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H i s t o r yK E

@HistoryKE

Jan 1, 2018 • 17 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X

1/ #HistoryKeThread: This is a photo of #MauMau Gen. China aka Warûhiû Itote (below) being escorted to court after his capture by colonialists.

2/ Moments earlier, he had been receiving medical treatment. During the operation that led to his capture, Warûhiû was shot and suffered bullet wounds in the neck.

3/ Born in 1921, Gen. China served in Burma during WWII and was retired as a corporal. When the emergency was declared in Kenya, Gen. China retreated to the forests of mount Kenya.

4/ In the early years of the Mau Mau wars, Warûhiû was assigned the 'rank' of General after convincing the Mau Mau War Council that he had 8,000 men. They didn't quite believe him but gave him the rank anyway.

5/ Warûhiû, whose men were referred to as the 'hîka hîka' (rush, rush) battalion, was a great student of the action in WWII.

6/ On the fringes of the forests, he created mock camps to delude the enemy. Even around the mock camps, he set up booby traps to ensnare colonial troops or homeguards. He then set up real camps deeper in the forests and created codes and signals to distinguish his men from...

7/ ...the enemy.

8/ For example, if his men came across a stranger, they would greet him with a coded salutation - "itimû" (spear). The stranger was then expected to reply by saying "ngo" (shield), otherwise he would be treated as a spy, or enemy.

9/ General China was also famous among the top ranks of the Mau Mau for the clever use of girls in combat.

10/ In one Embu incident described by the man who would after independence be part of the formation of National Youth Service (NYS), four of his girls helped disarm a KAR NCO of a Bren gun.

11/ After a village swoop by the KAR troops at a village in Embu, one of them was attracted to a pretty girl smiling teasingly at him. The latter's girlfriends lurked in a thicket nearby, monitoring proceedings.

12/ Flattered by her interest, the soldier suggested that they move to a more secluded spot. The girl agreed, to his obvious delight, and led him to a nearby banana grove. Then the girl quickly threw herself to the ground seductively.

13/ As the soldier made as if to join her for an embrace, the three girls violently grabbed him from behind. The temptress girl grabbed the Bren gun and made away with it as the three other girls quickly choked the soldier with a piece of stick, his hands tied behind him.

14/ When Gen. China was arrested in January 1954, lawyer A. R. Kapila (pictured) stepped forward to represent him. Itote was sentenced to hang but following a deal he subsequently struck with the colonial officers, he was spared in return for his commitment to act as a...

15/ ...go-between in negotiating surrender with the Mau Mau (a role that was unthinkable as the freedom fighters would have killed him rightaway).

16/ Upon independence, Gen. China was among the first crop of officers of the National Youth Service trained in Israel. He retired into farming and died in 1993.

17/ In the photo below, former President Kibaki addresses mourners at the Mau Mau man’s funeral.

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H i s t o r yK E

@HistoryKE

Oct 3, 2018

#RIPJosephKamaru: The curtain falls on the life of legendary Gîkûyû benga musician Joseph Kamaru, following a long illness.

This is the man whose debut 1969 hit track, Darling ya Mwarîmû (teacher’s darling), caused a storm in parliament and in the national teachers’ union, who threatened to go on strike.

It took Mzee Kenyatta’s intercession to put the storm to rest.

He composed hundreds of gîkûyû songs throughout his lifetime. In 1989, he released the track Safari ya Japan shortly after his return from the Asian country, where he had accompanied Kamaru retired President Moi on a state visit.

Read 4 tweets

H i s t o r yK E

@HistoryKE

Oct 2, 2018

#HistoryKeThread: Seen here conferring with then President Moi, Mr. Burudi Nabwera is a former diplomat, MP, Asst. Minister and later not only Secretary General of KANU in its heydays, but also a Minister for State.

Last year, the alumnus of Makerere University released his biography, ‘How It Happened’, a book that should be a good read for anyone interested in the politics of Kenya during the single-party era.

On 7th of October 1990, Mr. Nabwera caused a stir when he announced that the government would not prosecute anyone for the murder of former minister Robert Ouko. The report by Scotland Yard’s detective John Troon, Nabwera argued, had not named any killers.

Read 4 tweets

H i s t o r yK E

@HistoryKE

Sep 25, 2018

#HistoryKeThread An American’s Observation Of Life Among The Agîkûyû

——-

Published in San Francisco, United States, Western Field was an American west coast monthly sports hunter magazine.

The magazine featured stories about the hunting exploits of various American hunters both at home and overseas.

One such adventurer was Elmer Davies, who spent some time among the Wakamba, Wataveta and the Agîkûyû in the period until sometime in early 1904.

Read 24 tweets

H i s t o r yK E

@HistoryKE

Sep 21, 2018

#HistoryKeThread: The Wadavida (Taita) Of Yore

In 1890, author Thomas Stevens authored the book, Scouting for Stanley.

The book is an account of the time Thomas spent in East Africa, where he had been sent to join in the search for legendary explorer Henry Morton Stanley.

In April of 1898, he camped at Ndara Hill among the Wataita. Here, a Rev. Wray of the Church Mission Society strived to teach the Wataita with much difficulty about the gospel of Christ. Perhaps this difficulty is what led Rev. Wray to dabble in farming.

Read 11 tweets

H i s t o r yK E

@HistoryKE

Sep 17, 2018

#HistoryKeThread: When Colonial Officials Adopted Locals As Mistresses

Hell hath no fury like a randy colonial officer stationed miles away from conjugal comfort.

In the early colonial years, the Governors' subordinates were initially men taken over from Imperial British EA Company (IBEAC). Later on, a professional class of colonial civil servants was recruited to take up the many administrative positions opening up in the colony.

Many of the officers had hardly gone beyond the age of 30.

As such, they invariably found themselves sexually starved and lonely. That is, if they didn't have African mistresses.

Read 19 tweets

H i s t o r yK E

@HistoryKE

Sep 3, 2018

#HistoryKeThread

Krapf’s Tough Crusade

In July, 1846, pioneering missionary Ludwig Krapf struggled to attend to his ailing, bed-ridden wife.

Krapf had suffered a debilitating fever and so had his wife, Mrs. Dietrich Krapf, who was in a worse state....

She had days earlier given birth to a baby girl at their budding Rabai mission.

Hours to her death, she asked Krapf to bury her right there at Rabai, saying she needed her remains to "constantly remind the passersby of the great object which...

...had brought the servants of the church of Christ to their country...."

Krapf would much later write that his wife "wished to be preaching to them by the lonely spot which encloses her earthly remains."

Read 16 tweets

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