How President Uhuru Kenyatta transformed Uhuru Gardens from immorality den to a must-visit museum

President Uhuru Kenyatta, at Uhuru Gardens Museum during a media tour of the facility on July 25, 2022.[Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

President Uhuru Kenyatta has hailed the renovation of the Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi after decades of neglect.

Opening the refurbished grounds on Tuesday evening, the president said that the historic grounds identified by founding fathers as a site for Independence celebrations had been turned into a den of drug abuse and illicit sex.

He narrated how together with senior officers of the Kenya Defence Forces, they came up with the plan to renovate the grounds which now feature a museum. 

“When we got here, the officer manning the gate asked us how long we wanted stay,” he said of his first trip to Uhuru Gardens before its inauguration.

“We decided that this site, which our forefathers decided would be our Independence site, would host our history,” President Kenyatta said, adding that the place, where tens of thousands of Kenyans were held in a concentration camp by colonial authorities, had been soiled by immoral acts.

He described the grounds as the “custodian of Kenya’s historical and cultural artefacts which will help us celebrate our good, see our bad and remember our ugly acts.”

He said that the Uhuru Gardens Museum’s 16 galleries currently completed out of the planned 33 would be open to the public soon, calling for patience.

“It is going to take some time. There are many processes involved and we do not want to rush it. We want to ensure that we have captured everything,” he said.

Some of the things the president said he wanted to be captured were historical bits of all of Kenya’s ethnic communities which would help in understanding different cultures.

“It is a mix of all these things that makes us Kenyan,” the president said, adding that the museum and national monument set up at the 68-acre amenity would enhance how history is passed on to other generations.

Kenya Airforce missiles are on display at the Uhuru Gardens Museum.[Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

Chief of Defence Forces General Robert Kibochi said they want Kenyan artefacts, lost during colonisation returned.

 “We have to work with Parliament to establish a legal framework to bring them back,” he said.

Gen Kibochi said that the amenity would be open to the public at a cost that will be agreed upon through stakeholder engagement.

It is at Uhuru Gardens where the Union Jack was lowered and Kenya’s flag hoisted and the national anthem sang at a national function for the first time.

The location was declared a monument in 1997 and its logo captures the Mugumo tree which was planted by the first president on the spot where the national flag was hoisted and a shield which signifies unity and defence for freedom.