ON THIS DAY ·
Harry Thuku protest shooting
16 Mar 1922 — Outside Nairobi’s police lines, a crowd calls for Harry Thuku’s release. Police and settlers fire on the crowd, killing 21 people by the official count. Among the dead is Mary Muthoni Nyanjiru, who led the women.
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The moment in context
The Uganda Railway reached the interior in stages. Workers laid the first rail at Mombasa on 30 May 1896, reached the depot town of Nairobi in May 1899, and arrived at Lake Victoria at Kisumu on 20 December 1901. Britain recruited 31,983 workers in British India; 2,493 died and 6,724 stayed. Those who remained helped begin Kenya’s Asian community, shown by the arrow from the eastern edge.
From White Highlands of colonial Kenya, chapter 7 of Two Roads to Independence: Haiti 1789–1838 and Kenya 1895–1978 (1922).
The place: Harry Thuku protest shooting — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — A railway that needed freight. Britain built the Uganda Railway to secure Uganda and the Nile. Once the line was built, its cost—about £5.5 million, far above early…
- The turn — The Nairobi police lines, 16 March 1922. Kikuyu, Kamba and others had joined Thuku’s campaign against the pass, taxes and wage cuts. His arrest brought perhaps 7,000 people to the capital…
- What it changed — Kikuyu land politics takes the lead. The Kikuyu Central Association pursued land claims through evidence and petitions. It collected accounts of lost fields for the Kenya Land…
Then ask the room: Was land or labour the deeper grievance of colonial Kenya? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
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