Many historical accounts report the Lari Massacre as a spontaneous event but in truth, it was a well-planned incident executed with military precision. In equal measure, the reasons for the brutal attack on perceived “loyalists” had been simmering for a long time.
In his autobiography A Daunting Journey, J.G. Kiereini states “What is little known, however, is that the Lari Massacre had its origins in the early 1900s, when members of the ten “mbari” (sub-clan) families and their tenants were evicted from their land in Tigoni to make way for white settlers, initially without any compensation”.
