Why horses never cease to fascinate me despite newer innovations

Anti-riot police on horses pursued anti-government protesters along Muindi Mbingu Avenue, Nairobi on June 25, 2024. [Collins Kweyu, Standard]

By the time I was going to school, horses had vanished from the countryside. There were plenty during the colonial period. They epitomised the British traditions.

Without good roads, they were an efficient means of transport. Curiously, Schumpeter’s gale of creative destruction has failed to 'kill' horses, the same way mobile phones killed pagers. Any Generation Z (Gen Z) who has seen a pager?

After Uhuru (independence), we found horses in movies and the Jockey Club of Kenya. A few can be found in Upper Kabete, for veterinary or equine research.

That symbol of the gentry can be found in the few bastions of wazungu who remained in Kenya - Karen and other high-end suburbs. My visit to Karen and other leafy suburbs suggests they will join the list of endangered species.

The horse became a symbol of affluence after uhuru. How many of your friends own horses?

I have noted the population of donkeys has gone up. In my village, only one Mzee owned a donkey and I had the privilege of carrying some load of maize with it. They are now plenty. They could be more were it not for motorbikes.

When I talk to men who worked for mzungu, they talk with lots of pride if they rode a horse, more like driving a car today.

There is one more place where the horse thrives, the National Police Service. Horses only come out when there is a crisis, like riots. It’s their ability to get into narrow alleys that probably keeps them in the police service, just like dogs. 

Interestingly, the affluent and the police have kept the horse.  It remains a symbol of power.

For the police, the power to subdue you. For the affluent to control the economy, politics or political power by extension. What does the donkey symbolize? Hustling?

Despite nuclear bombs, guns and drones, horses have persisted in the theatre of violence. Cars, planes, rail and ships have advanced in technology; but the horse has remained a link to our glorious and not-so-innocent past.

There was a time when cavalry determined who would win or lose a war. Remember Alexander the Great?

Maybe, muscle power from horses reminds us of our own vulnerability despite all the technology. Don’t we keep pets too as we become more affluent, another reminder of our vulnerability? What animals are kept by hustlers?