Fear and panic as Mau Mau faithful slay chief Nderi

BY JOSEPH KARIMI

KENYA: On Saturday October 26 this year, a group of people gathered at Karia Catholic Church in Nyeri County to remember a man murdered by Mau Mau on October 22, 1952.

And to family members including myself, Senior Chief Nderi Wango’mbe was a father, a husband, a grandfather and a hero.

The atmosphere was calm among the dozens who congregated at Nderi’s Memorial Chapel to commemorate him. Four Catholic priests —Gabriel Karanja, Elias Mutahi, Mathenga Mukundi and Bon Murage — conducted a Mass that that was wound up with a feast and speeches.

Stories have been told and retold about how and why Chief Nderi died. To understand why we celebrated this man, let us go back in time.

His death came only 14 days after that of Kiambu Senior Chief Waruhiu wa Kung’u who was killed by the Mau Mau, forcing Governor Sir Evelyn Baring to declare a State of Emergency on October 20.

Nderi’s death impacted adversely on members of his family, age-mates and his subjects in the Thegenge Location of North Tetu Division.

It paralysed activities in the entire Nyeri District, throwing his loyal subjects into mourning while the Mau Mau faithful rejoiced over ‘elimination of an enemy.’

Ripples of fear and shock swept across the Kikuyu community as the administration of Mau Mau spread, with recruitment of fighters underway. Those who refused to take the oath were harassed and killed.

Turncoats and pro-government spies were on the receiving end, usually smoked out for exposing Mau Mau followers.

Waruhiu was one of the most loyal servants of the British. The State of Emergency declared after his death was expected to last only three months but continued for eight years. The emergency was effectively imposed in Central Province and the Rift Valley where there was concentration of Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities who were behind the Mau Mau insurgence.

Armed with the new emergency powers, the colonial governor ordered immediate arrest and detention of 186 African political leaders, adherents of the Kenya African Union (KAU) including its Party Chairman Jomo Kenyatta.

 After declaring a State of Emergency, the Governor through his advisers appointed renowned archaeologist, Dr Louis Leakey as government adviser on the Mau Mau rebellion. Leakey recommended that suspected Mau Mau followers be forced to confess that they had taken the Mau Mau oath, and the institution of “counter-oaths” to cleanse those partakers.

Leakey teamed up with Dr JC Carother’s a psychiatrist at Mathari Mental Hospital in Nairobi. Carother had been commissioned by the government to study the psyche of the Kikuyu so as to shed light on the same matter.

Leakey, an expert on the Kikuyu tribe, had  described the Mau Mau movement as “atavistic,” claiming it did not have political origins or purpose: “It was some sort of misdirected cult; that those indoctrinated of necessity required rehabilitation and to undergo a Mau Mau oathcleansing ritual to return to their normal life.” Dr Carother’s report outlining the psychological turmoil that afflicted the Kikuyu, however, pointed at their lack of security.

“The truth of the matter, of course, is that Mau Mau is a mixture of various elements, a new impulse towards nationalism and political freedom which gave focus to the most ancient and primitive discontents. Spiritual unrest became discharged in racial, religious and economic fields.”

 However, the Mau Mau movement was angered by the colonial chiefs for setting up oath cleansing to cancel out the Mau Mau oath. The movement would not stand it and warned chiefs implementing Leakey’s measures that they were diluting Mau Mau.

 In mid-April, 1952, chiefs in Aguthi and Thegenge locations consulted their Athamaki (Elders) who recommended that a “Thenge Oath” be invoked to cleanse their people. This was dubbed “Mau Mau iringirwo Thenge” (initiation of a he-goat oath to cleanse Mau Mau oath-takers) and was in accordance with Kikuyu customs.

Silenced forever

Nderi’s murder that Wednesday afternoon down the Gura River bend elicited loud screams and yelling within the homestead of his 28 wives. Most of them had just come back home after completing their garden chores.

The yelling caused an abrupt rush with his sons and daughters flocking to the homestead to answer to the screams. 

That afternoon, we had just returned from Kiambura Out School. The screams became louder, reaching our homes that were within a kilometre radius. Our parents who were at home picked on anything ‘to attack the enemy’ and rushed towards Nderi’s homestead. I remember my father picked a tomahawk lying outside our house and run so fast. Later on, news of the chief’s death started filtering in. Tension simmered and our village was thrown into shock. 

Then came the funeral day on Friday, October 22 and to some of us as young as eight, it offered great entertainment; with scores of cars driving to the homestead carrying European senior government officers headed by the PC representing the Governor.

21 Gun-salute

Hospitals did not have mortuaries and bodies had to be disposed offwithin two days or so. Nderi was honoured with a 21 gun-salute.

The sequence of events had deteriorated from day one, with heavy presence of combined military and police forces combing Thegenge location to apprehend the killers of the chief.  This was followed by a punitive impounding of 3,755 herds of cattle and 6,095 sheep and goats within an eight-square mile radius of Karangia, Kiandu, Unjiru, Kianjogu and Kihora (the sub-locations with between 5,000 to 7,000 people where the murder had taken place).

It is said that Nderi must have had a premonition because a fortnight before he died he had held an impromptu get together with his family members. This was translated as a farewell meeting to his family, where he had accused some of his sons of collaborating with those demanding his head. He revealed threats on his life by Mau Mau who wanted to kill him. Engulfed with emotions, Nderi had told his family members that he had fulfilled his obligations to the best of his ability and was not a coward.

Little did the old man know that one of his sons, a carpenter had turned his house into a workshop manufacturing at least six home made guns for the fighters. He was later hanged for his contribution to the liberation war.

His son Joseph Wanjohi became second successor chief of Thegenge Location which Nderi ruled from 1902 at 16 years of age. One of his grandsons Munene Gitari served in the Mau Mau logistics section. Yet another grandson Tito Nderi was in first Mau Mau battalion to enter the forest at Rumuruti in 1952, under General Ndungu Gicheru.

 Nderi had inherited his father’s chieftainship at the age of 16. He was appointed chief in November 1902. Kikuyu clan elders had subjugated to the British rule at the meeting held at Mukurwe wa Thanju, near Tetu Boys, the main venue for such meetings bringing together all clan elders from the Nyeri Valley.