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Now firmly etched in the national conscience, the second anniversary of 25 June 2024 thankfully passed without fatalities and few injuries. The mothers of those we commemorated once again turned private grief into another historical moment of national resistance.
While colonial and nationalist records name our freedom fighters, they often erase the history of the women who sustained the struggle. Across six decades of colonialism, Kenyan women consistently used their motherhood to protect their children from being targeted as “dissidents” and “terrorists.”
Offering shelter, information, food and remaining silent under interrogation were all political acts. Part of this story is now told well in Marion Njoroge’s “Heroine Sex Workers of the Mau Mau”.
The role of mothers in the post-colonial era is better told. They stood by second‑liberation activists tracking them through interrogation centres, prisons and courts. They spoke out publicly and quietly confronting powerful State Officers.
