Deep in Lake Victoria, there are two islands known as Mageta and Saiyusi that colonial rulers used as prisons to detain notorious African Freedom fighters.
They were especially used to confine Mau-Mau fighters arrested in Kenya and those who got nabbed while hiding in parts of Tanzania, precisely Arusha.
The following are some discussions about the island prisons as recorded in the United Kingdom’s Parliament Hansard Vol 548 of February 1956 reveals some information about the Island Prisons on Lake Victoria.
Mr. Hastings
Asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies how many Mau Mau prisoners it is proposed to transfer from Manda Island, near Lamu, and elsewhere to islands in Lake Victoria; to what extent these islands are still infested with tsetse fly; and what estimate he has made of the danger to both prisoners and their guards horn sleeping sickness.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd
It is not yet known how many prisoners will be transferred to islands in Lake Victoria. At present two islands are used to accommodate prisoners.
On Saiyusi island tsetse fly has been eradicated. On Mageta island tsetse is being rapidly reduced by bush clearing and as there is no infection there to be transmitted by the fly the medical authorities expect no trouble from the disease.
So, the islands were where the Mau-Mau convicts considered to be too dangerous were imprisoned.
Just the way Australia was used as a banishment place for convicted British hard-core criminals, the two islands in Lake Victoria were also to serve of “Isles of the lost” where hard-core Mau-Mau detainees were to be kept for the rest of their lives.
The Lake Victoria Isles were also like Robben Island of Cape Town where Nelson Mandela was detained.
Incidentally, the commandants of Seyuisi and Mageta were Australians who had been recruited to establish the camps because of Australia’s history as a devil’s island where rogue British and Irish were detained.
For the Kikuyu who had been brought up in the Highlands around Mount Kenya, it was a totally strange experience waking up every morning surrounded by water full of hungry crocodiles.
As Josia Mwangi (JM) Kariuki noted, “There was no question of escape, and we began at times to despair of ever seeing our blue hills, red soil and crumpled valleys again.”
Waititu Mwangi, who was transferred from Manyani to Mageta, narrated his feelings when they entered a boat for their voyage to the island. It was the first time he saw such a large body of water.
“I had never seen so much water in my life,” he recalled. The water terrified him, and his first thoughts were: “This is the end of us. They are going to dump us inside.”
Five hours after leaving Kisumu, they arrived at Mageta islands. It was another hell on earth.
Giant tsetse flies and snakes were all over, and at night, mosquitoes sang choir while feasting on them. Sanitary conditions were also very poor.
Seyuisi alone, despite being a small island, had 600 Kikuyu Mau Mau convicts and 56 Luos and Luhyas convicted of supporting Mau Mau activities.
Thousands were found on Mageta.
In the mid-50s, tragedy struck Mageta when a boat carrying convicts and the prison Commandant Mr. Steven Martin capsized. The boat, which was loaded with 71 people and stones, capsized just after leaving the island.
The prisoners were being taken to the mainland for some road works when they were hit by a strong current. They panicked when the boat began to roll, and it overturned.
Martin, the commandant, and 21 Africans, including 11 Mau-Mau prisoners, drowned in the crocodile-infested waters.
Roger Dracup, who was a senior police officer at Kisumu, was quickly sent to Mageta to recover the bodies and assist in the identification. The following day, the bodies started popping up one by one from the water.
They were brought ashore where Dracup began taking their fingerprints for identification purposes.
Coffins were also ordered from Kisumu.
Unfortunately, because of the high temperature, the bodies began to swell.
By the time the coffins were arriving from Kisumu, the bodies couldn’t fit in anymore, and they had to use force to push them in.
After shoving them into the coffins, one person had to sit on the lid as another screwed it down. They then ferried the bodies to Kisumu for post-mortem.
The convicts always hatched successful plans to escape despite the remoteness of the islands.
For instance, in Saiyusi, prisoners escaped after killing local fishermen and stealing their boats, with which they used to sail to the mainland.
Consequently, Dracup radioed Kenya Police Airwing to send a plane to conduct an aerial search.
Unfortunately, the plane arrived late from Nairobi, and the pilot was also drunk.
Nevertheless, they conducted many low flights over Lake Victoria scrutinizing every boat from the air, but they didn’t see the escapees who had planned their escape route well.
What they didn’t know was that by the time the police plane was arriving to conduct a search, all the escapees had already arrived on the mainland and disappeared.
But still, Inspector Dracup never gave up and still believed he could rearrest the escapees. Owing to what he believed was the rivalry between Kikuyu and Luo, he was confident that the Luo would smoke them out of their hideout.
“I felt quite confident we would soon recapture the escapees because they would reach shore and land in Luo territory and, as the Mau-Mau, being Kikuyu, are a hostile tribe, the Luo would be sure to hold and hand them over to us,” Dracup recalled.
However, to his disappointment, Luos refused to volunteer any information, but instead assisted the Mau-Mau escapees to reach their homes in Central.
Dracup and a senior special branch officer at Kisumu called Alistair Bruce-Hey spent days searching for the escapees in the long grass of the mainland but eventually gave up.
One funny thing with Alistair was that, during his time at Kisumu as a Senior Special Branch officer he had a secret affair with the wife of the District Officer who got annoyed and revenged by seducing Alistair’s wife.
Alistair got annoyed, divorced his wife, and officially married the DO’s wife. The DO retaliated by also legally marrying Alistair’s wife.