Failed peace pushed Mzee Jomo to war after Gatundu meet

Kolbio Police outpost at the Kenya-Somalia border which was a popular target for the Shifta, 1964. [File, Standard]

The birthing of a new nation can be painful. Not even modulated debates in Lancaster and Rome conference halls could yield peace to a country that was just about to taste freedom after seven decades of servitude.

These were the makings of a nightmare that has lasted more than a lifetime. When the officials of the Northern Province Peoples Progressive Party (NPPP), whose clarion call was "Secession Now" met Kenya's last governor, Malcom MacDonald in 1962, their mission was clear. Self-determination.