Lifting the Lid On Our Bitter Past.

(From The Nation (Kenya) - AAGM)

Byline: Peter Kimani

It is that time of the year when Kenyans reflect on the state of the nation and reassess the values upon which their country is founded. And why not? On June 1, 1963, we got the mandate to govern ourselves.

More often than not, broadcasting houses go into the history vaults and rehash old clips, while newspapers trace the surviving freedom fighters and record anew their memories - their lives in the forest, in prison and at home.

This year, the Kenya Broadcasting Cooporation had an interesting documentary, but I saw only glimpses of it.

In it, good old Jomo stands with Mau Mau fighters (must have been at Ruring'u Stadium in Nyeri). But he seems ill at ease. There is a towering fighter, dreadlocks and all, holding him by the shoulder while others mob the future President.

"You just wanted to see a black flag flying over the land," Jomo says. "You have a black flag..." Indeed, we got uhuru wa bendera (flag freedom).

One never quite gets the meaning, nor the biting sarcasm, of the words. But since Kenyans have a deep respect for the dead, we dare not speak ill of them. So we don't seek the meaning.

Many moons ago, I traced freedom fighters from those 1963 photos to Embu. They still wore dreadlocks, which …