Veteran's close shave with death

By Amos Kareithi

The village bears the hallmark of meticulous colonial planning with high hedges surrounding mud-walled houses, hiding decades of deprivation.

A few metres from the emergency era village sits Wang’uru Prison in Mwea, which at the height of the struggle for independence accommodated thousands of inmates.

The story of Mwea is retold by an 84-year-old man, who was hunted down by the colonial government like a wild animal, wounded and detained before ultimately being condemned to a life of hard labour in Gathigiriri.

Half a century later, the former freedom fighter is still cycling around the village, too weak to dredge into irrigation canals to coax tired soils to yield rice.

Gabriel Mureithi Ruiru explains he was destined to the gallows but cheated death and the system using a string of tricks which landed him in one of Kenya’s biggest detention villages in Mwea.

The story of how this old man arrived in Mwea Irrigation Scheme is entwined into the history of Kenya’s violent struggle for independence.

After fleeing from Hombe forest station in Mathira, where his father Ruiru wa Kamigwi was labouring as a casual, Mureithi narrates how he landed in Mt Kenya forest as a fighter in the 1950s.

He ended up in trouble after he and a band of other forest fighters sneaked into a white man’s house to raid his armoury but the mission backfired and the raiders only grabbed a pistol and jacket.

Shootout ensued

He later encountered some police officers, and a shootout ensued during which a police officer died while Mureithi was shot in the left leg.

Mureithi was tried, but was found to be underage and was sent first to Mackinon Road camp and later to Manyani Detention Camp instead of being sent to the gallows.

While at Manyani, Mureithi’s death sentence was about to be reinstated after spies planted in the camp revealed his identity and uncovered his age. He stole a report book containing his details kept by a trustee, John Cege and tore into pieces.

"Hard labour was preferable to death and I will never regret the decision I took at Manyani. I cheated my way into being graded ‘grey’ instead of being blacklisted as a hardcore Mau Mau member," recalls Mureithi.

When he returned to Hombe, his chief rejected him, forcing the Government to transport the ‘irredeemable’ detainee to Mwea.

"In Mwea, I joined 300 detainees from other detention camps. Since we were regarded as criminals, we were ordered to dig irrigation canals under harsh conditions and beating," explains Mureithi.

He recalls there were 39 detainees from Nyeri, 100 from Kiambu and 78 originating from Murang’a. These were to find permanent homes in Mwea after being rejected by their chiefs.

Historians estimate that there were more than 20,000 detainees in Mwea in 1956 when the irrigation scheme was started. Some of the other camps were Kandongu, Kimbimbi, Ishiara, Thiba and Gathigiriri. At Mwea, Gathigiriri detention camp was transformed into a prison and at one time thousands of detainees transiting from other centres were housed in the prison.

The former detainees would troop out of the prison every morning and go to the fields where they laboured from dawn to dusk.

"We built Gathigiriri village with our own hands. At first we constructed grass thatched round houses. Later we constructed better houses after we were given plots," says Mureithi.

Mureithi explains that he constructed his U-shaped house made of mud bricks and rusty roof in 1956 as soon as he was allocated a plot.

Although decades of hard labour have bucked his back, leaving the former freedom fighter bent like a bow, his spirits are unflagging. But he has little to show for his labour for Mureithi, just like the 4,000 farmers in Mwea whose cheap labour created the scheme, has been living in servitude.

"We have been living in these villages since 1956. We do not own the land we farm. Those who were not strong enough were forced to surrender it to the board," adds Mureithi.

Chomba wa Kamau, one of Mureithi’s age mates originally from Gichugu, says he got his piece of land in Gathigiriri after the original owner, Muithira Koraini, was kicked out of Mwea by the dreaded camp commandant, Terrence Gavaghan.

The former detainees, most of whom have died from old age and other causes, still reside in the colonial era villages, just a few metres from Gathigiriri prison. And like the old days when they lived in daily terror of Gavaghan, the former freedom fighters fear losing their rice to National Irrigation Board, which they owe millions from using its water and land.