Street exhibition takes the lid off rare Ukambani history
Residents view photos during a street exhibition in Machakos Town on October 19, 2016. Hundreds of residents were drawn to the exhibition of never-seen-before images collected from the region in the years before and shortly after independence. PHOTO | PIUS MAUNDU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- One photo shows a Mr A B Gray, an agriculture officer, inspecting raw honey at a honey and wax plant on July 1, 1954 at an unidentified place in modern day Makueni County.
- Another photo taken on September 16, 1963 shows then Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta being received by Ukambani leaders, among them Paul Ngei, when he visited Machakos.
- One of the event organizers, Phylis Nyambura, said the exhibition was meant to promote urithi.go.ke, a website where rare photos of the country’s history are stored.
A street exhibition of rare photos on Ukambani on Wednesday drew hundreds of Machakos residents, who were mesmerized by the messages carried in the images.
The gray-scale images captured a range of topics, including power, politics and development during the watershed period before and shortly after independence.
One photo shows a Mr A B Gray, an agriculture officer, inspecting raw honey at a honey and wax plant on July 1, 1954 at an unidentified place in modern day Makueni County.
Another photo taken on September 16, 1963 shows then Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta being received by Ukambani leaders, among them Paul Ngei, when he visited Machakos.
“I used to hear about these great events on radio,” said James Wambua, adding that he was in primary school when the prime minister came calling.
Thrilled show-goers took time to examine the image and their captions and took photos of the images.
In yet another picture, former Archbishop Raphael Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki is seen greeting his parents on January, 4, 1964, the day he was ordained “as the first Kamba to become a Roman Catholic Priest.”
“This particular image is testimony that even before the advent of globalization, Kenyans were innovative,” said Mr Richard Kimeu, a resident of Nunguni in Makueni County, referring to a photo of a boy mounting a makeshift wooden rickshaw.
He said that such images should be preserved for the current and future generations “who would be shocked to learn that the motorcycles they use are a result of the fabricated rickshaws of yore.”
According to Mr Kimeu, the images show that the country and its people had realized a lot of development 53 years after independence.
Excited by an image of visiting Queen Elizabeth II being entertained by a ballet of traditional dancers from Kitui County at an airport in Nairobi on March 26, 1972, Monica Syekonyo, 76, said she recalled the events that followed the queen’s visit vividly.
“The queen later visited Machakos and the same dancers from Kitui entertained her: I sold a lot of bananas that day because everyone seemed to have a lot of money with them on that day,” said an elated Ms Syekonyo.
She could hardly recall the year the Queen visited Machakos, though.
“These are good photos that are capable of inspiring young generations to learn about their history and their heritage,” said Ziporah Ndolo, a resident of Machakos Town.
One of the event organizers, Phylis Nyambura, said the exhibition was meant to promote urithi.go.ke, a website where rare photos of the country’s history are stored.
“These are just a few of the never-seen-before photos and media that we have digitized and uploaded on the online repository for ease of access in efforts to celebrate and preserve the country’s heritage,” said Ms Nyambura, a manager at the ICT Authority, a government agency charged with enhancing the managing of the government information resources.
She said that the street exhibition would be taken to Murang’a, Mombasa and Nairobi regions and that the media content at the website was available at a fee for personal and commercial uses.
