HOLIDAY
21-10-2019 by redazione
The 20th of October Kenya celebrates the day of the national heroes, that is the "Mashujaa day".
Originally it was "Kenyatta Day", the day that remembered the date of birth of Jomo, the first President of independent Kenya, October 20, 1889.
Since 2010, after the drafting of the new constitution, the national holiday was also dedicated to the other heroes who took part in the liberation of the country from the British colonial government, from 1952 to 1963.
The memory goes first of all to the "Kapenguria Six", namely Kenyatta and five other activists Bildad Kaggia, Kung'u Karumba, Fred Kubai, Paul Ngei, and Achieng Oneko, who were arrested by the British governor on October 20, 1952, accusing them of being the minds of the resistance organization of the Mau Mau.
The rebellion of the people following the arrest triggered the independence of the Kenyan people.
Many others, at the national level, have been the heroes of this country, celebrated in recent years or given posthumous recognition.
This is the case of the heroine of the mijikenda of the Mekatilili Wa Menza coast, who with his rebellion against the British in the early years of the twentieth century, gave way to the first revolutionary and proto-independent movements in Kenya.
This year, although falling on a Sunday, Interior Minister Fred Matiang'i, as often happens in these cases for national holidays, has decided to move the "public holiday" to the next working day, to allow citizens to observe a day of rest or to be paid twice as much in case of request to work by their employers. Public offices, banks and other public and private institutions will still be closed.
Mashujaa Day is generally celebrated with an event at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi, but already last year it was held in the town of Kakamega, in the presence of 40,000 people. This year President Uhuru Kenyatta wanted to celebrate it in Mombasa, a city where the government has set up many projects mainly concerning infrastructure, between the railway port and roads.
During the military parade, which took place with troops wearing colorful uniforms reminiscent of red, black and green on the Kenyan flag, President Kenyatta awarded the highest national honor ("Top State Award") to marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge, who was recently the first world athlete to go under two hours in the marathon, in addition to holding the official record.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
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