Forgotten monument that holds secrets to pre-independent Kenya

By Amos Kareithi

The riveting glossy pictures of grotesque maimed and mutilated bodies plastered on walls of the ancient building are an unforgettable sight. They prick the conscience of all who venture into the abode.

The pictures taken five years ago when Kenya was on the brink of anarchy are a stark reminder of how man has persistently failed to learn from history. The evidence of how easily a country can slip into an all-consuming madness is laid bare on a big circular table, covered with a coal black tablecloth. The dog-eared book, Kenya Burning, blinds visitors from seeing any other history in the precincts.

The gory pictures have stolen the attention of those visiting Nairobi Gallery and permanently locked children from visiting and imbibing the history of what was once the most powerful office in the British East Africa Protectorate, now Kenya. Children are strictly prohibited from visiting owing to the gross nature of the pictures of burning and dead Kenyans, brutalised during the post-election violence in 2008. The National Museum of Kenya (NMK) has also banned photography within the house officially referred to as Old PC’s office.

Underneath the huge circular table is a tiled floor where a black circle with 16 points of the compass has been designed. It is in what appears to be a circular lobby just at the entrance of the building from which, Kenya’s governor, John Ainsworth administered his subjects. Standing right at the centre of the circle with his head directly above a point marked on the roof, anthropologist Kibe Kiragu describes the spot as the centre of the universe, point zero, which offers the easiest route into outer space. This theory is supported by astronomer Thomas Mwangi who explains that the location of the governor’s office at that particular spot was not by accident but by thorough investigations and calculations by cartographers who were acting on behalf of the queen. “It may sound strange but if one was to stand on this exact spot between June 21 to June 23 every year at night and stare at the sky, you will in 24 hours see 14,350 satellites and 67,230 galaxies at the centre of the universe. This is a very good astronomy site, “Mwangi explains. 

At one point, the experts explain, the military stone, which was used by the early settlers and administrators as the reference point to all other parts of Kenya East Africa and the world was located on the spot where the black circle is inside the governor’s office. However, owing to security concerns by the colonial authorities, it was moved outside and a monument erected near Nyayo House and the General Post Office in the 1930s where it has remained since, ringed off by spiked metal and grill. The stone monument with its distinct dome like top has become a common feature that is always passed in blur by speeding motorists and harried pedestrians.    

Withstood elements

Eileen Musundi, the curator in charge of the monument where Nairobi Gallery operates from, explains that the building was constructed almost a century ago in 1913, and was designed by an architect, Rand Overy. Asian masons, who beautifully dressed Nairobi stones that they embellished with interlocking grooves, necessitating very little need for limestone, constructed it. Looking at the joints of the building, the motor holding the smooth stones together appears to be like a thin thread compared to today’s technology where a thick layer of a mixture of cement and sand is applied.

“What amazes me is that despite the thin layer of limestone used, this building has withstood elements of the weather for over a 100 years,” adds the NMK curator. Originally the house was meant to be the centre of the Government Square and was indeed used as the point of reference by the colonial Government and the settlers. At the time Nairobi was a marshy tin shack, where life revolved around the square. Then, the railway line passed a spitting distance from where Nyayo House stands today, meandered through Loita street to Norfolk and Harry Thuku Road and past Chiromo before proceeding to Westlands on its winding journey to western Kenya and Uganda.

“At the time, Kipande House was a warehouse just next to the railway line while what is today Kenyatta Avenue was Government Road where all the offices were concentrated. It was unthinkable then for Africans to venture on this side of Nairobi,” Musundi added. The governor who carried out her majesty’s orders from the monument had located his residential house in such a way that from Ainsworth House on Museum hill, he could monitor everyone who visited and left the Government Square. He kept tabs on the railway line and the Government Street and determined when law and order had been breached. To the native settlers, the governor’s office was the place where they came for registration every time a settler arrived. It was here too that all newly born white babies were registered and all deaths reported before they could be buried.

Presence of colonial relic

The importance of the house is reinforced by the presence of a colonial relic that very few people, including Musundi have little information about. In one of the 12 rooms is a small green safe measuring approximately two feet by three feet that has been subject of numerous speculations and myths; there are many conflicting explanations about its uses.

Fifty-nine-year old Lucas Malova who worked at the place for decades as a messenger avers that when he joined the service 40 years ago the post independent administrators who were housed at the building before Nyayo House was constructed at one time used this safe.

He also explains that there was another bigger safe that was used by the Treasury Department at the PC’s office, which was later relocated to Nyayo House although the smaller safe was left at the ancient building. The inscriptions on the metal plaque at the safe however contradict this theory, as it is expressly states: “ Treasury Serial Number for reference 574. This Safe must not be transferred without the knowledge of the Treasurer.” According to anthropologist Kibe Kiragu, the unambiguous message that the safe is the property of the queen is why his colleague Mwangi concedes it has never been relocated, or opened as the keys are in London.

To emphasise the importance of the safe the two experts point out that the safe has some significant gold fossils coating its dirty looking coat of arms that bears the crown seal and clearly indicates that it is fire proof. There is speculation that the safe may still be holding some precious documents that the colonial Government kept at the place when it was used as the centre of Kenya, while the queen treated the colony as the crown jewel in the galaxy of British empire, according to Kibe.

The possibility that there may have been viable documents is conceivable given the trend adopted by the colonial administrators who kept meticulous records of all that they held dear. According to a book, Kenya National Archives: Guide to records which were Retrieved from UK and USA, some documents were indeed spirited away from Kenya. The book explains the Kenyatta Government was informed in 1963 and that it was customary for colonial authorities to transfer some documents relating to communication between the colonialists shortly before the colony was granted independence.

 Will never know

These documents included those that were considered the property of her majesty’s Government that could not under any circumstances be handed over to the successor Government as the secrets related to development of Government policies, or security.

Curiously, the composition of an inter-ministerial committee formed to pursue the recovery of the migrated documents indicated that some of these not only related to security and policy but also had to do with natural resources. It is instructive that six years after Kenya’s independence in 1963, the Cabinet approved the formation of a committee with representations from the Ministries of Finance and Natural Resources, the Foreign Affairs office, the Attorney General and Chief Archivist.

Though a number of documents have been retrieved and returned to Kenya, Kenyans will never know how many documents were not surrendered as some had been destroyed owing to their sensitivity and others withheld because of the explosive nature of the information they contained.

The country too will never know whether there could be any evidence or fossils hidden in the safe and whether its keys are still with the Treasury in London, and whether it will ever be opened. In the meantime, the monument will continue witnessing history as it unfolds and immortalised by the still images captured by photojournalists.

akareithi@standardmedia.co.ke