Mau Mau veteran, Gitu wa Kahengeri, on Wednesday, May 31, recalled meeting Jeff Koinange’s father in the Manda Island detention camp in Lamu.
Jeff Koinange hosted Kahengeri on his JKL show on Citizen TV. He stated that the anchor's family members were detained during the struggle for independence.
“I met your father and many others, Njoroge Koinange, Fredrick, John Mbiyu.
“The whole family was there. We were there together. Karuga was also there," recalled Kahengeri after Koinange jogged his mind.
Impressively, Kahengeri helped register the Mau Mau War Veterans Association, where he is the Secretary-General.
The association sought compensation from the British government, citing the inhumane treatment they were subjected to during the struggle for independence.
All the vetted Mau Mau members received Ksh340,000 compensation, and the British government apologised for the inhumane treatment. The UK also built a monument at Uhuru Park to honour those who lost their lives during the struggle for independence.
“In detention, we were denied medicine and food. It was torture camps as we were always beaten,” detailed Kahengeri.
The 99-year-old added that he was detained for two years in Lodwar before being transferred to Manda, where he spent four years.
Jeff Koinange’s father, Fred Mbiyu Koinange, was detained for allegedly being a member of the Mau Mau.
Jeff Koinange, in past interviews and his autobiography Through My African Eyes, recalled his father's demise, stating that he passed away two months after he was born. The two did not enjoy a father-son relationship, but his mother stepped up and nurtured them.
"I was born on January 7, and my dad passed away on March 7, 1966. I was two months old. He left my mum, who was 28 years old, with four children. My elder sister was four and a half years old, my other sister two and a half, my brother one and a half, and I was two months old," Koinange revealed in an interview in May 2023.
The late minister Mbiyu Koinange, Jeff Koinange's uncle, was a brother-in-law of founding president, Jomo Kenyatta.
Meanwhile, on May 13 during the burial of field marshal and Dedan Kimathi's wife Mukami Kimathi, Mau Mau veterans called on President William Ruto to help find the remains of late Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi Waciuri.
Mau Mau veteran, Brigadier Kiboco, asked Ruto to give the veterans two months to search for Kimathi's remains inside Kamiti Maximum Prison where Kimathi is believed to be buried.
