The headquarters of the former Central Province for decades, County 019 holds many distinctions. Perhaps the most unique thing about Nyeri is its role as the centre of many notable movements.
Chronologically speaking we can begin with the Blessed Nyaatha, an Italian missionary who came to Kenya in 1915 to join the Consolata Missionaries. She served as a nurse tending to the Carrier Corps during the First World War and after tours of duty in several military hospitals, returned to Nyeri where she had made her home, teaching catechism and tending to the sick in commitment to her faith. In 1930, the Mother of Mercy as she came to be known, passed away after contracting an illness from a patient and 85 years later was beatified in a solemn, moving ceremony at the Dedan Kimathi University.
Which brings us to our second Nyeri notable. Born in 1920 in Tetu while Nyaatha was still tending to the people of his home area, his birth name was Kimathi wa Waciuri. Dedan Kimathi, as he soon came to be known, was born a month after his father’s death and was brought up in a large family by his mother and her co-wives. Kimathi lived a relatively normal life – school, church, work. But the changing tides of Kenya colony found him and in 1951 he became the local secretary of Forty Group— Anake a 40—young men who had decided they were not going to wait for freedom to be neatly handed over to them. In 1953 he formed the Kenya Defence Council, the group in charge of coordinating forest fighters in the Aberdares and Mt Kenya, earning a place on the colonial government’s most-wanted list. Dedan —father, freedom fighter, firebrand—was captured on October 1956 and hanged on the 18th February 1957. Exactly fifty years later, another son of Nyeri unveiled a statue of Dedan..
Another former fighter that found his way to Nyeri was Robert Baden-Powell, a British Army officer in the Boer War and author of the book Scouting for Boys which birthed one of the largest movements in the world—the scouting movement. Published in 1908 and based on his experiences as a soldier in South Africa, the book became a bestseller. The publication of self-instruction in observation, tracking and woodcraft, self-discipline and self-improvement, was a runaway success. He retired to a little cottage in Nyeri in 1939 built on the grounds of his former secretary’s hotel – the Outspan. Named Paxtu, the cottage is a memorial museum to the Scouting movement, visited by scouts from all over the world. Lord Baden-Powell died in 1947 and his grave in Nyeri Town is visited by thousands seeking to pay homage each year.
Speaking of county 19, shall we talk about trees? More so in relation to the story of another Nyeri notable? Or by letting you know that she was born in 1940 in Ihithe village, and that more than anything she sought to be a hummingbird who just did her little thing without ceasing. Will we have told you enough?
