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Scholarly and popular histories of Kenya largely agree that African Second World War veterans played a central role in the Kenya Land Freedom Army. Former African members of the colonial security forces have reinforced these assumptions by claiming to have been covert Mau Mau supporters, either after their discharge, or as serving soldiers. In reality, few Mau Mau generals had actual combat experience. Those who served in the colonial military usually did so in labor units or support arms. It therefore warrants asking why so many Kenyans accept that combat veterans played such a central role in the KLFA and in Kenyan history. Understanding how veterans of the colonial army have become national heroes, both for their wartime service and their supposed leadership of Mau Mau, reveals the capacity of popular history to create more useful and inclusive forms of African nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the life of Rasoah Mutuha, a Quaker convert in western Kenya during the twentieth century, to explore the way female Quakers in East Africa participated in pastoral ministry. As an Abaluhya woman living in a patriarchal society, Rasoah maintained an ordinariness to her life: getting married, raising children and farming. However, she was also well educated for her time and sought to become part of the professional ministry of this 'Friends' church brought from the United States, a goal which directly contradicted gender norms for her society. The diverse documentation of Rasoah's story shows how she and others have reinterpreted her life over a fifty-year period to represent shifting paradigms of gender and religion in African history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates periods of rainfall and drought in East Africa since circa 900 AD, based on lake-level and salinity fluctuations in Lake Naivasha, Kenya. Sediment stratigraphy; Analysis of species composition of fossil diatom and midge assemblages; Chronological links between the history of natural long-term rainfall and the pre-colonial history of East Africa.