Saturday 3 June 2023

by Sarah Onyango

Huge congrats to the mighty executive of the Ottawa- Gatineau Kenyan association on yesterday’s well-attended Madaraka Day. Organized very quickly and on a very low budget, the event featured great food (lots of mandaazi, chapati na samosa to go with our Kenyan tea!😊), excellent music (by a Jamaican DJ who knows Ohangla???), an intergenerational audience (with kids of all ages energizing the room!) and brief presentations by Kenyans and friends of Kenya doing good works both here and back home). Many thanks to Her Excellency Immaculate Wambua for her powerful speech and to the High Commission staff for their support. Asanteni sana! Judging by the happy faces and exuberant chatter, we need to gather more often as a community!

From Wikipedia

Madaraka Day (“Internal self rule” or Self-Governance Day) is a national holiday that is celebrated every 1 June in every year in the Republic of Kenya. It commemorates the day in 1963 that Kenya attained internal self rule after being a British colony since 1920.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Kenya only attained partial independence on this day in 1963 and did not become a fully established republic until about a year and a half later, on 12 December 1964. In recognition of that, Kenya also celebrates Jamhuri Day (Republic Day) on 12 December every year.

Madaraka is a Swahili word for “authority, ruling power”.