Mau Mau veteran’s widow lives in misery despite huge sacrifice

There is nothing much to write home about the entrance to the home of General Chui (Fredrick Ndirangu) at Kabati Village in Murichu Sub-location of Kieni East District in Nyeri County.

One pulls two poles suspended between four posts to gain entry into the home that has two houses – a log cabin with corrugated iron roof and an earth floor, and a detached grass thatched mud walled kitchen that is about to collapse.

Eunice Wahito, 80, the wife of the Ndirangu who died in 2001, lives here with her daughter and grandchildren. On the four-acre piece of land there is a cow and a heifer that are testament to dairy farming.

General Chui’s grave with a concrete cross perimeter is on the homestead. Wahito was working with Chui (named so for his bravery) at a settler’s farm in Kinangop when they were rounded up after the state of emergency and Operation Jock Scott was launched on October 20, 1952 alongside the arrest of Jomo Kenyatta and five others.

“It was the start of the operation to return all Kikuyus, Embu and Merus to their homeland and we were taken to Naivasha Concentration Camp for onward processing,” recalled Wahito. “I will never forget that we were made to abandon our crops, animals and earthly possessions but a few clothes.”

March 26, 1953 remains a major turning point in the liberation struggle for it was on this day that Mau Mau made a daring raid at Naivasha and stole over 100 rifles, including those used for sport hunting by the settlers.

They also freed a lot of inmates including General Chui, who went to Aberdare Forest to to put up a spirited fight against the colonialists.

Wahito says they were forced to abandon two acres of maize, bean and potato that would have been enough to feed her family of four for a year as well as 30 sheep and two donkeys.

Together with her children they were taken to Gitathi-ini Village, the home of her husband where his oldest son Johnson Ndirangu, 67, recalls they had a rough time with the colonial police always storming in to look for his father.

“The most painful moment was when a white officer picked up a piece of smouldering wood from the fire in our house and burned me on my thighs and ribs,” recalled Ndirangu.

Life here was, however, better than the harsh environment in Naivasha where the only meal was a bowl of sugarless porridge served once a day.

Wahito now has eight adult children but says the four acres are not enough for them all and most of them including Ndirangu, a painter, now live elsewhere trying to eke a hard living. She wants, at least, to be included in the government monthly stipends for the elderly. But her son says they would welcome any piece of government land.