A tribute to Kenya’s forgotten war hero

African men gather around a fire for warmth during World War I in this undated photo. More than one million African soldiers, labourers and porters were vital actors in the war in Europe. [Imperial War Museum via AP]

Why should I distract you from Covid-19 to write about a man you have never heard about? Just wait.

Zachary Mburu Mwikonyi was buried on April 22, 2020 in Shamata, Nyandarua County. His national ID showed he was born in 1926. In an interview in 2017, he gave his date of birth as 1922. His eulogy gave the date as 1918. 

Mwikonyi lived a long and illustrious life, away from the prickly eyes of the public. He lived through ituika, the last secretive ceremony on leadership succession in central Kenya around 1928-30, the Great Depression, World War II and the Mau Mau uprising. If he was born in 1918, he lived through World War I and the Spanish flu.

He lived through King George V, Edward VIII, George VI, Queen Elizabeth II, Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta reigns.

He epitomised history and its injustices. Few Kenyans will ever get such an honour, such a blessing.

Mwikonyi was born in Ng’arua, Laikipia County. It is not clear what his parents were doing there; they were probably working for the British or Afrikaans who settled there after WWI, a reward for winning the war. The Afrikaans (Boers) were extending the great trek to Kenya. His parents came from Mang’u in Kiambu.

He moved to Embu in 1930 after returning to Kiambu - he said the British colonial administration forbade them from keeping more than five goats. Lots of central Kenya natives moved to Embu as the mzungu took away their land. Overcrowding, family feuds and fear of witchcraft made others leave their ancestral land. Some never returned even during the land consolidation of 1956-57.

Mwikonyi volunteered to fight for the British Empire in WWII in 1944. Conscription through chiefs was common, says Prof JH Kimura, whose father was a victim. Mwikonyi and others trained for three months at Ruiru and Tigoni, using .303 machine guns, he told us.

They left for Mombasa in February 1944. They were never told where they were going. One of his colleagues, Mahata, sneaked from Mombasa and never went to Burma. One of the ships in their convoy, SS Khedive Ismail, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine only seven days after leaving Mombasa, he remembers.

The ship that Mwikonyi sailed in had 1,297 on board, including 77 female service personnel. Mwikonyi could recall most of the female victims were nurses, which has been corroborated by independent sources.

Others ships after Khedive sailed to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and then Calcutta and Chittagong through West Pakistan (Bangladesh). They then got into Burma, crossing the Irrawaddy River to engage the Japanese who, he says, were good guerrilla fighters and knew how to hide in jungles. 

Mwikonyi’s pay was Sh45 per month and his service number was KML3.348, and he was one among many fighters from African countries (he confirmed that Dedan Kimathi was in Burma too). In all, about 600,000 Africans fought for the Empire.

My uncle saw action in the same faraway land, a discovery I only made after he was dead. Did they meet Lord Louis Mountbatten, the British supreme allied commander for South East Asia? Mountbatten was the last viceroy of India and was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army in 1979.

Mburu witnessed the end of WWII when atomic bombs were dropped.

“It rained that day and beer flowed while soldiers rolled themselves in mud,” he recalled. 

After the war, he came back through Bombay, India, to Mombasa. He says all the injured were thrown into the sea on the way home.

“Ever seen a disabled WWII veteran?” he asked me. From Mombasa, he took a train to Gilgil where they were demobilised after three months. He had the option of staying in service but refused.

Mwikonyi returned to Embu, and his military skills came in handy when the Mau Mau came. When I last visited, he  told me he could make a gun in 15 minutes. He explained how they used young girls to bait policemen and grab their guns. He saw action in the jungles of Mt Kenya just like in Burma, a few years earlier.

Oathing Mau Mau

He was arrested for oathing Mau Mau adherents and ended up in Manyani prison on Mackinnon Road, but later escaped with his 17 collegues. Only three made it to Nairobi, following the railway line; the rest died on the way. They bribed an Asian policeman with Sh20 to make their way to Nairobi railway station, hid in a goods train to Sagana and then to Embu and back to the forest.

After independence, Mwikonyi got land in Shamata (‘high’ in Maa language) under a million-acre settlement scheme. Shamata hugs the infamous Happy Valley.

He became a small-scale farmer. This area is part of the former White highlands. His piece of land was next to an airstrip used by Patrick Clark-Turner.

The war veteran died 75 years after the end of WWII and 57 years since the Union Jack was lowered. The highest-ranking official to grace his funeral was the local chief - the excuse being Covid-19. He died a forgotten hero. There were no gun salutes after all these wars.

It is a scene all too familiar; we are too obsessed with the living to bother with the men and women who came before us and made the way for us, often with their blood. We have no time to honour men and women who stood up against Hitler and other extremists in the world wars.

The contribution of Kenyans to great wars has never been fully acknowledged in our curriculum and honours’ lists. Our historians think a story on BBI would be better than one of an unknown Kenyan warrior. Compare the publicity around Ken Walibora and Mwikonyi, both buried the same day.

Lost records

Why was Mwikonyi not buried at the heroes’ corner? What else could he have done to become a hero? Sadly, during Mau Mau, Mburu lost his records, medals, paybook and military uniform, which made it impossible to get a pension. He also missed out on the latest Mau Mau compensation.

When shall we realise that heroes are not made in movies but in reality when duty calls? I am honoured to have met this hero and recorded his story. We hope he will inspire the next generation to rise above pettiness and make this world a better home for all of us. 

The writer is an associate professor at the University of Nairobi