Statecraft & Independence
Peerless
Mary Muthoni Nyanjiru
died 1922
Shamed the men forward at the Nairobi police station, and was shot for it
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Why they are here
Eight thousand gathered to demand Harry Thuku's release and the men began to drift away. She lifted her dress over her head and said: take my dress and give me your trousers, you cowards. The crowd surged. She was among the first killed.
Mary Muthoni Nyanjiru was a Kikuyu woman born at Weithaga in Murang'a; the year is not recorded. She was living in Nairobi with her stepdaughter in 1922.
On 16 March, two days after Harry Thuku's arrest, a crowd of seven or eight thousand surrounded the Nairobi police station demanding his release. When the demonstration looked ready to disperse, a group of women led by Nyanjiru rounded on the men, and she made the gravest gesture available to a Kikuyu woman — lifting her calico dress over her head and telling them to take her dress and give her their trousers, since they had no use for them. The crowd surged forward. The police opened fire, killing at least twenty-five and by some accounts more than fifty. She was among the first to die.
On 16 March, two days after Harry Thuku's arrest, a crowd of seven or eight thousand surrounded the Nairobi police station demanding his release. When the demonstration looked ready to disperse, a group of women led by Nyanjiru rounded on the men, and she made the gravest gesture available to a Kikuyu woman — lifting her calico dress over her head and telling them to take her dress and give her their trousers, since they had no use for them. The crowd surged forward. The police opened fire, killing at least twenty-five and by some accounts more than fifty. She was among the first to die.
- Wikipedia — Mary Muthoni Nyanjiru
- Kenyans.co.ke — Muthoni Nyanjiru: first among men, the woman who showed trouble the way
- Paukwa — The firebrand: Mary Muthoni Nyanjiru
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