How 1,000 cats, dogs were left homeless in barracks

A convoy of British soldiers deployed to quell the Mau Mau uprising between 1952 and 1954. [File, Standard]

After barking orders and lording it over Kenyans for close to seven decades, it was time to go. And they were not happy about it. The evacuation of British troops who had called the Templar Barracks home, had started.

The scheme was that by the time Kenya celebrated its first independence anniversary on December 12, 1964, all the 5,500 soldiers from Templar, today known as Kahawa barracks and Gilgil would be safely at home. However, going by the British press, as the soldiers returned home, Kenyans and an estimated 1,000 cats, monkeys, dogs and other pets were poised to suffer immeasurable loss.