PAUL NGEI WAS SUPPOSED TO KILL CAREY FRANCIS WITH A SPEAR - DR DAVID MAINA KAGOMBE

In this interview, Prof. Macharia Munene talks to the former Director of the Kenya National Archives, Dr. David Maina Kagombe. He was a young man at height of the war, who later left for studies in America. He tell of a curious incident where at one point, students at Alliance High School conspired to kill the school's most famous principle, Carey Francis, a disciplinarian who was rumoured to be a police man. Carey Francis had just been transferred from Maseno School to Alliance. He introduced some strict school rules which students opposed. Students decided that they would kill him. Paul Ngei, who later became a member of the Kapenguria Six, was supposed to spear him, but the conspiracy leaked and Carey Francis survived. Dr. Kagombe also tells of the near-spontaneous murders of Chief Waruhiu of Kiambu and Chief Nderi of Nyeri, acts that precipitated the declaration of the State of Emergency in 1952. Additionally, he narrates how the community raised money to take Gikonyo Kiano for studies in America, the attempted assassination of Muchohi Gikonyo by Fred Kubai, and of Mugo Gatheru, the author of "A Child of Two Worlds," who went on to become a professor in the US. He also explains that villigization as a counter-insurgency measure was borrowed from Malaysia, where it had been used to contain an insurgency. Dr. Kagombe also tells of another conspiracy, this time against President Kibaki. It involved the procurement of an Ethiopian man who was posing as Gen. Stanley Mathenge, the Mau Mau general who had disappeared at the height of the war. According to Kagombe, the idea was to embarrass President Kibaki by portraying him as clueless in his recognition of Mau Mau. Kibaki had just unbanned Mau Mau after 50 years and Mau Mau enemies were keen to show that he did not know what he was doing. #kenya #maumau #africanhistory #africa #kenyanationalarchives #muchohigikonyo #Kibaki #kiano