My desire is to go back to Nairobi - 73-year-old British woman who fled Kenya during Mau Mau uprising reveals desire to return to Kenya

Monday, September 1, 2025 - A 73-year-old British woman who spent her childhood in Kenya before fleeing during the Mau Mau uprising says her lifelong wish is to return to Nairobi.

Speaking in an interview, she was asked what she has always wanted to do but never had the chance.

Her response was simple: “Get to Nairobi. That is where I was brought up. I went to school there.”

She explained that she left Kenya at the age of 11, fleeing aboard a steamship with only a suitcase and a teddy bear.

“I was like a refugee,” she recalled.

“We were put in a shed at Southampton. That is why I have empathy for migrants today, because I went through the same anxiety of waiting to be cleared by customs.”

The woman described herself as “an old colonial” who had no choice but to leave during the Jomo Kenyatta era.

Asked whether she would return if given the opportunity, she responded without hesitation: “Absolutely.”

An old colonial, 73, brought up in Kenya before fleeing to the UK as a migrant when Mau Mau uprising began, wants to return to Nairobi. pic.twitter.com/cVQu3VySAB

— Saddique Shaban (@SaddiqueShaban) August 31, 2025

The Kenyan DAILY POST