Kenya will be celebrating 55 years of independence later this week. Freedom fighters will gather at Nyayo national stadium for this landmark achievement.
But are will really independent. The answer will depend on whom you ask. But there are people who worked tirelessly to ensure we got the freedom we now enjoy. Some of these people have been forgotten or are looked down upon like in the case of prostitutes.
According to former presidential Press Secretary Lee Njiru, it is in fact prostitutes who inspired Kenyans to take up arms and chase away the Mzungu.
In his candid interview with NTV’s Salim Amin, Njiru reveals how this came to happen:
“People wanted independence and they turned violent. Why they turned violent is because during the Second World War, which began in 1939, many Kenyans went to fight in Burma; they went to fight in Malay, which by then was called Malaysia, they went to fight in North Africa; now that one opened their eyes.
You know before that, not many people had seen a dead European; not many people had seen European prostitutes; not many people had seen Europeans who were sick; not many people had seen mad Europeans. They had not seen their beggars. Now when they went to join them in all those areas, they found that Europeans could also die.
Some of them were screaming because of shell-shock. They realized that the only way to get Europeans out of Kenya was to terrorize them. So people started ganging up, taking oaths, going to the forest and fighting.”
Now you know the role of these people, maybe this week you can appreciate one of them as a way of thanking them.