Case seeks to revisit Kenyatta's repression of ex-Mau Mau fighters

A class court battle seeking to revisit the atrocities caused by Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta’s government, against Mau Mau fighters has landed in court.

In a case filed before High Court Judge Chacha Mwita, 30 men who state they were a part of the fighters who fought for Kenya’s independence argue that Kenyatta labelled them as terrorists, then unleashed the police against them.

Those in court are Joseph Mwenda, Joel Kireru, M’kaumbuthu M’Imaria, Bernard Mugambi, Lydia Nkirina, George M’Ikaria, Stanley Ingingi, Julius Katheru, Janet Ntundu, William Kialikia, and Karimi Samson.

Others are Gaiti Ayubu, M,Nabea M’Minyori,  General Mburiria, Jusuf Muceke, M’Rimbitu M’Rikutha, M’Mubuika M’Thiringi, M’Kanampiu M’Eria,  Isaya Mbatia, Amboricina Kamoni, M’Biri M’Ethari,  Samson M’Athiru, Igoki Muriga, Mwokithaka Kariunge, Nderi Murira, M’Thuranira M’Boroki and Kimathi Mutunga.

They want the court to allow them advertise the case in any local newspaper inviting ex-Mau Mau fighters and their families to join the case against Attorney General  and the Kenya National Human Rights and Equality Commission (KNHQRC).

“Petitioners have brought this petition on their behalf, and behalf of the victims petitioning herein, and in the public interest of other victims and relatives of other victims of murder, torture, brutality, arbitrary arrest, incarceration, and property deprivation committed by the Jomo Kenyatta regime and the subsequent regime governments against ex-Mau Mau fighters,” court papers filed by their lawyer Tom Macharia read in part.

Mwenda, 90 years, told the court that he was Field Marshall Mwariama during the Mau Mau uprising.

He told the court that when Kenyatta was released in 1961, he immediately declared that no land would be given for free. “ It shocked many landless Mau Mau who expected that his government would address the land question amicably,” said Mwenda, adding that between 1961 and 1965, the Kenya African Nationalist government continued repressing the remaining Mau Mau fighters who were then in Meru District.

Mwenda said that Kenyatta’s government killed and brutalized ex-Mau Mau fighters despite them laying down their weapons and not being a threat to the newly formed government.

“ The repression of Mau Mau and the consequent silencing of their history was the outcome of a cautiously orchestrated policy by Jomo Kenyatta's government targeting the remaining Mau Mau leaders to silence Mau Mau's land claims and destabilize the movement,” claimed Mwenda.

He argued that all those who suffered in the hands of the indigenous government were meant to be silenced, not to demand land.

“Countless innocent peasants and workers were slaughtered in the name of "law and order.” The petitioners and the class of persons they represent were murdered, tortured, threatened, jailed, and deprived of their property arbitrarily by the Jomo Kenyatta regime,” he continued.

 In the case, the court was told that Field Marshal Mwariama was arrested for charges that included holding unlawful meeting and obstructing the police.

This is after nearly 2000 fighters who visited him at his Lubwathira camp. According to his aide, two of the visitors, a Mbuthia Thairu and Kahonokia were requested to address the others, but a police officer allegedly tried to stop them.

He said that Mwariama was slapped with five years but was released after a 21-day hunger strike at Kamiti.

The other was General Baimungi Marete.

Mwenda narrated that his push for land redistribution did not go well with Kenyatta. According to him, Kenyatta ordered his elimination by the force, which had both indigenous Kenyans and whites. He said there was intensive bombing of parts of Kirinyaga.

Thereafter, he said, his property, including a vehicle and a piece of land, was sold by the government.

The other victim of Kenyatta’s administration was General Chui. According to the court record, Kenyatta’s government paraded his dead body for three days alongside General Baimungi, and M’Kiugu.

“Njoroge Mungai, the Minister of Defence, explained with blunt vocabulary reminiscent of earlier anti-Mau Mau propaganda that all the forest outlaws were warned earlier that "stern action" was planned on outlaws who ignored the Jamhuri amnesty offered by President Kenyatta,” said Mwenda.

He said that Kenya’s first president took credit for the deaths of the trio.

Mwenda asserted that despite the atrocities being documented, no subsequent presidents, after Kenyatta, have ordered investigations and compensation of the ex-Mau Mau fighters and their families.