Residents of Lari constituency have raised concern of a 3 acre piece of land that was set side for Mau Mau monument.
They claim that even after the land was set aside during the demarcation of lands in 1964, the land was later grabbed, since it spent some years unattended.
An elderly human rights activists Simon Peter Karanja claims that the land is a public land despite someone getting a title deed to purport that he owns it.
Karanja explains that the land is situated at Nyamweru area in Lari Kirenga ward, where the grabber lives and does farming in it.
“Despite the fact that person has a title deed, the mother title deed at the Surveys of Kenya still indicates that the land is a public land” he alleged.
“The demarcation of lands in this country that was conducted in1963 set aside the land for a monument in remembrance of the people who died during the Mau Mau wars with the colonialists, on the evening of the ’emergency’, the day so many locals were killed” he said.
The emergency night popularly known as on Kikuyu Muito wa Lari, “The Lari Massacre”, took over on the night of March 26, 1954 and left over 100 men having been killed. It was a night which many locals speaks about everyday in the area since that night.
Karanja explains, “Some of our people were captured and beheaded in the area that night while there houses were set ablaze while many of them were taken to Githunguri where they were tortured before being killed before dawn”
He added that all the names of those men who were killed were supposed to be written on a monument and be mounted there.
The rest of the land was aimed to be built historical rooms, where curators and historian would be employed by the government to take care of it.
“The place would be a resource center. Universities, college as well as secondary school students would be visiting the place to learn about the Mau Mau and how locals were treated by the colonialists” Karanja said.
Speaking at Kirenga village with Kikuyu elders, Karanja said some of those who were killed during the emergency period were Chief Luka Kahangara, Ngiie wa Mbugua, forest guard Mathenge and others.
He said the the monument was supposed to have a names of both the Mau Mau fighters as well as home guards who died on that night, since both suffered during the struggle of Kenya’s independence.
“If we let the land go away, we risk loosing the history of the Lari Massacre. It is only written in books, but we do not have anything to show” he said.
It was in that process, he said when the Lari level four hospital was built as Lari Memorial Dispensary at Rukuma in early 1960s which is a village next to Nyamweru and about 200 meters from the Nairobi Nakuru highway is when the attention of the 3 acres shifted from the government and locals.
Many locals and the government felt as if the new dispensary whose foundation stone was laid by the then colonial governor Sir Patrick Wilson had served as the memorial institution of the emergency history.
“After the several years, the 3 acre piece of land was occupied in unclear circumstances”, Karanja claimed.
He revealed that, together with other individuals who loves history of this country, will defend the land until the occupier is evicted by the government.
“We would want to know if the occupier bought the land or what had happened there before he settled there, all we want is the land” he said.
“We will go to all offices to reclaim the land. We need a tangible history. We are sure we will create jobs, attract students, tourists to visit our sub county and promote it” he said.
He said they will hand it over to the government, which will advise them on which ministry will be handed over so as to build offices, the monument and any other thing that will be needed.
“As historians and elders from Lari, we will help the government with details they would want to know, especially the names and what we witnessed. We have so many people who witnessed, even if they were teenagers and others we children” he said.
Karanja also claims that there are other public lands that are grabbed in Kirenga and Gituamba locations by private developers, and asked the government to follow up on them since they can be of great use.
