Community marks 100 years since World War I atrocities

The magnificent Kasigau Hill where the British Government had established an army barrack to fight the German soldiers in Tanganyika. The Hill was inhabited by the Kasigau communities. [Photo: Renson Mnyamwezi/Standard]

As the Wakasigau community marks 100 years since the end of the First World War, sad memories of deprivation following forced eviction from their ancestral land by the British Government continue to linger in their minds.

The historic event brings back distressing memories of the misery and suffering this Taita sub-ethnic group went through. Taita Taveta happens to have been one of the epicentres of the senseless war in the East African region. The war started in 1914 and the first shot that signified its spread to the region was fired at the Taveta District Commissioner's office on August 15.

As momentous centenary celebrations kick off, there are calls for the British and German governments to pay reparations to the community for the damage and injuries it suffered during the war.

Residents and leaders want the two countries, whose armies were involved in pitched battles in the area with devastating consequences, to fund community projects. This, they say, will offer them some relief considering the British and German colonial forces turned their area into a battle ground. One can still see the trenches and bunkers and imagine the bullets wheezing around the ears of combatants and helpless natives.

Colonial fire-power

Here a century ago, was a monstrous sight of war casualties lying dead, or prostrate writhing and groaning in pain on the blood-soaked earth as it eventually fell under the devastating colonial fire-power. The tranquility the locals had long enjoyed was suddenly replaced by the ugly manifestations of modern warfare that left their land drenched in blood.

"The community members suffered untold misery and deprivation after they were uprooted from their ancestral land by the British colonial government," said Governor John Mruttu.

Jonathan Mwangeje Mshiri a retired educationist said: "The sub-ethnic group is still far much behind in development compared to other communities in the region who never suffered as much as it did. For 22 years they were away from home, resulting in disintegration, psychological and physical torture, and marginalisation."

Former Voi MP Basil Mwakiringo told The Standard that some community members live in Dalunyi and Maramba locations in Tanga, Tanzania.

Today, you can find the few remnants of the now disjointed and impoverished Kasigau community living 65km south of Voi town, some in Mwatate Sub-County while others were assimilated in Malindi, Mackinnon Township.

"It was absurd that scores of locals were indiscriminately killed and rendered destitute. We are living as squatters because we were dispossessed of our vast land," Kasigau Ward Representative Ibrahim Juma said.

The community's agony started after two villagers - Mwashutu and Kinona - who had gone to harvest honey in the forest ran into a group of German soldiers who demanded to know the status of their rival British army.

Little did they know that the encounter would culminate in the historical injustices that stalk them to-date. The two were detained by the Germans until dark when they moved with them to Jora village and up behind the British troops. At midnight, the Germans attacked and killed all the British soldiers at the gun nest.

"A note the Germans left with the two somehow ended up in the hands of the British Army. That note was sent to Nairobi and a full report made to the war office and the colony office in London," he said.

Mshiri says the British regarded the Kasigau defeat as a moral setback of the highest magnitude. This marked the beginning of their misery as a community. The British Government declared the area a hostile and a military zone and this is what heralded their banishment to Malindi.

"This was one of the worst moments in my community's history. They walked on foot from Kasigau to Maungu town without food and water. From there they were loaded onto a train to Mombasa and thereafter into a waiting ship to Malindi," Dishan Kizaro a former civic leader said.

The villagers spent a week on the ship as soldiers waited for orders from Britain to kill them and throw their bodies in the ocean.

Sports and Culture Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario said: "We need documentation on the sad historical event so that the Government can take action. The Wakasigau residents suffered and require compensation."