Emergency split families up

BY KAMAU MUTUNGA

The State of Emergency in Kenya created a social crisis and split up families. Men who were repatriated to the Native Reserves (read home districts) after being screened out of Nairobi later learnt that their wives sought reunion. But there was a problem: Gacheri now had seven children, up from three before Kang’ethe left during “Operation Anvil” that was meant to weed out Mau Mau informers, sympathisers and potential ‘passive’ recruits in the city.