The President's desert house

Tucked away on the northern side of Lodwar town is an isolated whitewashed house surrounded by a metre-high chainlink fence. This was home to the famous Kapenguria Six, writes Jacquline Kandagor

The chimney peeping out of the rooftop is proof that it was once a residential house. The window mesh, commonly used in the region to protect its occupants against mosquitoes, erases any doubt on this.

After going through the rusty iron gates that are only unlocked for tourists, I slowly walk up the 20-metre driveway lined with stones splashed with whitewash. For the first time, it dawns on me that I am about to pass through the same door the country’s first president used several times during his two-year stint in the Kapenguria prison.

Kenyatta House, where Kenya’s first president Jomo Kenyatta stayed, was modest. Against the wall, a concrete basin-like structure lies attached to the wall. This served as his bathing place. The centre room that doesn’t have the front wall has two concrete shelves — the British were considerate enough, knowing Kenyatta loved books.

A fireplace with a mantle piece takes up part of the side walls and makes me wonder if this region has ever known temperatures less than 28 degrees for it to warrant a fire to warm oneself. The two other rooms on either side of this living area had two windows and were meant for receiving visitors.

Although Kenyatta always denied any connection with the Mau Mau — a large Kikuyu organisation — he was the unchallenged leader of the Kenya’s nationalist movement and it seems improbable that he did not have some link to the group.

Kenyatta was arrested by the British on October 20, 1952 on charges that he was inciting the insurrection and was jailed for nine years.

The accused — Bildad Kaggia, Kung’u Karumba, Jomo Kenyatta, Fred Kubai, Paul Ngei, and Achieng’ Oneko — known as the Kapenguria Six, were taken through a trial that lasted five months before being sentenced on April 8, 1953 to seven years imprisonment with hard labour and indefinite restriction thereafter.

Kapenguria Six

The Kapenguria Six got their name from the place where the trials took place. They were sent to Lokitaung for detention where the other prisoners ganged up against Kenyatta because he was given preferential treatment due to his advanced age. The six were later transferred to Lodwar and later to Maralal before being released.

Not far from Kenyatta House, other four similar houses stand neglected. I wonder why there are five houses when there were six detainees.

"Until 1978, the road linking Lodwar and Kitale didn’t exist and we had to go through Amodat in Uganda before entering Kenya through the Trans Nzoia border near Kitale," explains Nicholas Ngikor, a resident of Turkana County.

As I try to imagine how the town looked like in the late 1950s, the thought of the solitude in a wilderness among hostile people blocks my thinking.

"Those people were blind-folded before being brought on the two-day bumpy ride from Kapenguria to Lodwar through Uganda," narrates Christopher Epat, the museum’s curator.

The current road linking Lodwar and Kitale didn’t exist until the late 1970s and there were only three small shops in the town, a small hospital, the detainees houses, an Administration Police camp and the Government African School (Lodwar Mixed Primary School).

The three beautiful desert roses, an endangered species, are in full bloom. Their pink flowers brighten the surrounding and bring cheer to my heart inspite of the sadness as I imagine the torture Kenyatta and his family went through living in this tiny little compound far from home, yet at home.