The Kenya Cultural Centre has rejected a meeting planned by some Kikuyu elders to purportedly reconcile victims of the pre-independence Lari massacre.
The slaughter happened on March 26, 1953.
KCC board chairman Kungu Muigai, who is also the patron of the Kikuyu Council of Elders Kiama Kia Ma, on Tuesday said that revisiting the Lari massacre would open up healed wounds that would be of no benefit to anyone.
Muigai, a cousin of former President Uhuru Kenyatta, spoke in Kikuyu subcounty during an elders' meeting.
"What business do you have opening up wounds that have long healed? It means some elders are insensitive to what happened then. It need not be revisited," he said.
The matter was laid to rest by founding President Jomo Kenyatta, who called a truce, but it will not be forgotten, so that never again will brothers and sisters take arms against each other.
"The Lari massacre was aggression between brothers, those who were Mau Mau and those who were home guards. What will happen if the young generation knows that it was a certain uncle who was responsible for the killing of their father or grandfather because they were betrayed to be Mau Mau to the colonisers? This will only bring chaos. I will make sure that the meeting does not take place," Muigai said.
Some Kikuyu elders have planned a meeting on Saturday at Lari where the massacre happened to seek reconciliation, unity and healing over the atrocities.
Muigai asked the government to stop the meeting.
Wachira Kiago, the national chairman of the Kikuyu Council of Elders, distanced the group from the meeting.
"I have seen an advert through social media but KCE is not involved in that meeting. The meeting is organised through the elders themselves and not our national body and we have not received any invitation," Kiago said.
He confirmed divisions in Kiama Kia Ma and urged them to sit down and iron out their differences to avoid embarrassing themselves before the community.
"The elders speak in one language and conduct their businesses the same way and should embrace each other and iron out their differences so that they do not embarrass themselves and the community," he said.
But Thiong'o Wa Gitau, the leader of Kiama Kia Ma known as muthamaki (king), said it was important for reconciliation and healing so that the community can be united and put the past atrocities behind them. Kiama is organising the meeting.
The Lari massacre happened on the night of March 26, 1953 around 10pm. Homes were razed to ashes during the Mau Mau uprising in which the freedom fighters killed at least 74 people, including members of colonial collaborators known as home guards and their families.
Among those murdered was prominent government loyalist Luka Kangara.
In retaliation, the colonial government sent troops the next day and arrested hundreds of Mau Mau fighters.
They were taken to the Githunguri and sentenced to death by hanging.
A total of 309 rebels were prosecuted for the massacre, of whom 136 were convicted. Seventy-one of those convicted were hanged in Githunguri.
