This is how Nairobi looked when Harry Thuku arrived there at the age of 15 to work as a messenger for the newly established Bank of South Africa in 1911.

This is how Nairobi looked when Harry Thuku arrived there at the age of 15 to work as a messenger for the newly established Bank of South Africa in 1911.

His work was to sweep, clean tables, and to deliver and collect mails at a monthly salary of 15 Rupees.

One day one of his relatives who was of the same age as him arrived from Kambui in Kiambu to visit him in Nairobi.  

The gentleman had picked a cheque belonging to Knapp, a missionary, of the Gospel Missionary Society who had just returned to his country after serving at Kambui.

Because the young man didn't know how to write, he travelled to Nairobi to seek the assistance of his fellow teenager and village mage Harry Thuku so that they could share the loot.

They spent the whole night pondering what to do. And at around 6 in the morning, Harry Thuku decided to fill the cheque himself. 

For the payee, Thuku wrote the name of Bennett, an American missionary who ran the Mission at Ruiru. He did this in the belief that after cashing in the cheque they would be given the money to deliver to Bennett, which they would then pocket. 

Because Thuku had worked on Knapp's farm at Kambui before moving to Nairobi, he had some memory of what his signature looked like . So after entering the amount Bennet was to be paid (200 Rupees), he signed off the cheque as Knapp (forgery).

The next day as Thuku headed to work at the Standard Bank of South Africa, his villagemate headed to National Bank of India to cash in the cheque. As it would have been expected, he was arrested straightaway, 

During interrogation, the police discovered that he didn't even know how to write, and might have been helped by an accomplice. However he chose to die alone and never mentioned Thuku.

Since the cheque had originated from the Gospel Missionary Society at Kambui the police and the bank made a decision to summon Dr Henderson..