Kiambu County Assembly Members yesterday passed a motion urging the National Government to declare Kamiriithu Community Education and Cultural Centre (KCECC) a National Heritage Site.
The historic Cultural Centre is an open-air theatre at Kamiriithu, in Limuru, formed in 1976, where the African language was recreated and celebrated in literature, through drama and musical productions, which included song, dance, and mimes illustrating the hardships Africans suffered under colonial rule.
Nduta Muongi a Member of the County Assembly (MCA) for Limuru Central Ward who moved the motion said KCECC carries historical significance of the role played by a community theatre in the service of social transformation and reformation of the community.
“The memory of Kamiriithu cultural and educational facility was almost erased following crack down of its activities and physical demolition of the open-air theatre space by the government,” said Nduta.
She said the community theatre experience was about self-empowerment of communities from the feeling of self-worthlessness and low self-esteem as well as deflated confidence due to the struggles of colonial rule to pride emanating from fights they won.
She added, “the continued lack of adequate documentation and preservation of the history of KCECC as a historical site risk burying the wider history of resistance which inspired anti-colonial resistance in Kenya and all over Africa.”
The MCA further noted that, by declaring KCECC a national heritage site, would ensure that an important piece of Kenyan history is preserved for posterity hence serving as a reminder that ordinary Kenyans are makers of history.
“Declaration and preservation of KCECC as a cultural and heritage site would benefit from rehabilitation through heritage conservation plan and increase public awareness of the site and of its outstanding values, thus boosting the tourist activities at the sites as well as becoming an economic hub for the locals,” she said.
Hon. Nduta said that the Kamiriithu idea continues to inspire millions in the world, as can be seen from numerous publications all over the world. But the inspiring history remains invisible to Kenyans that produced the idea in the first place.
The center which is most famous for its production of ‘Ngaahika Ndeenda’ (I will marry When I want) a theatrical drama by Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o before he went to exile from Kenya in 1977, housing an audience of at least 10,000 people was a livelihood to many.
By Grace Naishoo
