Meru were economic and civic reform. But generally what freed while those who were remained in developed, has been described as a British gulag. detention for screening.52 The Pipeline programme operated a white- Even as the operation itself was conducted by grey-black classification system which were the British, most alleged members of Mau Mau cooperative detainees, and were taken back to fighters were picked out of groups of the the reserves. The Greys were under oath but Kikuyu-Embu-Meru detainees by an African were sensibly submissive, and were moved informer. Male suspects were taken off for down the Pipeline to the camps in their local further interrogation, mainly at Langata districts before release. The blacks were the so- Screening Camp. Women and children were called hard core of Mau Mau. This group was readied for 'repatriation' to the reserves. moved up the Pipeline to a special detention Operation Anvil lasted for two weeks, after camps. Thus the position held by a detainee in which the capital had been cleared of all but the Pipeline was a clear-cut reflection of how certifiably loyal Kikuyu, 20,000 Mau Mau supportive the Pipeline personnel deemed her or suspects had been taken to Langata, and 30,000 him to be. Cooperation was itself defined in more had been deported to the reserves.53 terms of a detainee's readiness to confess their The colonial government showed its own Mau Mau oath. Detainees were screened and re- version of a gulag when the emergency first screened again for confessions and intelligence, started according to their argument. The Mau then re-classified accordingly. 55 Mau uprising would be dealt with completely in A detainee's movement across the two less than three months as per the colonial locations along the Pipeline could sometimes officials in Kenya and Britain. last several days. During this journey, there was When the transfer of Kikuyus to the reserves little or no food and water provided, and rarely began again in 1953, Sir Baring and Erskine any sanitation facilities. Once in camp they were ordered all Mau Mau suspects to be screened. in the camps, the freedom of speech was Out of the so many screening camps which were forbidden outside the detainees' accommodation put up, only fifteen were officially sanctioned by residence; though off the cuff communication the colonial authority. Bigger detention camps was widespread. Such kind of conversation were sub-divided into compounds. The settlers included misinformation and disinformation, staffed the screening centres who had been which went by such names as the Kinongo temporarily appointed by Baring. 54 Times, designed to encourage fellow detainees The European who was mandated oversee the not to give up hope this kind of communication crafting of the British Detention and was necessary. It also minimized the number of Rehabilitation programme during the summer those who confessed their oath and cooperated and autumn of 1953, Thomas Askwith, termed with camp officials. Forced labour was his system the Pipeline. Originally, the British performed by detainees on projects like the thirty-seven-mile-long South Yatta irrigation 52 R. B.EDGERTON,(1989),Mau Mau: An African furrow. Family outside and other considerations 56 Crucible. New York, NY: The Free Press. led many detainees to confess. 53 C.BRANTLEY, (1981), The Giriama and Colonial Resistance in Kenya, 1800–1920. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. 55R.Meinertzhagen,(1957),Kenya Diary, 1902–1906. 54 W. O.MALOBA,(1998),Mau Mau and Kenya: An London: Oliver and Boyd. 56 Analysis of a Peasant Revolt (revised ed.). B.LAPPING,(1989),End of Empire (revised ed.). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. London: Paladin. 18

The first year after Operation Anvil, colonial slit their throats", writes Elkins. The camp authorities had minimal success in compelling officials agreed that the preferred method of detainees to cooperate. Camps and compounds capital punishment was by public hanging.58 were overstretched, forced-labour systems were Even as the Pipeline became more not yet perfected, screening teams were not fully sophisticated, detainees still organized coordinated, and the use of torture was not yet themselves within it. They set up committees by systematized. This failure was due to the lack of selecting leaders for their camps, as well as enough manpower and resources, as well as the deciding on their own "rules to live by". large numbers of detainees. Officials could Possibly the most famous compound leader was barely process them all, not even getting them to Josiah Mwangi Kariuki. Punishments for confess their oaths. violating the "rules to live by" could be severe. Assessing the circumstances in the summer 59 Many of the imprisoned Mau Mau insurgent The christian missionaries and their African leaders confessed, and this led to the production counterparts played a crucial role by visiting of a very big number of spies and informers camps to spread christianity and encourage within the camps. Some of them switched sides compliance with the colonial authorities. They in a more open and official fashion. They left also assisted in providing intelligence, and detention behind to take an active role in sometimes assisting in interrogation. Detainees interrogations, even sometimes administering regarded such preachers with nothing but beatings. 57 disdain. Lack of clean environment in the camps The best example at hand of side-switching meant that diseases such as typhoid swept was Peter Muigai Kenyatta, Jomo Kenyatta's through the dwellers. Official medical son, who, after confessing, joined screeners at examination outlining the challenges of the Athi River Camp. He travelled throughout the camps and their recommendations were ignored. Pipeline to assist the British in interrogations. The conditions being endured by detainees in the The suspected spies within the camps were camps were also lied about and denied. A treated in the time-honoured Mau Mau fashion. European official in charge of rehabilitation in The preferred method of execution was Kenya found out in 1954 that detainees from strangulation then mutilation. As explained by Manyani were in shocking health, and many of one Mau Mau member later, they did not have them suffering from malnutrition. Camps like their own jails to hold informants so they would Langata and Gilgil were finally shut in April strangle them and then cut their tongue out. 1955. This was because, as the colonial Screeners were given a freer hand in administration put it, “they were unfit to hold interrogation by the end of 1955, and very harsh Kikuyu for medical epidemiological reasons.”60 conditions than straightforward confession were Pipeline camp was primarily designed for imposed on detainees before they were deemed adult males, a few thousand women and young cooperative and qualified for final release. girls were detained at an all-women camp at While oathing within the Pipeline was Kamiti, as well as a number of unaccompanied reduced significantly, many new initiates took the oath. Those who refused to take the oath often faced the same fate as a recalcitrant outside the camps, that is, they were murdered. 58T. Kanogo,(1987),Squatters and the Roots of Mau "The detainees would throttle them with their Mau, London. blankets or, using blades fashioned from the corrugated-iron roofs of some of the barracks to 59G. Kershaw,(1997), Mau Mau From Below, James Currey.

60C. A.Presley,(1986), "Kikuyu women in the Mau 57C. A.Presley, (1986), The Transformation of Mau Rebellion" in Gary Y. Okihiro, ed, In Kikuyu Women and their Nationalism, Ph.D thesis, Resistance: Studies in African, Caribbean, and Afro- Stanford University. American History, Amherst. 19

young children. As per the report dozens of resilience in revolutionary wars is beyond doubt, babies were born to women in captivity: "We for Kenyan women however, the resilience did really do need cloths for the children as it is not translate into gender equality and impossible to keep them clean and tidy while recognition in the social, economic and political dressed on dirty pieces of sacking and blanket", arena. The post-war status of women ex-fighters one colonial officer wrote. in Kenya is unfortunately determined by Specifically Wamumu Camp was set up for individual women‟s positions in that society. all the lone boys in the Pipeline, though This factor is crucial in defining the women‟s hundreds, of boys moved around the adult parts roles in the economy, in politics, and in decision of the Pipeline.61 making processes towards their emancipation. Another punitive measure against Mau Mau Women ex-combatants in Kenya have to fight adherents was the creation of works camps. harder for resources that some of their male Originally there existed two major types of work counterparts take for granted. For example, camps envisioned by Baring. The first camps women who fought in the war find access to were based in Kikuyu districts with a sole employment often limited not forgetting their rationale of achieving the Swynnerton Plan. The welfare by the government of the day and even second camps were disciplinary camps, meant compensation. While there is no doubt that for about 30,000 Mau Mau suspects who female freedom fighters have met with unjust assumed to be unfit to return to the reserves. treatment, the war has had deep-seated These labour camps provided a much labour that significance on their lives. Women who were was required by the Europeans to continue the politically active before the war became even colony's communications expansion. more militant during the war. Those who were The second sort of works camps as seen by not equally radical became involved in politics the colonial government was a way of ensuring in ways they would never have had in the that any admission was lawful and as a final absence of their war experiences. opportunity to extract intelligence. Probably the Therefore the feminist theory was ideal in worst works camp to have been sent to was the dealing with domestic patriarchy so as to equally one run out of Embakasi Prison, for Embakasi involve women socio-economic and political was responsible for the Embakasi Airport, the decision making in our society today. construction of which was demanded to be finished before the Emergency came to an end. 7.0 Conclusion The airport was a massive project with an Based on the findings of the study, the research unquenchable thirst for labour, and the time arrived at the following conclusions. First, pressures ensured the detainees' forced labour before the colonial period women were affected was especially hard. by patriarchal structures whereby they were not involved in major decision making in the 6.0 Summary society. Women during the pre-colonial period This study was an historical analysis of owned nothing, and they were only required to historical study of selected women‟s take care of children and tend to farms. involvement in nationalistic politics and struggle Secondly, during the colonial period like their for independence in Kenya, 1920-1963. From male counterparts, women were affected with the study, it was noted that women played a land alienation, tax, kipande system, forced crucial role in the liberation struggle in Kenya.90 labour and torture by the colonial government. This paper has argued that while women‟s Therefore it is worth noting that as men went out to look for employment after land alienation, women were left back and they equally experienced the wrath of the colonial 61C. A.Presley,(1986), The Transformation of Kikuyu government. Women and their Nationalism, Ph.D thesis, Stanford Thirdly, women played a key role in the University. struggle for freedom in Kenya like any other

part of the world. From this study it was realized Mara, Filed Marshal Muthoni and so many other that women in India, Zimbabwe, Guinnea Bissau forgotten heroines in Kenya. and Cape Verd, Angola and Nigeria played a Thirdly, this study will assist in removing very big role in political liberation of their gender prejudices which has negatively affected countries. The same case applies to Kenya women in the socio-economic and political where women from various communities fought decision making. It will also assist in further the colonial masters even when their male research on women discrimination in other counterparts showed cowardice like the case of spheres of life like that of religion where women Moraa and Field Muthoni. Women in Kenya are not recommended to guide summons in most acted as combatants and non-combatants, they churches in Kenya. acted as spies, suppliers of food, clothes and Lastly, this study will assist in erecting other essentials to the freedom fighters. Women monuments for women freedom fighters like also used insults like showing naked bodies and their male counter parts as a way of preserving even wanted to exchange clothes with their male our culture and identity. counterparts whenever they saw that they have pulled back. Women like Field Muthoni Reference participated in oath taking ceremonies so as to ADAMU, F (2006): “Women’s Struggle and the encourage their warriors. Politics of Difference in Nigeria”. Lastly, it was concluded that in counteracting Allman J.,(1996), „Rounding up Spinsters: to women‟s resistance in Kenya, the colonial Gender Chaos and Unmarried Women in government employed various strategies in Colonial suppressing the revolt. First the colonial Asante.‟ Journal of African History. government in 1952 declared a state of Oakley A.,(2011), “Feminism”, History emergency in dealing with the revolt in Kenya. Learning Site.co.uk. The Europeans also used military operations, Ardener S.,(1973), “Sexual Insult and Female Swynnerton Plan, Detention Programme, and Militancy.”Man. New Series, villagisation programme in dealing with women Azuike B.,(2003),“A Radical Feminist revolts. These programmes were aimed at Approach to the Works of Zaynab Alkali”. ensuring that women have been totally cut-off A PhD Thesis in the Department of from the male fighters. Women were seen as English. Faculty of Arts. University of inconsequential by the colonial government Jos. Nigeria, during the early years of colonialism. It was only Barrett, G. M., J. McLauglin and McVeaigh very late when the Europeans realized that M.,(2000),Kenya Churches Handbook. women played a very key role in assisting the BRANCHD.,(2007),The Enemy Within: Loyalists Mau Mau freedom fighters and other fighters and the War Against Mau Mau In from other communities. Kenya.The Journal of African History. Brantley C.,(1986), “Mekatalili and the role of 8.0 Recommendations women in Giriama resistance” in ed. D. From the above findings the following Brantley, C.,The Giriama and colonial resistance recommendations will be important in dealing in Kenya, 1800-1920. Berkeley: with gender inequity in the socio-economic and University of California Press, 1981. political discrimination. CARTERM., (1934),"The Kenya Land First, the government, civil society, and non- Commission Report". London: governmental organizations must work together Government Printer, with young women to overcome the political, Chogugudza P.,(2011), Gender and War. social and economic barriers to empowerment Claris G. K.,(2010),Women Participation in the faced by Kenyan women. Kenyan Society, CIPE; Nairobi. Secondly, this study will assist in Clayton A.,(1976),Counter-Insurgency in compensation claims like that of Jane Muthoni Kenya, 1952-60, Nairobi: TransAfrica Publishers.

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