Granny, 109, born before there was cake

When she was born only white settlers could eat cake, Africans did not know what it was. The railway was still under construction, there were eno roads and the region that is Kenya was then known as British East Africa Protectorate. Last week, she savoured a cream-coated cake to mark her 109th birthday and recalled milestones in her life that sound like chapters in the history of Kenya.

Rocking her head slowly to the tune of gospel music playing from a radio, Naomi Wanjiku Nduru bared a toothless gum in a broad smile as she joked, "I still feel like a girl".

During her birthday, celebrated at a house in Bangladesh Estate, Nakuru, she was surrounded by grandchildren and great grandchildren who revelled in the presence of their family scion.



Speaking in a shrill voice in Kikuyu language, Wanjiku acknowledges that she is one of few people in the world to attain 100 plus years. Her husband and five children have all passed away, leaving her under the care of her grandchildren.

According to Wanjiku’s granddaughter, Jane Wacuka, her grandmother was born on December 19, 1900 at Gatundu in Kiambu. The date of birth was specifically recorded by European missionaries who worked in the area then and she managed to keep the record.

Kenya was declared a British colony when she was 20 years old. Then, she recalls, the only money available were cent coins which had a hole in the middle.