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IJARA WEEKLY ARTICLE May 29th and 30th,2010 |
440-mile Tana River is the longest river in Kenya, and gives its name to the Tana River District. Its tributaries include the Thika. The river rises in the Aberdare Mountains to the west of Nyeri. Initially it runs east before turning south round the massif of Mount Kenya. The river then turns into the Masinga Reservoir and the Kiambere Reservoir created by the Kindaruma dam. Below the dam the river turns north and flows the north-south boundary between the Meru and North Kitui and Bisanadi, Kora and Rabole National Reserves. In the reserves the river turns east, and then south east. It passes through the towns of Garissa, Hola and Garsen before entering the Indian Ocean at Ungwana Bay.
we will briefly explain in detal the mojor towns bordering tana river and specialy the history of Garissa,Hola,Garseni
Garissa is located in a desert region of Kenya, along the Tana River. Garissa has a very warm/hot climate, due to the low elevation and distance away from the cooler coastal areas. The daytime temperature typically rises above 33°C (91°F), every day, but returns to a mild temperature, every night.Garissa is a city in North Eastern Province, Kenya. It is the capital of the province.. It has a population of 65,881 (1999 census). The Tana River flows through the city of Garissa.
Most of the inhabitants of Garissa are ethnic Somalis who are pastoralists.
The major clans in the region belong to the Ogaden sub-clan of the Somali Darod. There are also a small number of other minority tribes commonly referred to as corner tribes.
Garissa forms a municipality that has six wards (Biashara, Bulla, Jamhuri, Market, Mashambani and Stadium). All of them belong to Dujis Constituency, which has a total of thirteen wards. The remaining seven are located within Garissa County Council, the rural council of Garissa District.
Hola, also known as Galole is a small town in Kenya on the Tana River with a population of 6931. Hola is the capital of the Tana River District, in the Coast Province. It is a busy market town, and portal to Ijara District and Northeastern province by local canoe ferry across the Tana River. In addition to the Hola agricultural irrigation scheme, there is a District Hospital and a Kenya Prisons facility located within the town.
Hola was the site of a detention camp Hola massacre in 1959, where a fracas occurred in which eleven detainees were killed by African prison warders. The victims were alleged Mau Mau rebels being held in the camp as part of Operation Anvil. Since the incident there have been efforts to rename the town Galole.
What follows is a recent commentary by a contemporary witness to the Hola investigations:
I, G J Wright, as an Inspector of Police, was sent to Hola a few days after the deaths occurred to relieve the incumbent who was sick. These detainees were not "alleged Mau Mau rebels" but hardcore and recalcitrant criminals who flatly refused to work on an experimental agricultural scheme. The warders, none of who were carrying machine guns, were instructed, perhaps misguidedly, to put the detainees through the motions of work. Some of the detainees attacked the warders with picks and shovels and it was in the resulting melee that some were beaten to death. The deaths were inexcusable but it is worth noting that many of the prison warders had been with the same detainees at Mageta Island in lake Victoria and at Manyani near Voi, and were sorely tried by these thugs. Note too that there were no British Troops in Coast Province and certainly none at Hola at the time of this incident.
There is an alternative historical view of the 'Hola Massacre' in Caroline Elkins' Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya, (2005), pages 344-353. Much of the story of the British and Colonial administration was covered-up during the transition to independence in Kenya, and many official documents had been intentionally destroyed during the transition. Elkins, by carefully tracing available original documents and interviews with surviving Kenyans and colonial staff, indicates that part of Hola Prison was used as a remote punishment camp for 'hard core' Mau Mau insurgents who refused to recant their oaths or affiliation to the movement. Physical and psychological abuse were used to 'break' detainees, so they could be 'rehabilitated' and moved out of the concentration camp pipeline and back to Kikuyu reservations.
Placed in a hard labor camp, the massacre victims were severely beaten by guards when they refused to work. Official investigations at the time failed to hold any specific prison staff accountable. However, the Hola massacre got the attention of the British cabinet, as the official inquiry indicated very clearly that the detainees were beaten to death, and that the policy towards the detainees had Kenya government approval.
Once the inquiry findings were made public, the opposition members in the House of Commons called for a debate. Increasing adverse publicity and calls for further investigations of human rights abuses in the camps lead to a reduction in UK governmental support for the Kenya Colony's administration, and resulted in accelerated moves towards Kenyan independence.
The other bordering towns around the river are Garseni which is asmall setlement under hola of tanariver district,Coast provence
on the other side of the River is bordered by Ijara district.Ijara is a constituency district in the North Eastern Province of Kenya. On May 20, 2000, it was carved out from another and larger Garissa District. It covers an area of 11’332 km² and, according to the population census of 1999, has a population of 62,571 . It borders Garissa District to the north, Lamu District to the south, Tana River District to the west, and Somalia to the northeast. The district has one local authority, Ijara county council, and one constituency, Ijara. The main economic livelihood of the inhabitants is pastoralism and subsistence agriculture. Over 80% of the land is earmarked for livestock production. There is potential for rain-fed agriculture but only a small proportion is utilized for commercial agriculture. Local communities settled in the district include the Awer hunter-gatherers and the pastoral Somali of samawadal caln especialy the main subclans are Re-mohamed and Abdalla.
Administrative divisions
Division Population* Pop. density* Area (km²) Headquarters
Hulugho 20,831 4 5207,8
Ijara 17,236 7 2462,3 Ijara
Masalani 13,358 9 1484,2 Masalani
Sangailu 11,217 5 2243,4
Total 62,624 - 11,397 -
* 1999 census. Sources: [2]
Approximately one quarter of the district is covered by the Boni Forest, which is an indigenous open canopy forest and part of Northern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic [3]. A section of the forest, the Boni National Reserve, is managed by the Kenyan Wildlife Service as a protected conservation area. Other forest types are found along the Tana River on the western border of the district.The district is also pivotal in the conservation of the critically endangered Hirola population. A number of initiatives and conservancies have been established to that purpose, including the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy
so the bordering part of ijara district to the River tana is mainly Qotiley area. Arawala is also one of the Reserve park in the Region. |
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IJARA WEEKLY ARTICLE May 29th and 30th,2010 |
440-mile Tana River is the longest river in Kenya, and gives its name to the Tana River District. Its tributaries include the Thika. The river rises in the Aberdare Mountains to the west of Nyeri. Initially it runs east before turning south round the massif of Mount Kenya. The river then turns into the Masinga Reservoir and the Kiambere Reservoir created by the Kindaruma dam. Below the dam the river turns north and flows the north-south boundary between the Meru and North Kitui and Bisanadi, Kora and Rabole National Reserves. In the reserves the river turns east, and then south east. It passes through the towns of Garissa, Hola and Garsen before entering the Indian Ocean at Ungwana Bay.
we will briefly explain in detal the mojor towns bordering tana river and specialy the history of Garissa,Hola,Garseni
Garissa is located in a desert region of Kenya, along the Tana River. Garissa has a very warm/hot climate, due to the low elevation and distance away from the cooler coastal areas. The daytime temperature typically rises above 33°C (91°F), every day, but returns to a mild temperature, every night.Garissa is a city in North Eastern Province, Kenya. It is the capital of the province.. It has a population of 65,881 (1999 census). The Tana River flows through the city of Garissa.
Most of the inhabitants of Garissa are ethnic Somalis who are pastoralists.
The major clans in the region belong to the Ogaden sub-clan of the Somali Darod. There are also a small number of other minority tribes commonly referred to as corner tribes.
Garissa forms a municipality that has six wards (Biashara, Bulla, Jamhuri, Market, Mashambani and Stadium). All of them belong to Dujis Constituency, which has a total of thirteen wards. The remaining seven are located within Garissa County Council, the rural council of Garissa District.
Hola, also known as Galole is a small town in Kenya on the Tana River with a population of 6931. Hola is the capital of the Tana River District, in the Coast Province. It is a busy market town, and portal to Ijara District and Northeastern province by local canoe ferry across the Tana River. In addition to the Hola agricultural irrigation scheme, there is a District Hospital and a Kenya Prisons facility located within the town.
Hola was the site of a detention camp Hola massacre in 1959, where a fracas occurred in which eleven detainees were killed by African prison warders. The victims were alleged Mau Mau rebels being held in the camp as part of Operation Anvil. Since the incident there have been efforts to rename the town Galole.
What follows is a recent commentary by a contemporary witness to the Hola investigations:
I, G J Wright, as an Inspector of Police, was sent to Hola a few days after the deaths occurred to relieve the incumbent who was sick. These detainees were not "alleged Mau Mau rebels" but hardcore and recalcitrant criminals who flatly refused to work on an experimental agricultural scheme. The warders, none of who were carrying machine guns, were instructed, perhaps misguidedly, to put the detainees through the motions of work. Some of the detainees attacked the warders with picks and shovels and it was in the resulting melee that some were beaten to death. The deaths were inexcusable but it is worth noting that many of the prison warders had been with the same detainees at Mageta Island in lake Victoria and at Manyani near Voi, and were sorely tried by these thugs. Note too that there were no British Troops in Coast Province and certainly none at Hola at the time of this incident.
There is an alternative historical view of the 'Hola Massacre' in Caroline Elkins' Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya, (2005), pages 344-353. Much of the story of the British and Colonial administration was covered-up during the transition to independence in Kenya, and many official documents had been intentionally destroyed during the transition. Elkins, by carefully tracing available original documents and interviews with surviving Kenyans and colonial staff, indicates that part of Hola Prison was used as a remote punishment camp for 'hard core' Mau Mau insurgents who refused to recant their oaths or affiliation to the movement. Physical and psychological abuse were used to 'break' detainees, so they could be 'rehabilitated' and moved out of the concentration camp pipeline and back to Kikuyu reservations.
Placed in a hard labor camp, the massacre victims were severely beaten by guards when they refused to work. Official investigations at the time failed to hold any specific prison staff accountable. However, the Hola massacre got the attention of the British cabinet, as the official inquiry indicated very clearly that the detainees were beaten to death, and that the policy towards the detainees had Kenya government approval.
Once the inquiry findings were made public, the opposition members in the House of Commons called for a debate. Increasing adverse publicity and calls for further investigations of human rights abuses in the camps lead to a reduction in UK governmental support for the Kenya Colony's administration, and resulted in accelerated moves towards Kenyan independence.
The other bordering towns around the river are Garseni which is asmall setlement under hola of tanariver district,Coast provence
on the other side of the River is bordered by Ijara district.Ijara is a constituency district in the North Eastern Province of Kenya. On May 20, 2000, it was carved out from another and larger Garissa District. It covers an area of 11’332 km² and, according to the population census of 1999, has a population of 62,571 . It borders Garissa District to the north, Lamu District to the south, Tana River District to the west, and Somalia to the northeast. The district has one local authority, Ijara county council, and one constituency, Ijara. The main economic livelihood of the inhabitants is pastoralism and subsistence agriculture. Over 80% of the land is earmarked for livestock production. There is potential for rain-fed agriculture but only a small proportion is utilized for commercial agriculture. Local communities settled in the district include the Awer hunter-gatherers and the pastoral Somali of samawadal caln especialy the main subclans are Re-mohamed and Abdalla.
Administrative divisions
Division Population* Pop. density* Area (km²) Headquarters
Hulugho 20,831 4 5207,8
Ijara 17,236 7 2462,3 Ijara
Masalani 13,358 9 1484,2 Masalani
Sangailu 11,217 5 2243,4
Total 62,624 - 11,397 -
* 1999 census. Sources: [2]
Approximately one quarter of the district is covered by the Boni Forest, which is an indigenous open canopy forest and part of Northern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic [3]. A section of the forest, the Boni National Reserve, is managed by the Kenyan Wildlife Service as a protected conservation area. Other forest types are found along the Tana River on the western border of the district.The district is also pivotal in the conservation of the critically endangered Hirola population. A number of initiatives and conservancies have been established to that purpose, including the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy
so the bordering part of ijara district to the River tana is mainly Qotiley area. Arawala is also one of the Reserve park in the Region. |
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IJARA WEEKLY ARTICLE May 29th and 30th,2010 |
440-mile Tana River is the longest river in Kenya, and gives its name to the Tana River District. Its tributaries include the Thika. The river rises in the Aberdare Mountains to the west of Nyeri. Initially it runs east before turning south round the massif of Mount Kenya. The river then turns into the Masinga Reservoir and the Kiambere Reservoir created by the Kindaruma dam. Below the dam the river turns north and flows the north-south boundary between the Meru and North Kitui and Bisanadi, Kora and Rabole National Reserves. In the reserves the river turns east, and then south east. It passes through the towns of Garissa, Hola and Garsen before entering the Indian Ocean at Ungwana Bay.
we will briefly explain in detal the mojor towns bordering tana river and specialy the history of Garissa,Hola,Garseni
Garissa is located in a desert region of Kenya, along the Tana River. Garissa has a very warm/hot climate, due to the low elevation and distance away from the cooler coastal areas. The daytime temperature typically rises above 33°C (91°F), every day, but returns to a mild temperature, every night.Garissa is a city in North Eastern Province, Kenya. It is the capital of the province.. It has a population of 65,881 (1999 census). The Tana River flows through the city of Garissa.
Most of the inhabitants of Garissa are ethnic Somalis who are pastoralists.
The major clans in the region belong to the Ogaden sub-clan of the Somali Darod. There are also a small number of other minority tribes commonly referred to as corner tribes.
Garissa forms a municipality that has six wards (Biashara, Bulla, Jamhuri, Market, Mashambani and Stadium). All of them belong to Dujis Constituency, which has a total of thirteen wards. The remaining seven are located within Garissa County Council, the rural council of Garissa District.
Hola, also known as Galole is a small town in Kenya on the Tana River with a population of 6931. Hola is the capital of the Tana River District, in the Coast Province. It is a busy market town, and portal to Ijara District and Northeastern province by local canoe ferry across the Tana River. In addition to the Hola agricultural irrigation scheme, there is a District Hospital and a Kenya Prisons facility located within the town.
Hola was the site of a detention camp Hola massacre in 1959, where a fracas occurred in which eleven detainees were killed by African prison warders. The victims were alleged Mau Mau rebels being held in the camp as part of Operation Anvil. Since the incident there have been efforts to rename the town Galole.
What follows is a recent commentary by a contemporary witness to the Hola investigations:
I, G J Wright, as an Inspector of Police, was sent to Hola a few days after the deaths occurred to relieve the incumbent who was sick. These detainees were not "alleged Mau Mau rebels" but hardcore and recalcitrant criminals who flatly refused to work on an experimental agricultural scheme. The warders, none of who were carrying machine guns, were instructed, perhaps misguidedly, to put the detainees through the motions of work. Some of the detainees attacked the warders with picks and shovels and it was in the resulting melee that some were beaten to death. The deaths were inexcusable but it is worth noting that many of the prison warders had been with the same detainees at Mageta Island in lake Victoria and at Manyani near Voi, and were sorely tried by these thugs. Note too that there were no British Troops in Coast Province and certainly none at Hola at the time of this incident.
There is an alternative historical view of the 'Hola Massacre' in Caroline Elkins' Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya, (2005), pages 344-353. Much of the story of the British and Colonial administration was covered-up during the transition to independence in Kenya, and many official documents had been intentionally destroyed during the transition. Elkins, by carefully tracing available original documents and interviews with surviving Kenyans and colonial staff, indicates that part of Hola Prison was used as a remote punishment camp for 'hard core' Mau Mau insurgents who refused to recant their oaths or affiliation to the movement. Physical and psychological abuse were used to 'break' detainees, so they could be 'rehabilitated' and moved out of the concentration camp pipeline and back to Kikuyu reservations.
Placed in a hard labor camp, the massacre victims were severely beaten by guards when they refused to work. Official investigations at the time failed to hold any specific prison staff accountable. However, the Hola massacre got the attention of the British cabinet, as the official inquiry indicated very clearly that the detainees were beaten to death, and that the policy towards the detainees had Kenya government approval.
Once the inquiry findings were made public, the opposition members in the House of Commons called for a debate. Increasing adverse publicity and calls for further investigations of human rights abuses in the camps lead to a reduction in UK governmental support for the Kenya Colony's administration, and resulted in accelerated moves towards Kenyan independence.
The other bordering towns around the river are Garseni which is asmall setlement under hola of tanariver district,Coast provence
on the other side of the River is bordered by Ijara district.Ijara is a constituency district in the North Eastern Province of Kenya. On May 20, 2000, it was carved out from another and larger Garissa District. It covers an area of 11’332 km² and, according to the population census of 1999, has a population of 62,571 . It borders Garissa District to the north, Lamu District to the south, Tana River District to the west, and Somalia to the northeast. The district has one local authority, Ijara county council, and one constituency, Ijara. The main economic livelihood of the inhabitants is pastoralism and subsistence agriculture. Over 80% of the land is earmarked for livestock production. There is potential for rain-fed agriculture but only a small proportion is utilized for commercial agriculture. Local communities settled in the district include the Awer hunter-gatherers and the pastoral Somali of samawadal caln especialy the main subclans are Re-mohamed and Abdalla.
Administrative divisions
Division Population* Pop. density* Area (km²) Headquarters
Hulugho 20,831 4 5207,8
Ijara 17,236 7 2462,3 Ijara
Masalani 13,358 9 1484,2 Masalani
Sangailu 11,217 5 2243,4
Total 62,624 - 11,397 -
* 1999 census. Sources: [2]
Approximately one quarter of the district is covered by the Boni Forest, which is an indigenous open canopy forest and part of Northern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic [3]. A section of the forest, the Boni National Reserve, is managed by the Kenyan Wildlife Service as a protected conservation area. Other forest types are found along the Tana River on the western border of the district.The district is also pivotal in the conservation of the critically endangered Hirola population. A number of initiatives and conservancies have been established to that purpose, including the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy
so the bordering part of ijara district to the River tana is mainly Qotiley area. Arawala is also one of the Reserve park in the Region. |
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