Inside the National Archives: Kenya's historical treasure hub at the heart of Nairobi

The National Archives, an iconic landmark located at the heart of Kenya's capital, protrudes with its antique architecture. But it is infamous for the wrong reasons.

To many it is a rendezvous point or just a direction marker but it harbours a rich historical stockpile of Kenya's history.

From the outside, it is this structure that bears the scales of a 62-year old nation, it is loud, busy, rugged, but on the inside is the total opposite, a nerve centre of national heritage showing the nation's political and social rhythm and the beat it has danced to with its rich culture and murky politics.

With just 50 shillings, any Kenyan citizen can access the national archives, also known as the Murumbi Gallery, in honour of Kenya's second vice president Joseph Murumbi, who was arguably one of the top private art collectors in Africa while serving in government.

This landmark was constructed in 1928 by the Indians to host the Bank of India but it was bought by the Kenya Commercial Bank in 1970. The government then bought the building in 1980, as KCB moved to the KenCom building just opposite the road.

When the government took over, national records were moved from Jogoo House, which now houses the Ministry of Education.

Inside, there is the lower and upper galleries showcasing Murumbi's collection, comprising jewellery, furniture, artefacts, books, postal stamps and textiles.

Murumbi's artefacts ended up in the Archives in after Dr. Maina Kagombe took charge at the National Archives as the third director and the first African to hold the position post-independence.

At the time, Murumbi was approached by foreign bidders to sell off his collection and Dr. Kagombe ensured that the artefacts remained on Kenyan soil.

In 1976, he published a gazette notice preventing the disposal of antiquities, which was instrumental in acquiring Murumbi's collection.

We meet Charles Okumu, a curator at the National Archives, and he takes us round the lower gallery showcasing collections from the coastal people of Kenya, artefacts from Uganda, Nigeria and other nations.

There are also weapons used by the native Luo and Kalenjin communities alongside the religious treasures of the Ethiopian people, highlighting early Christianity.

There is also a metallic container chain used during the oppressive Kipande System, a mandatory colonial identification system for African males aged 16 and above in Kenya between 1919-1947.

The necklace contained a registration certificate containing fingerprints, employment, and tribal details, used to restrict movement, control labour, and enforce taxation.

Another section of the lower gallery also showcases a photo of a young Queen Elizabeth when she was crowned as Queen of England during her visit to Kenya.

On that day they baked a cake and they decided to name it a queen cake," Okumu said.

The crowning also bore the famously known queen cakes, a Kenyan pastry delicacy, since it was made during the queen's crowning celebration.

The upper gallery has more on Kenya's history on traditional chiefs, colonial leadership and more collections from Murumbi. Here you will also see the seat used by Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's first president, during his inauguration.

A vast collection of postal stamps, mainly collected by Sheila Murumbi, Murumbi's wife. They highlight the pre-digital ways of communication and how countries owned their heritage.

"A stamp is an accurate archive. If I want a particular information about a country in Africa when they got their independence and other things I look at the stamps to tell the history of that country," he added.

Beyond the four walls of the gallery, there is more, the engine that keeps the rich history preservation alive.

We step into the micro-filming section responsible for converting old film records and newspapers for preservation services. The process ensures that paper records are preserved for longer periods.

"Micro-filming is the conversion of records and in most cases, we do it for preservation services to ensure that paper records are preserved for long and ensure that people access them," said Catherine Mathu, Head of Micro-filming.

These films can last for a period of 500 years if preserved well. Catherine says that they are all kept inside temperature-controlled repositories and are only used whenever a conversion is needed.

We take a look at an old newspaper from the early 1900's under a microfilm that is mostly used by researchers and administrative bodies.

"We have migrated archives repatriated from the UK that range from the 1880's to the time we got our independence. We also have newspapers ranging from the 1920s up to 2013. We are thinking of bridging the gap upto 2026," she added.

"We also have annual reports from the provincial administrators and the Ministries. There are also greencards for land parcels from early 1960's."

"Conversion of paper records to film goes for Ksh.500, converting film to machine-readable is Ksh.8,000 per film," she noted.

More valuable information is stored in the Audio-Visual section, where Principal Archivist Anthony Muiruri said that more film and audio material dating back to the 80's is also stored in CD and VHS tapes.

We have speeches from Tom Mboya and interviews from different communities. Before we had them merged (audio and visual) and we just had moving pictures," Anthony noted.

In the research room, all this information can be accessed upon requisition. The process is however rigorous and even an annual membership fee is required to access some of the critical information.

Head of Research and Educational Services Maryanne Wanyonyi said persons need an annual research permit to access the information — citizens pay Ksh.2,500 and non-citizens pay Ksh.5,000.

But here is how it works; The files are first retrieved from these rolling shelves used for storage, then moved to the library and then selectively taken to the research room.

There is, however, a caveat. The only information can be accessed should have been stored for a minimum of 30 years. These files are stored in vaults located in the basement levels.

Maryanne adds that the facility stores some classified information that requires top-level clearance and also material returned by the British government pilfered during the colonial period.

"Information is also classified. There are government circulars that have been released about the classification of records and their access. So some can be accessed and some do not meet the threshold. For a record to be an archive it has to meet a threshold of about 30 years," Maryanne added.

The process of archival preservation is, however being countered by the quickly expanding digital evolution, one that the National Archives has not turned a blind eye to.

Security is also keenly observed within the facility as rigid measures have been installed to ensure that the delicate historical material remains safe for posterity.

"Of course there are access protocols, you cannot just walk in and request for a sensitive records and easily given access," Maryanne added.

This ambition has however been recently under threat after a series of national anti-government protests that even prompted the proposal of moving the national archives to a safer environment.

Despite public uproar on the risk of eroding the integrity of the nation’s rich history, the national archives believes that the move will safeguard the antiquities for future generations.

"We want to see how we can safeguard our assets in this building and how we can and take it to a place where researchers can have an environment where they can produce content and research comfortably," Arts Principal Secretary Ummi Bashir once noted.