Hola School fails to fulfil Mau Mau dream

By Joe Ombuor

The history of Mau Mau Memorial Girls Secondary School, Hola, is deeply intertwined with that of the Kenyan nation.

Formerly a detention center during the colonial era, it was the scene of one of the most blatant human rights abuses by the government.

In 1959, 11 Mau Mau detainees were bludgeoned to death and buried like sick animals at a mass grave scooped in the desolate jungle.

The incident defined the horrors that the colonial regime visited on the fathers of the nation who had launched a bloody campaign for independence.

With the sun beating down at 40 degrees centigrade, the air is hot and crisp. Hola, or if you like, call it Galole, is among Kenya’s hottest and most climatically punishing towns.

No wonder it was a natural choice by the colonial and later the Kenyatta and Moi regimes as a detention camp.

The isolated site about five kilometres away from the riverside town today forms part of the compound on which the aptly named Mau Mau memorial school stands. Built in 1978 as a harambee (self help) institution, the school is today a County school hosting 290 students drawn from across Tana River County and beyond.

Started by founding president Jomo Kenyatta, the school has however failed to live up to the honour bestowed unto it.

A concrete commemorative plaque at the gravesite next to the school gate bears the 11 names under the banner: "In loving memory of the eleven massacred at Hola in 1959". They are Kabui Kamau, Ndung’u Kibaki, Mwema Kinuthia, Kinyanjui Njoroge, Koroma Mburu, Karanja Munuthi, Ikeno Ikiro, Migwi Ndegwa, Kaman Karanja, Mungai Githi and Ngugi Karitie.

Performed dismally

But the school whose motto is Elimu Ni Mwangaza (Education is light) has struggled brighten the lives of students without much success. For decades, they have performed dismally.

"The sun is innocent. We do not blame it for our dismal academic performance down the years. Poverty and lukewarm enthusiasm towards education by the local community are the main culprits," says Deputy Principal Ms Tabitha Macharia.

For close to a decade, it has not produced a direct entry student to the public universities. Among the 32 candidates who sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (K) in 2010, only one managed a plain C grade, a drop from the previous year when two had plain C.

"Kenyatta must be fretting in his grave about these poor performances, but let him rest assured that we are not resting at all," says Ms Karanja.

Alive with activity

In a candid account about the school and its myriad problems, Ms Karanja says poverty and conservative habits of the local communities are the root cause of unwanted pregnancies that have pitched tent at the school.

"Seven girls had to terminate their studies due to unwanted pregnancies last year alone," says Ms Karanja.

"We are also short of teachers, a problem the ministry of education has promised to address. We exhort parents to get more involved in the affairs of their school and, more importantly, discard habits overtaken by time and start talking to their daughters about sexuality," she says, her voice laced with concern.

Even as local people keep their cultures intact, modernity has crept in and the local town is alive with activity. It is the envisaged headquarters of Tana River County.

History of failure

Originally known as Galole, a word from the Orma community meaning seasonal river, the name changed to Hola, Orma for sheep after independence in 1963.

It is said a local tycoon at Laza village on the banks of the river Tana owned large herds of sheep such that people going to buy his animals would jokingly say they were going to Hola.

After independence, President Kenyatta acquiesced to the changing of name from Galole, to erase the history of torture and persecution.

Now, the school, too, is struggling to shed a history of failure.

Last year the African development Bank (ADB) funded the construction of laboratories and renovation of classrooms at a cost of Sh3.5 million.

The Kenya Commercial Bank has put up an ablution block. It has no library.

"We appeal to donors to come to our aid with a library. That will enhance our performance," says Ms Karanja.

Hola ‘Horror Camp’ pressured colonialists to halt detentions

The Mau Mau detainees bludgeoned to death on March 3, 1959 at Hola were part of 88 culled out from the perceived most hardcore and forced to work. All the 77 who survived the ordeal sustained serious injuries.

In a cover up effort to save face, the colonial authorities first created the impression that the 11were part of about 100 who had drunk foul water while working on furrows. Further investigation however pointed to violence.

Doctor’s report

According to a doctor’s report at the time citing medical examination, the 11 had died either of lung congestion or shock and injuries following multiple bruises.

The incident according to reliable sources saw the colonial authorities attempt a cover up betrayed by the fact that injuries sustained by survivors were consistent with allegations that uncooperative prisoners had been beaten by guards with the express consent of the prison’s commandant.

Erasing memories

Tales among Hola residents have it that the Colonial Government tried to change the name of the horror location from Hola to Galole in a futile attempt to erase its memory from people’s minds.

But, thanks to the massacre, the negative publicity it attracted put pressure on the British parliament to close all the colonial detention camps in a desperate face-saving gesture.

Pundits say the Hola massacre contributed indirectly to the hastening of independence across British colonies in Africa.