Field Marshal Muthoni Kirima thanks Mama Ngina for buying her a house
During the brief ceremony, Mama Ngina received gifts from the family of Field Marshal Muthoni Kirima. The gifts included goats, a pot, a three-legged stool, a traditional tray, a kiondo (African basket) and food from her farm.
Field Marshal Muthoni Kirima on Thursday visited Mama Ngina Kenyatta to thank her for helping her family, including settling her Sh4.7 million bank loan and buying her a house.
She gifted Mama Ngina with goats, a pot, a three-legged stool, a traditional tray, a kiondo, and food sourced from her farm.
The visit took place during a thanksgiving occasion at Mama Ngina’s Muthaiga home.
During the occasion that took place at Mama Ngina’s Muthaiga home, Field Marshal Muthoni Kirima was accompanied by over a dozen members of her immediate family and a handful of Kikuyu elders.
Field Marshal Kirima was accompanied by more than a dozen members of her immediate family and a handful of Kikuyu elders.
Ms Kirima, a retired top-ranking fighter in the Mau Mau uprising, also thanked Mama Ngina for accepting her invitation to Nyeri on April 1, last year, to cut off her dreadlocks.
The act, said Ms Kirima, signified the end of the struggles that she and many others endured to secure the country from British colonial rule.
When she came into the limelight last year for shaving her head of the dreadlocks that she had had for 70 years, she explained that the government had met her desires, even though she did not disclose what they were exactly.
The country gained independence
"I cut my hair because it has been a long journey. I started keeping this hair in 1952 and after more than 70 years, I needed to get rid of them (dreadlocks). I now feel like a young girl. Most of the Mau Mau fighters took a vow that they will never shave until the country gained independence," said Ms Kirima.
While appreciating Ms Kirima’s visit, Mama Ngina said the dreadlocks will be taken to the museum to serve as a reminder to future generations and visitors from all over the world of the sacrifices that Kenyan freedom fighters made to liberate the country from colonial rule.
Mama Ngina also said she was honoured to have been selected as the one to shave the freedom fighter’s head.
She stated that keeping the hair for such a long time signified the perseverance of the freedom fighters under the harsh colonial rule and they should be held in high regard.
“Dreadlocks were the hairstyle that was associated with the Mau Mau while fighting in the forest because they barely had time to properly groom their hair, making it lock,” she explained.
