Njonjo Kihuria
7 April 2011
the Star
When the British colonialists left, they made bonfires of most of the incriminating material in detention camps and prisons, but some like the 'pits of death' in Narok still exist and are vivid reminders of the heinous brutality perpetrated against the Kenyan people. In these deep pits, detainees used to be brutally murdered and buried en masse.
Recently, thousands of exasperated Mau Mau freedom fighters demonstrated outside the British High Commission in Nairobi seeking word on compensation for victims of the atrocities perpetrated by the former colonial masters during the state of emergency in the 1950s.
In a period of about ten years, the British officers, soldiers and their African collaborators savagely abused those in detention camps, controlled villages and prisons through a culture of beatings, starvation, killings and other forms of grotesque torture.
Unfortunately when the British left, they made bonfires of most of the incriminating material in detention camps and prisons, but some like the 'pits of death' in Narok still exist and are vivid reminders of the heinous brutality perpetrated by the colonial government against the Kenyan people.
While seeking compensation for those unlawfully killed, tortured, imprisoned and subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment by the British, the Narok Mau Mau War Veterans Association is also in the process of preserving the sites on which these atrocities were committed.
“Apart from seeking compensation from the British, we are also identifying the sites where people were unlawfully detained, tortured and killed and/or buried in mass graves, and seeking to have them gazetted as national monuments and/or shrines”, association secretary Charles Ngare told the Star in a recent interview.
As an alternative, the association’s officials say, these sites should be used for the benefit of the veterans and their offspring.
“We want Jela Ndogo within Narok town, with all the buildings and other structures within it, preserved in memory of those who were tortured, killed and buried there during the struggle,” added Ngare.
The association noted that some of the deep pits where detainees used to be dropped to their death on concrete bases and others where they were brutally murdered and buried en masse exist to date and they would also like these preserved as national monuments.
Unfortunately, they claim, a church has been built over two such sites and the association would like this brought down and the grounds preserved.
“While this particular site could easily become a tourist attraction if properly marketed, we could also use it as an office as we do not have one and we are at times forced to hold meetings in the open or borrow venues in noisy bars,” lamented association treasurer Joseph ole Larus.
However, the association is yet to convince the government to preserve the site and so far nobody has come along to assist in setting up offices for them or in marketing the site for tourism purposes.
Similar torture, killings and cruel deaths as those witnessed at Jela Ndogo during the emergency also took place at a camp known as Entara, some 11 kilometres away from Narok town along the Mara River.
And although it is evident that the British tried to destroy the evidence of these torture chambers when they left, traces of the same are still visible though most of the evidence is being erased by intensive farming that is going on along the river.
In a recent visit, the Star saw similar death pits as those at the Jela Ndogo though some are now being covered by the farmers. There are also the remnants of the camp's strong perimeter fence, other ruins including those of houses and slabs for pit latrines and even those of vehicle inspection units.
In fact, one of the farmers we found on the campsite during the visit claimed that recently a group of white men on one or the other mission excavated a whole Land Rover laden with all sorts of military gear from the ground at one of the corners of the camp.
We were unable to establish the authenticity of this claim, but to date evidence of the camp and its torture machine exist and this could form the basis for its preservation.
Some of the survivors of the two detention camps have very clear and vivid memories of what happened there though in some instances clarity has faded with years; in their narration one could sense some mix up in dates and years.
Born in 1936, Joseph Sironka ole Ketikai played the role of 'piki piki' (gun runner for the Mau Mau) in the early 1950s.
He ferried stolen British and homemade guns and clothing - especially armed forces uniforms - from Narok to Elementaita and Nyandarua. These uniforms were later used by the Mau Mau to raid police stations, prisons and camps.
He remembers that before 1952, there was a small prison at the site where petty offenders were jailed and hence the name Jela Ndogo. It also held the police line.
“The detention camp at the prison started being built in 1952 and it was brought to the prison site because on the only side where prisoners could attempt escape, there was a deep, rugged depression. The Johnnies would watch from higher ground for possible breakout attempts and I remember how four men were shot dead by them as they tried to escape through that route,” he narrated to the Star.
He remembers those killed on that day as one Njuguna, Kangoro and a woman called Gaciku who was helping herself when the Johnnies opened fire.
Ole Ketikai recalled how an “especially brutal” force of African administration policemen were put on standby to murder whoever the Johnnies wanted done away with, while the homeguards were placed strategically to ward off attacks from the Mau Mau.
According to him, directly under the pulpit of the church that stands on the former Jela Ndogo grounds is the ten-foot diameter deep hole where those murdered by the British and their collaborators were buried.
The other space taken by the church formed the screening area where brutal interrogation took place. “Some of the methods the Johnnies used to torture their victims included exposing men's private parts to safari ants and inserting the painfully burning 'thabai' leaves into women”.
Those who confessed to having taken the oath were taken to far-flung detention centres while those who did not were held until two huge pits that were being dug at the site were completed. “In one of the pits, the men would be buried alive head down in the mass grave, while the women were buried in the other”.
Ole Ketikai says where some semi-permanent buildings stand today near the church was the hole that was used for burying children and “when the pits were almost full and to stop them from attracting too much attention from outside, the plot on the other side of the church was turned into a cemetery.
“But the people were buried barely two feet deep and their bodies would be dug out and eaten by hyenas to the amusement of the Johnnies who hilariously took pictures of the macabre goings-on”.
He remembers a camp teeming with the walking-dead; people who were dying in their numbers of diseases caused by the congestion, starvation and neglect. They mostly died of typhoid, pneumonia and malaria, with children and pregnant women suffering most and dying in larger numbers.
“It appeared as if the British were deliberately perpetuating the terribly unhygienic conditions so that people could suffer. They actually encouraged the detainees to confess to having taken the Mau Mau oath so that 'the deaths could stop'. They told us that if we confessed they would bring in doctors to treat us”.
When the congestion became unbearable even for the cruel British Johnnies, some detainees were relocated to Entara, a camp in the wild surrounded by wild animals and poisonous snakes.
“The idea was to take the prisoners to a place where they could not escape for if they tried to, they would be devoured by the wild animals. In fact in the initial stages, the perimetre fence in that camp was made up of the wild animals”.
Screening at Entara was done under the supervision of a short white soldier nicknamed 'Karukuma', who also supervised the digging of two pits for burying those killed by the authorities or by disease. Ole Ketikai also remembers a British nurse by the nickname 'Gacucu' as the one who treated prisoners at the camp.
Eighty four-year-old Loise Kinga was arrested in 1952 as she walked from Melili to the hospital in Narok to take food to her husband's brother. The homeguards suspected her of having taken the Mau Mau 'batoni' oath and they beat her senseless as they tried to extract a confession from her.
At some stage the Johnnies were brought in to do the unspeakable to her but she pinched the child she was carrying on her back and it cried uncontrollably. With her life dependent on it, she resisted the efforts of the homeguards who were struggling to wrench the baby from her back.
She was later taken to Entara which by this time was highly guarded with four barriers already put in place. She recalls Gacucu treating the wounds on her back and being saved by a Maasai man she only remembers as Mururunkei who was their interpreter who declared that he knew her and swore she had not taken the Mau Mau oath.
All she remembers from that camp are inhumane tortures, killings and undignified burials that she would rather not discuss.
Peter Muturi, now 74, remembers how he was arrested together with hundreds others and taken to Jela Ndogo when a man who had been appointed chief by the colonial government was killed by the Mau Mau in the early 1950s at Lonkito.
The next day he was transferred to Entara at a time when the camp was made up of three houses only; one for the Mzungu officer and the other two for the African homeguards. The detainees were forced to walk long distances under guard and constant beating to fetch building materials including thatching grass and poles. “At Entara, we were put on hard labour that included uprooting huge tree stumps to give way for upcoming buildings and building the houses and huts even as we were beaten mercilessly by the soldiers and homeguards. “We were given a small tin of unga as our daily food portion and as there were no vegetables, we were forced to escort the little dry ugali down our throats with a little salt.”
Muturi recalls a congested camp which initially was not fenced. Later the camp was fenced using barbed wire and today stumps of the poles that fenced the camp are still visible.
Following the Lari Massacre, Julia Wambui, now 80 years old, was arrested at Lonkito and taken to the main prison in Narok. For a month Wambui was held at the Narok main prison before being transferred to Entara at a “time when the camp was still under construction and the perimeter fence had not come up yet. We used to be herded towards the current Entutu Lodge to fetch grass and other building material”.
One of the images that still sticks to her mind was the dragging of one Sieni behind a Land Rover and the beating senseless of her pregnant colleague, Miriam ole Kisio, the wife of the late Mau Mau General Kurito ole Kisio.
One night she personally suffered the brutal wrath of the British soldiers when she tried to escape from the camp. “I cannot attempt to explain the beating I got, but to date I carry a scary scar on my back as testimony”.
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