Idle donkey and the Second letter from White Highlands

It was one of the most iconic photos I have taken lately. A man and some women carrying luggage while avoiding a muddy road as the donkey grazed by in the White Highlands, only 160 kilometres from Nairobi.

Wish the donkey could talk. The photo was taken in Shamata, which means high place in the Maa language.

It’s in the former Central Province, which has given us three presidents. The photo was taken in the constituency once represented by JM Kariuki. It’s in the same constituency where many Mau Mau and World War II (WW II) veterans lived, died and are buried.

That includes General Kiinií and Bahati. Njuguna Njau (guka wa Sungura) fought in Libya during WWII, witnessing the siege of Tobruk. Mburu Mwíkonyi fought the Japanese in Burma (Myanmar). 

A road that once connected Gilgil to Isiolo during WW II is still motorable but more suitable for battle tanks, not cars. This beautiful land on the eastern edge of the Happy Valley (Wanjohi) once hosted British and Boer settlers: Tony Dyer, Kenneth Wilfred Nunn, Clark-Turner, Jacobus Crous, Colonel Nigel Trent, and General Wainewright.

Add a mysterious General Alexander Arbuthnot. A 1984 Los Angeles Olympian, Ruth Waithíra comes from this forgotten place.  Beyond beauty and great weather, no cockroaches or mosquitoes, the place is agriculturally rich, producing potatoes, peas, carrots, sukuma wiki, cabbages, spring onions, fruits and trees.

More crops could grow if tested. Dairying is great, and wool was once an export. Why bad roads? Why are human beings the beast of burden, long after the donkey took over, and later dethroned by the car and bodaboda? 

Is it a lack of effective representation? No one seems to have filled the shoes of JM Kariuki? Should agricultural productivity not be a good reason for tarmacking this road, more so in a food-insecure country? 

The road in the photo takes you to Shamata gate in the Aberdares National Park and on to Ol Kalou and Nakuru. It’s also a shortcut from Nanyuki and Nyeri to Nakuru from Gieterero (a waiting place).

Where did such a funny name come from? There is another bus stage not far from Gieterero with a more fancy name - Ng’ombe nguo,” literary dead cow!

Is the history of the British, Boers and Mau Mau generals not a good enough reason to tarmac this road? It was to be tarmacked after the 2022 polls.

The natives are still waiting; 62 years after uhuru. Many have died waiting for the tarmacked road.

The economic potential of this beautiful land overlooking Lake Ol Bollosat remains unexploited. Landlocked, the population has grown, but not optimism.

With the next generation subdividing land, a good road network will relieve the pressure as newcomers bring new ideas and new thinking. The natives can too leave and seek new opportunities wherever they can be found on this small planet. Next week, the memory of a white highland’s pioneer industrialist.