Joy was in the air on Kenya's first Madaraka Day celebrations

Former Kenya President Jomo Kenyatta at Uhuru Park on June 1 1963. It was the day when Kenya was becoming the last East African state to be granted internal self-rule by Britain. (PHOTO: COURTESY)

On Saturday June 1, 1963, you could have caught happiness in the air if you were at Uhuru Gardens.

It was the day when — after a tumultuous armed freedom struggle — Kenya was becoming the last East African state to be granted internal self-rule by Britain.

Former Assistant Minister Joseph Muturia said he travelled to Uhuru Park in a large Meru delegation organised by area political supremo Jackson Harvester Angaine.

"We had travelled in open lorries, braving the 300km journey between Meru and Nairobi. I think the ceremony had been taken to Uhuru Gardens, far away from the city centre, to keep off large crowds, but the plan failed as people still turned out in large numbers," said Muturia.

He recalls the enthusiastic reception that key regional leaders such as Tom Mboya, James Gichuru, Paul Ngei, Masinde Muliro, Ronald Ngala, Ngala Mwenda, Daniel arap Moi, Dr Gikonyo Kiano, Angaine, Jeremiah Nyaga and Lawrence Sagini received from the crowd.

"It was a befitting start to freedom and economic prosperity for all," recalls the former school teacher and community development officer who would later be elected for three terms as the MP for Nyambene, Igembe and Ntonyiri constituencies.

"The crowd was electric when Kenyatta took the podium and for the first time in a national event uttered the word Harambee which would become our national motto of pulling together," said Muturia.

General Ngarari Wanjama, 90, the former chief secretary of Mau Mau Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi, was also at Uhuru Gardens to witness the historic event. Having been captured and left the Mau Mau, Wanjama was living in Nairobi with Donald Barnett his co-author of the "Mau Mau from Within" (published in 1966). 

"When Kenyatta spoke, the crowd moved with his words. You could see happiness in every face around you. It is like the crowd had also contaminated the air around," said Wanjama, who  yesterday visited the ailing widow of Kimathi at her farm in Kinangop, Nyandarua County.

Field Marshal Muthoni Kirima, one of the last Mau Mau fighters to leave the forest, however, said the day escaped their notice as they were still in the Aberdare forest.