Thread by @HistoryKE

#HistoryKeThread: Samuel Muindi Mbingu Wasn’t A Road

Towards the end of 1937, the Ukamba Members Association (UMA) was formed to fight for land rights of the Akamba.

Its founders, who included Samuel Muindi Mbingu, Elijah Kavula, Isaac Mwalonzi and Simon Kioko, hailed from Ngelani, Mitaboni and Matungulu areas of greater Ukambani. They had received local education and served as civil servants in the colonial government.

Early in 1938, the Kikuyu Central Association introduced their Asian lawyer, Madan, to UMA so he could help present the Akamba's land grievances to the colonial authorities.

The government had just imposed a livestock destocking policy that proved unpopular with the locals. Rapid soil erosion, the colonial authorities argued, had taken place owing to overstocking of livestock.

The Akamba were therefore forced to reduce their livestock, besides being required to dig terraces on their shambas.

But rather than compensate the locals, the colonial government descended on villages in Ukambani and forcefully drove the livestock away.

Mass protests and a state of rebelliousness ensued. Samuel Muindi Mbingu was the main mastermind of these. The Akamba were particularly enraged to learn that the confiscated livestock were being slaughtered at Athi River by a European company called Leibig.

In September of 1938, Muindi Mbingu was arrested and deported to Lamu. Owing to the agitation that he had started, the colonial government was eventually forced to stop the destocking policy in December 1938.

By that time, UMA had already sent a memorandum to Mzee Kenyatta, who was in the UK, to help present their grievances to the British.

Muindi Mbingu was eventually released in 1952, the year when a state of emergency was declared.

Some unverified accounts have it that after his release, he became too cosy with the colonial government and, in particular, the local European DC, something that angered his people. This led to Muindi Mbingu's brutal murder in 1953.