Nudity as Protest: Exploring the Carnival of Nancy Mteki’s Hayai” and “1992 Freedom Corner Protest”.

 “Nudity as Protest: Exploring the Carnival of Nancy Mteki’s Hayai” and “1992 Freedom Corner Protest”. 

The 1992 Freedom Corner Protest essay details the year long hunger strike which started on February 28th 1992, when a group of women, aged between 60-82 years, petitioned the Attorney General Amos Wako to release 52 political prisoners, some of which were their sons. Receiving a lukewarm response, the women gathered by Nairobi’s Freedom Corner to start a hunger strike in order to pressure the Moi era regime into meeting their demands. I will represent the happenings as described in the book.

The original three organisers Monica Wangu wa Wamwere, Milka Wanjiru Kinuthia and Gladys Thiitu Kariuki met in Nakuru at Monica’s house to plan their strategy. At the time of the hunger strike, their sons Koigi Wamwere, Rumba Kinuthia and Mirugi Kariuki (respectively) along with Koigi’s cousin Geoffrey Kuga Kariuki had been under arrest since October 1990 for treason and were said to be across the road from Freedom Corner at Nyayo House, facing torture and possible execution.

Dr. Wangari Maathai, who had recently been stripped of her role as a Member of Parliament was at the heart of the protest. Politicians like Raila Odinga, Masinde Muliro, and Emilio Kibaki also came to offer support to the women who had chained themselves to each other. 

On the morning of Tuesday March 3, 1992, the Head of the Public Service, Philip Mbithi, warned the mothers to leave Freedom Corner and end their strike. By 3:00pm, several hundred policemen had surrounded the protest site at Freedom Corner to forcibly evict the mothers. Kenyan riot police, what became the General Service Unit, first beat, whipped, and dispersed the Release Political Prisoners youth and other members of the public who had gathered in a security cordon around the fasting women. The General Service Unit soldiers threw tear gas into the tent where the hunger-fatigued women held firm. Policemen then indiscriminately battered the old women as they emerged from their tent.

To protest the brutality, one elderly Mau Mau fighter, Ruth Wangari wa Thungu threw off her clothes. In the pitched battle she stripped naked and cursed the police and the head of state by exposing her vagina. Two other women joined her. The police forces unable to bare the nudity of women stripped in anger and frustration turned away their eyes and started leaving the scene.

The nude protest inspired other Nairobians to join the mothers. On Wednesday March 4, 1992, small traders and the matatu transport workers joined the protest through boycotts at Gikomba market and the Machakos bus terminus.

The mothers regrouped at the All Saints Cathedral because the government prohibited the mothers from returning to “Freedom Corner”. The priests Archbishop Manasses Kuria and Provost Njenga of the cathedral granted them sanctuary and to continue petitioning.

On March 31, 1992 the mothers attempted to deliver a petition to President Moi to give him an opportunity to avoid the strike, but they were turned away by police forces.

On the evening of April 1, 1992, government police raided the All Saints Cathedral and occupied the grounds for three days as the mothers barricaded themselves in the church basement.

The Forum to Re-establish Democracy called for a national strike to begin on April 2, 1992.

On April 12, 1992, Archbishop of the Anglican Church Manasses Kuria declared that “idlers” were officially barred from the cathedral grounds, and that the cathedral was “…a sanctuary for the mothers of the political prisoners.”

On April 16 - 17, 1992, the mothers distributed 6,000 leaflets containing information about their sons and the conditions under which they were arrested. In addition, the mothers regularly attended their sons’ court hearings.

On June 24, 1992, four of the political prisoners were released, and by January 19, 1993, all of the mothers were reunited with their sons. The 52nd political prisoner, James Apiny Adhiambo, was released on November 14,1997, after a five-year international campaign coordinated by the Release Political Prisoners pressure group.

And that, my friend, was the Moi regime’s dictatorial repression at its best.