A Daunting Journey

Book excerpt: He is described as a Mau Mau oath-taker, seemingly of two minds ñ both for and against, loyal and disloyal. In A Daunting Journey, Jeremiah Gitau Kiereini, lets us into his life spanning three generations. He reveals insights into the influences and intrigues surrounding the early civil service and the powerful individuals who held Kenya's future in their hands. Kiereini also exposes the dichotomy that irreconcilably split the communities involved in the struggle for independence and the personal contradictions and challenges he encountered as he sought to find pride and loyalty in service to a newly independent Kenya. This is truly a fascinating chronicle that takes us from the humble and difficult years of childhood, through the Mau Mau years, the Kenyatta administration, the Moi regime, and on to the present in the life of Jeremiah Kiereini. Most captivating is the narrative on the infamous 1969 oath-taking commonly referred to as, ëCaai wa Gatunduí and the 1982 coup.