Why forgotten Mau Mau songs are resounding across the mountain

Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro addresses a rally during UDA campaigns for the 2022 General Election. [File, Standard]

There is a sense of despair bordering on defiance, especially around Mountain Kenya, manifesting itself in songs and dances stressing the Mau Mau fighting spirit. Various Mau Mau-related songs have received a new lease of life and some them, like "Kirinyaga ya Itungati", are spreading fast. They are acquiring 'gospel' or anthem characteristics and are arousing emotions in people who feel victimised. The Mau Mau spirit, instrumental in William Ruto's election in 2022, is anguishing.

It is not the first time in post-colonial Kenya that people have felt desperate and turned to art to vent their frustration by sounding defiant. In the build up to multi-partyism in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Wahome Mutahi alias Whispers staged plays in Gikuyu with defiant themes that attracted large audiences to various entertainment joints because they addressed intense concerns about the fate of the people of the Mountain. Touching on the Mau Mau spirit, the plays aroused a sense of Gikuyu nationalism and probably inspired entrepreneurial ideas in Rose Kimotho who went on to found the popular Kameme FM, also known as 'Kayu ka Muingi'.