This is an early 1900s pic of Agîkûyû women from Fort Hall as Murang’a was known as in those days.
When the WW1 broke out, the colonial administration in Fort Hall, which is today Murang’a town, issued orders to help get people to join the military.
The instructions given were that some groups of people were to be exempted from the recruitment, nay, conscription: 1 - locals who worked at Christian missions, and, 2, farm labourers working in settler farms, and many of whom worked in or around Thika and Sagana.
In the second half the 1970s, Mzee’s health began to deteriorate.
Thus the matter of his succession took centre stage.
There emerged a group of powerful individuals who, opposed to Vice President Daniel arap Moi taking over the reins of leadership from President Jomo Kenyatta, called on the Constitution to be amended.
The media referred to the clamour by this group, which comprised of powerful leaders from Kiambu, as the Change-The-Constitution movement.
This first pic is of a view taken from high up in the Taita Hills.
In the late 19th century, Mekatilili’s Giriama were not the only community from present-day Coast province that rose against imposition of white rule by gun-toting Europeans. The Taita of Mwanda, too, did.
At that time, the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) was the vessel through which Britain asserted its dominion over what would later become Kenya.
Kenya’s politics often have revolved around alliances and personalities.
In the late 1970s, when it was felt that President Jomo Kenyatta was aging and would leave the scene anytime, there were Kieleweke and Tangatanga movements.
Well, sort of.
There was a “Change The Constitution” faction whose leaders were powerful members of both KANU, the ruling party, and GEMA - the central Kenya tribal alliance that was the Gîkûyû, Embu and Meru Association.
In 1963, after more than a decade’s episode of violent struggle for freedom, Kenya attained her independence.
Then in 1991, roughly 28 years later, Kenya momentarily lost her independence.
Technically, somewhat.
The circumstances in 1991 and those of today were similar. The one thing Kenya didn’t suffer from in the 1990s was the effects of a worldwide pandemic. Otherwise, history is repeating itself.
Interestingly, 2020 is 29 years after 1991. And Kenya, the growing cacophony of “BBI” and “referendum” notwithstanding, is again about to lose her independence.