On February 6, 1952, the day the British colonialists had scheduled to evict people from some villages in Konoin, Bomet County, word was received that the British monarch, King George VI, had died at Sandringham.
At that same time, King George’s firstborn child and heir apparent, Princess Elizabeth, was in Kenya.
The tragic coincidence put a temporary hold on the evictions, but just two weeks later, some 88 families residing in the villages of Kaptuigeny and Kapmogonjet were forcibly evicted from their homes. The evictions were carried out on the order of the colonial authorities.
It was on a rainy day that Maria Chepkwony, one of the villagers, began her journey of tribulation. She, along with others, was left landless and displaced from her home in Kaptuigeny.
Her father, Kimurotwet araap Borowo, had put up a spirited fight for the land, together with his more famous brother, Tapsimate araap Borowo who was the local KAU official, and had mobilised the villagers to fight against British takeover of their land.
They won court cases against the aggressive foreigners twice, but the villagers lost a third appeal by the colonial authorities in a court in Kisumu, paving the way for the evictions. Borowo and his counterpart, Kipsoi araap Chemororew, was in jail when this happened.
Maria was only a young mother. She lost the family’s property and became a squatter, and her husband, Cheruiyot arap Chepkwony, was taken as a slave in the tea farms.
“I was alive during the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, the mother of King Charles. I also witnessed the son, who is an officer, get married many years later,” said the 86-year-old.
“I heard that Queen Elizabeth passed away. It was under her rule that our land was grabbed and our property taken. Now, I want the king to order the return of our land. I want him to order that we, the elderly occupants of this land, be paid a monthly stipend,” Maria said in an interview.
She said that King Charles should correct the wrongs of the past and compensate the victims of the horrendous acts during the colonial times, especially the elderly who experience it firsthand and are still alive.
“There are no two ways about it. Let the son of Elizabeth correct the wrongs of the past and his rule as a king will be stable. We have lived in a squalor and we will only bless him to enjoy his rule as king if he compensates us,” said the octogenarian.
Just like the British coronation, they are marking 70 years of suffering in squatter settlements.
According to Mr Godfrey Sang, a historian and author, the evictions were tied to economic interests of the colonial-period multinationals that enjoyed immense economic and political power.
“The African Highlands Produce Company had applied for the land but there was a small problem. The land covered the Kaptuigeny and Kapmogonjet villages which was the ancestral home of hundreds of families who had lived there for centuries,” said Mr Sang.
