Mau Mau: The brave women who fought in the trenches

Mukami Kimathi, the wife of freedom fighter, Dedan Kimathi Waciuri. [David Njaaga, Standard]

There is an African proverb that states: “Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”

Women have been known to have played important role in the struggle for independence, yet only men are praised for this noble venture.

According to Julius Gathogo, a professor of history, some women took up arms and joined men in the forest. Others smuggled food, weapons (that were mostly stolen from the homes of colonial masters) and gave vital information to the Mau Mau.

One of the women who played a key role in the struggle for independence is Muthoni wa Kirima, famously known as Field Marshal Muthoni. She also goes by the moniker Ng’ina wa thonjo- The Mother of the weaver bird, a name she says she was given by Dedan Kimathi while in the forest.

Prof Gathogo, a senior lecturer at Kenyatta University, says that Field Marshall Muthoni wa Kirima is a unique case in Mau Mau historiography.

“You know she is the only female Field Marshall, we talk of Field Marshal Mwariama in Meru, Field Marshal Kimathi and then we talk of Field Marshal Muthoni wa Kirima. She is the only surviving Mau Mau Field Marshal,” he says

Field Marshal Muthoni was born in 1931. Meeting her at her house in Nyeri, Muthoni is seated under an iron sheet shed that is used as a garage.

She greets us and spits on our hands as a sign of blessing practised by the Kikuyu. 

Muthoni leads us to another shed where her old Mercedes Benz is parked, the vehicle is covered with canvas, a sign that it has not been in use for a while.

“Kimathi gave me the rank of Field Marshal after he saw my prowess,” she says.

“You earned the rank on merit. You started from the bottom and earned every title. I was very fast and would quickly go to areas or crawl to places that most were scared of” she says.

Field Marshal Muthoni. [Ndungu Gachane, Standard]

Before joining the others in the forest Muthoni, who was a newlywed, married to General Mutungi, was an informer. 

“When Kimathi was in the forest I was his spy, so I disguised myself as a herder, I would take goats, cows and chicken close to the forest. But when the colonialists found out I had to escape. I left the cows, goats and chicken and ran, she adds.

She says that her parents did not mind her going to the forest, for they knew the reason was to liberate the country.

“I was in the forest from 1952 to 1963 those are 11 years but they felt like 22 years, I counted the days and nights separately…the nights were more scary. There were rainy and cold nights and it would be hard to get a comfortable place to sleep,” she adds.

While in the Forest, the Mau Mau risked being attacked by wild animals or the colonialists who had superior weapons. However, Muthoni says it reached a point where they co-existed with the animals.

“When you join the forest there‘s a unique smell you have because you are clean and you have been using soap but after a while in the forest you start smelling like the animals because there was no soap the only difference between us and the animals was that we had two legs and the animals had four,” she says

Muthoni adds that there are times that the animals would alert them when intruders were in the forest and they would hide.

“We would climb trees, and just watch as the colonialists and fellow Africans who supported them searched for us,” she adds with a chuckle.

She says they got a lot of support from the people who were not in the forest.

“During that time the people in the forest and the ones out were one, because we were fighting the same enemy. They would gather food for us and put it at the edges of the forest,” she adds.

Muthoni says that when they came from the forest, they camped at Ruringu Stadium in Nyeri hoping to be given the land they fought for. But all their hopes were shattered when nothing was delivered.

“We never had someone to defend us. Just empty promises all I have is what I have worked for and nothing from the government,” she adds

However, Muthoni says that she later approached President Jomo Kenyatta to get a licence for ivory trade before it was banned in 1978.

Field Marshal Muthoni (right) with her husband General Mutungi. [File, Standard]

“You see in the forest the elephants would die, sometimes we would even eat them and we would bury the ivory. So when I got the licence I went and exhumed them and started my business. Initially, I used the bus but I later bought a car,” she adds

Muthoni’s niece, Anne Gateru, is full of praise for her aunt, who she says has achieved a lot. She took a loan and bought a house in Pangani.

“She had a guest house in Hola and was also a distributor for East African Breweries. She was also among the first women in Kenya to have a driver’s licence, she owned a Land Rover. She was so independent that she could change the vehicle tires on her own,” she says

Muthoni says that the unity in the forest allowed them to live in harmony, there were no gender roles and there was utmost respect.

Mukami Kimathi, the wife of freedom fighter, Dedan Kimathi Waciuri, recalls life in the forest. In her Biography “Mau Mau Freedom Fighter”, Mukami says that in the forest it was deemed necessary to lay down rules on how to co-exist.

“Love sustained us in the forest, if we had food we shared it equally, if anyone was sick we cared for him or her,” she says

The first rule was that rape was punishable by death. The women walked around with absolutely no fear that fellow Mau Mau would rape them.

Mukami adds that before the British came he had never heard of rape. “In fact, there is no Kikuyu word for rape. We say Kunyitwo na hinya meaning to be held by force.”

However, Mukami says that the colonialists used rape as a form of punishment.

“… women lived with the knowledge that they could be raped any day and there was nothing they we could do about it.”

In the biography she adds that several children were conceived from rape and it was rare to find a man who on coming from prison did not find his wife with a child or children he did not sire.

There were no social mechanisms to counteract the stigma associated with rape, torture or any form of sexual violence.

“War rape was not discussed openly, so the stigma remained. When men began coming home from the prisons and found their wives with children, products of the colonial security agencies rape, nobody was on hand to advise them not to abandon them. The women in return were trying all they could to love these children,” she says.

There was no gender favouritism when it came to torture. Sexual assault was the biggest weapon used on women during torture.

Mukami was arrested and tortured when the colonialists got wind that she might be Dedan Kimathi’s wife. The torture was supposed to break her to the point that she would reveal the whereabouts of her husband. Mukami was pregnant at the time.

“I am telling you they tried everything on me but I had taken an oath. They would put me in a cell so small that I could not sit. They would interrogate me as I stood on swollen legs. Sometimes they interrogated me while I was unclothed,” she says.

British soldier (centre) with home guards tracking  Mau Mau fighters. [File, Standard]

Mukami adds that there were times they would take her to interrogation centres at night blindfolded with her baby on her back and they would soak her in a room full of water.

Apart from the women in the forest others would pretend to do their daily chores but would strategically place food, weapons, medicine and clothes in places where the Mau Mau would pick.

One of those women is Anna Wamuyu Kabubi, alias Cinda Reri. Her role was to work in white settlers home then she would smuggle guns for the Mau Mau, she perfected the smuggling art to an extent they ended up needing a railway wagon to transport the guns, hence the moniker “Cinda Reri.”

Other outstanding women were Njoki Waicere, whom together with other women tricked and stole guns from home guards in a camp where thousands of Mau Mau Fighters were detained.

Rebecca Njeri Kari was the leader of The women’s wing of Mau Mau while, Wambui Waiyaki who would later become Wambui Otieno had a network of women spies who gathered information for the freedom fighters.

During the struggle, a courageous woman by the name Muthoni Nyanjiru, together with other Africans stood outside Kingsway Police Station (now Central Police Station), demanding the release of Harry Thuku. An agitated Nyanjiru shouted at the men for failing to lead the protests.

She leapt to her feet, ran to the front of the crowd, lifted her dress over her head, and cried, “You take my dress and give me your trousers. You men are cowards. What are you waiting for? Our leader is in there. Let’s get him.”

The crowd surged forward and fire opened, hundreds of protesters died among them Nyanjiru.

Gilbert Mwangi, the author of Nobody’s Darling that was published this year, commemorating 100 years since the death of Muthoni Nyanjiru says that the society has played a big role in downplaying the role of women during the struggle for independence.

“In our African societies the men tend to be at the top. The role of women is quite underplayed in so many things. As much as the women played in the struggle the patriarchal structures that we have ensured that their roles were underplayed,” he said

A Giriama leader, Mnyazi wa Menza, famously known as Mekatilili Wa Menza, who her people against the colonial administrators.

Mekatilili was exiled to Kisii in Nyanza Province. However, history has it that she trekked over 1,000 kilometres back home to Giriama. She would later be arrested and sent to a prison in Kismayu, Somalia, where she escaped and returned home.

She died in 1924, and was buried in Bungale, in Magarini Constituency, Malindi District

In 1986, Margaret Wangui Gachihi submitted a thesis highlighting the role of women during the colonial period.

An excerpt in her research indicates in 1956 women were in the forefront to protest an order that was passed to inoculate all African cattle. When the inoculated cattle started dying women came together and burnt down 11 cattle bomas used as inoculation centres.