PART 1E: The Human Cost- Chetambe War Casualties, Fate Of Freedom Fighters Wakoli Khwa Mukisu and Chetambe Ifile

In this final installment of part one of our three part series honoring the memory of the shujaas of Chetambe, we attempt to enumerate the most complete rota of Chetambe war casualties. This is done as an act of remembrance. It’s also a way to reveal the scale and types of atrocities faced by our forefathers.

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Getting precise figures of Chetambe war casualties is problematic due to several factors. We allude to these factors in our editorial decision to consider the ‘wars’ of Lumboka 1, Mukhweya, Lumboka 2 and Chetambe as being different battles in one war – the 1895 war of Chetambe. Further, by speaking of Chetambe war casualties we talk of: the military deaths in combat; military MIA; and civilians who died as a consequence of war through disease, military action, crimes against humanity and other casualties suffered as a result of war.

Chetambe War Casualties: Civilian Death By Disease, Military Action, Crimes Against Humanity and Other Casualties Suffered As A Consequence Of War

Though exact numbers of civilian Chetambe war casualties is hard to come by, we learn a lot from various accounts on how our fore fathers met their death.

Many people from this area who started together with us for Chetambe died on the way. Some were killed by the enemy, some drowned when they attempted to cross the Kuywa (Nzoia) river. Others hid along the way but were discovered and captured.

Campaign Of Genocide

We are also introduced to the scale of the crimes against humanity that were committed. According to this account with details in first person narration, the plunder on life was genocidal in scale. Death met each one of those who crossed the enemy’s wrath. To escape the inevitable death, the unthinkable had to be done. Consider the case of shujaa Mboro.

It was Mboro who, when the fighting at Chetambe became serious, covered his stomach with the small intestines of someone who had died and pretended he was dead. Eeee! That Mboro!

War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity

In this same account, the source offers that it was only women who were captured in Chetambe; the men were shot. No telling the horrors the captured might have suffered in the hands of the enemy. Being it that the captives were mostly women, no prizes for guessing what they underwent.

The scorch earth campaign by the British resulted in untold losses forcing Babukusu into hunger, starvation and poverty. A large number of cattle was lost through drowning at river Kuywa. Other cattle was killed directly by the enemy. Even food stock was not spared in this campaign of death.

All houses in our village fort had been burned except one. Wimbi (millet) takes a long time to burn and we found some of it still smoldering

The destruction meted upon families and damage to the social fabric through displacement of persons is untold. Among the atrocities suffered, this has to be the most prevalent. Consider the passage below from this oral account.

One woman saw her mother being swept away in the Nzoia after the bridge broke and ordered her husband to get hold of the woman or else she would no longer be his wife……. I remember that a woman Wamaluba was called back by another woman by the name of Lukobola as she tried to escape and was told not to abandon her grandmother – “Don’t leave your grandmother!….Don’t leave her!”

Small Pox Adds To List Of Chetambe War Casualties

The tipping point in disease epidemics arise under diverse conditions. The conditions almost always invariably involve situations where populations are in the move and or crowd. Of these conditions, war and famine provide the most ideal instances where epidemics arise. In the 1890’s to the early 1920’s Kenya was perfect for an epidemic. The Chetambe war may have contributed to the Kenyan smallpox epidemic of 1880 to 1920. The epidemic in turn must have contributed to the number of casualties from the war. In a listicle on the 7 most devastating epidemics in Kenya’s history, Kenyan history buffs Owaahh write:

One of the reasons why the colonialists quickly subdued Kenyan communities was due to the smallpox epidemics of the late nineteenth century. Smallpox epidemics occurred immediately after famines, finishing off the humans who had barely survived months, sometimes years, of suffering. During the exceptionally bad famine of 1882-1884, a vicious smallpox epidemic broke out at Sagalla and quickly spread across the country

Chetambe War Casualties: Combat Deaths and Missing In Action

Lets start with the big one, the war at Chetambe. In detailing Chetambe war casualties from combat deaths and missing in action, one account has it that hundreds of Tachoni men who had remained behind in the fort and over 450 Bukusu men died. These figures are interesting.

First, that 450 Bukusu freedom fighters made it to Chetambe after the fall of Lumboka is revealing. In our account of the battle of Lumboka, we payed homage to slightly more than 400 Bukusu warriors who died. This figure yields the missing in action from Lumboka as circa 600 freedom fighters. We have arrived at this number of MIA by subtracting the 450 who died at Lumboka from the original 1000 or so soldiers who had been under the command of Wakoli at Lumboka.

Second, the figure of 450 Bukusu soldiers and hundreds of Tachoni freedom fighters who died at Chetambe gives us another clue to the number of Chetambe war casualties. Assuming a ratio of 1:1 between the Tachoni and Bukusu shujaas, we have died in combat total of 900. This figure is higher than the 400 we have for Lumboka. More importantly it concurs with most accounts of the war which report the blood spilled at Chetambe as the ocean and that shed in Lumboka as a shallow pan. However, given the lack of precise detail on the number of Tachoni soldiers under Chetambe Ifile command, it is impossible to deduce the number of MIA.

Circa 2000 Freedom Fighters and circa 300 Soldiers Fighting For Britain Either Dead or MIA?

To this add the reported 200 Swahili solders who died in the battle at Mukhweya. Remember that some accounts of the war talk of 25 to 30 Sudanese/Zanzibari soldiers who died in this battle. Also entertain the possibility that it might have been 25 to 30 Sudanese/Zanzibari mercenaries and 200 Swahili conubterparts. Or it might be either of the groups sans the other.

Further, we need to add the three freedom fighters who died in the first battle at Lumboka to our growing reconstruction of Chetambe war casualties. From the second battle of Lumboka, Holbeys account has it that 91 men died. This figure constituted casualties from the imperialist’s side. If we account for the hundreds of soldiers MIA, the numbers from Lumboka are almost comparable to the number of Kenyans killed in the post election violence of 2007.

Now consider that this was in the 1890’s and the reality of the scale of the blood shed during this war sinks in. For comparison, also consider that the population of Bungoma Town in 1962 was 1589. By that time, such a partly figure was considered excessive – to that point that it lead to the mushrooming of informal settlements such as Mufutu.

Further, in comparison, the first world war which was fought over several continents, over several years and using all sorts of firepower including air force had 15 to 19 million deaths. The fact that this number of people from one tribe were killed over such a short of time is nothing short of genocidal.

Chetambe War Casualties: The Fate of Legendary Warrior Wakoli Wa’Mkisu The Freedom Fighter

So after the heroics at Mukhweya and Lumboka, what became of shujaa Wakoli khwa Mukisu? One disputed account common in oral folk has it that his fate is unknown. In this legend, it is said that Wakoli son of Mukisu died a death similar to that of his contemporaries – dare I say the likes of Dedan Kimathi. According to this legend, Wakoli on fleeing Lumboka headed to Chetambe.

With the fall of Chetambe, he fled to the land of his maternal uncles, kocha, in Siboti where he was tracked down and captured. Thereafter tortured to his death. His tormentors and his peoples oppressors denied him Bukusu death and burial rights accorded to a man of his stature. Further, he suffered the undignified burial of being interred in am unmarked grave. The location of this grave remains according to this legend remains unknown.

However, a more accurate oral annotation of events has it that Omwami Okhwa Mukisu did flee into hiding after Chetambe. His maternal uncles, bukochawe of the Bukusu clan Bakimwei accommodated him first in Malakisi and finally in Siboti in modern day Bumula where he was given land to settle. It must be said that this pattern of events where leaders of the Bukusu resistance found refuge bukochawe was common. For example following the fall of Lumboka, Chief Namajanja went to hide among his maternal uncles in Nalondo.

What Happened To Chetambe Ifile?

For Omwami Chetambe, however, it is said that he managed to escape the massacre. Despite the heavy shelling, Omwami Chetambe did not die in the blast. He escaped through the back gate and went to Magemo and lived well to later on die in 1906.

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Disclaimer

This account is likely to differ from the many other accounts of the events of interest. There might even be deviations in the description of characters and times. The challenge faced by the 19th century East African historian of a lack of proper records in one not easy to navigate. Moreover, as stated at the introductory piece to this series, one of our aims is to make this effort of remembrance of our heroes as digestible to the reader as can be. To this end, we often opt for convergence in accounts of the events as a key measure of validity. Moreover, we also frequently elect to highlight nuances from different accounts. As stated, our primary sources will be listed at the end of the series for your further reading.

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Series Navigation

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