:00:00. > :00:10.Welcome to my great grandmother's 117th birthday. Right now she's
:00:11. > :00:15.taking pictures of people who have come to see her and celebrate this
:00:16. > :00:25.big day with her. There's more than 90 years difference between me and
:00:26. > :00:30.her. She's 117 and I'm just 23. I'm returning to my ancestral home in
:00:31. > :00:37.Kenya to celebrate remarkable birthday of one of the oldest people
:00:38. > :00:45.in the world. My great grandmother, Elizabeth. I'm here to discover the
:00:46. > :00:49.secrets of her long life as she throws a party and reunites five
:00:50. > :01:15.generations of my family. This is where I was born. It's about
:01:16. > :01:26.ten miles from Nairobi, the capital p Kenya. This fertile land has been
:01:27. > :01:34.home to my family for at least six generations. Today there are
:01:35. > :01:39.hundreds of us, like me, spread around the world. I'm returning from
:01:40. > :01:45.my home it London -- in London to visit a woman very close to my
:01:46. > :01:51.heart, who has never left Kenya but has cultivated a global family.
:01:52. > :01:58.We're just heading up to my great grandma's house. The road is bumpy.
:01:59. > :02:05.It's like a make shift road. This is a shrine where most of my family are
:02:06. > :02:09.buried, my great granddad, my grad dad, his children and five wives. My
:02:10. > :02:15.great grandma is the fifth wife out of six. We're heading up to my great
:02:16. > :02:19.grandma's home. She lives by the side of where any great granddad
:02:20. > :02:32.used to live. I'm really excited to see her. There she is.
:02:33. > :02:56.Hi! Hello. Hello. How are you? I'm fine. Good to see you. Good to see
:02:57. > :03:08.you. It's a long time. Long time, many years. This is my great
:03:09. > :03:13.grandmother Elizabeth. She's going to be 117. This is my great aunt,
:03:14. > :03:17.Irene. She's here to help me with the translation because I can
:03:18. > :03:23.understand everything my great grandmother tells me, but to speak
:03:24. > :03:29.the language is really difficult. Great grandma Elizabeth has lived on
:03:30. > :03:34.this last for 90 years. She grew up tending cattle on her father's farm.
:03:35. > :03:38.Then she moved here as a young bride and raised seven children. She built
:03:39. > :03:48.this house with profits from the farm. My great-grandmother is proud
:03:49. > :03:54.of her government identity card. It doesn't show the exact month or day
:03:55. > :04:02.that she was born. But it does have the year of birth as 1900. The
:04:03. > :04:10.tribal tradition of age groups gives the same name to all children born
:04:11. > :04:14.in the same year. My great grandmother belongs to this age
:04:15. > :04:16.group which means we know she was born some time between 1899 and
:04:17. > :04:25.1900ment -- 1900. Do you remember when you
:04:26. > :05:30.got married? Force? So... She was brought by
:05:31. > :05:35.force. She was married by force because she was too young. At that
:05:36. > :05:40.time she didn't want to get married to an old person, because she was
:05:41. > :05:44.the fifth wife. Great grandmother Elizabeth was the
:05:45. > :05:49.fifth of six wives of the senior chief. He worked with the British
:05:50. > :05:56.during colonial rule and is well known in Kenya for playing a part in
:05:57. > :05:58.the country's independence. Was it difficult for you to be the fifth
:05:59. > :06:36.wife? Leonard is Elizabeth's sixth child
:06:37. > :06:44.and he's my great-uncle. He lives next door to my great grandmother.
:06:45. > :06:53.He was a child during the 1950s, when his father was detained during
:06:54. > :07:00.the Maupay uprising -- Mau Mau uprising, that was a revolt against
:07:01. > :07:04.European land. Archive: They were being checked and all members of the
:07:05. > :07:08.same tribe who have suffered most under the Mau Mau. A state of
:07:09. > :07:11.emergency was declared, but though it led to the end of British rule,
:07:12. > :07:23.it was a tough time for my great grandparents. And for my uncle
:07:24. > :07:28.Leonard. In 1952, my father was taken into detention. Kenya had been
:07:29. > :07:34.declared emergency and he was detained for the next seven years,
:07:35. > :07:40.he was in detention. We used to be children of a chief. We became
:07:41. > :07:48.beggars. We were being helped by those people who we would have
:07:49. > :07:54.called poor. During now the Mau Mau it was not only affected our family.
:07:55. > :08:00.It affected other families. One of my auntie, who had I think there
:08:01. > :08:05.were nine children, my mother took them. Already she had taken two
:08:06. > :08:09.other children who belonged to our sister, who had died. My mother's
:08:10. > :08:19.sister. We were, my mother was raising about 20 children. Wow.
:08:20. > :08:21.Yeah. We had a lot of - it was chaotic, you know? Like we are
:08:22. > :08:39.fighting for food. This shrine is the resting place of
:08:40. > :08:44.my great grandfather. He lies alongside his five wives and there's
:08:45. > :08:53.a space reserved for my great grandmother Elizabeth. As theirs was
:08:54. > :08:54.a polygamist marriage, visiting the shrine puts into perspective how
:08:55. > :09:19.large the chief's family really was. My great grandfather is resting
:09:20. > :09:26.here. But his legacy is living on in hundreds of descendants. What do you
:09:27. > :09:34.think about polygamy today? Would you advise me to go down that route?
:09:35. > :10:13.You wouldn't like me to? No? You were the last one to practice
:10:14. > :10:17.polygamy, does that mean that our family will now be smaller and
:10:18. > :11:04.smaller and how do you feel about that?
:11:05. > :11:14.So you wouldn't want me to just have one or two kids, you want me to have
:11:15. > :11:20.five, six... Regardless of how many children I may have in the future,
:11:21. > :11:27.there's no doubt that the family is growing. My great grandmother gave
:11:28. > :11:32.birth to seven children. And there are tens of grand children's. --
:11:33. > :11:38.grandchildren. My father was one of them. I'm his second child of three,
:11:39. > :11:57.making me one of many, many great grandchildren to Elizabeth.
:11:58. > :13:21.That picture there, I think it's you and there's kids around you
:13:22. > :13:29.I can see that photographs play a big parts in my great grandmother's
:13:30. > :13:37.life. To celebrate her birthday, she's throwing a party. We're going
:13:38. > :13:42.to attempt something very special. A family photograph, a living family
:13:43. > :13:48.tree. With five generations of my family and my great grandmother at
:13:49. > :13:58.the centre. But with so many people involved, it could take a while.
:13:59. > :14:07.The first of January is a big day for my great grandmother Elizabeth
:14:08. > :14:13.Koinange. She's invited family and friends to celebrate her 117th
:14:14. > :14:20.birthday. We've travelled from far and wide and for me, it's a chance
:14:21. > :14:24.to reunite with my Kenyan family. So the family, your children, your
:14:25. > :14:27.children's children, we're all spread out across the world. Like
:14:28. > :15:05.me, I'm in London. Do you like that we're all over the world now?
:15:06. > :15:32.Have you always celebrated on January 1, since you can remember?
:15:33. > :15:38.Right now everyone's preparing the food. There's going to be loads of
:15:39. > :15:41.meat, vegetables. So now I think it's time for me to get changed, as
:15:42. > :15:43.all the guests are slowly arriving. I'm going to wear something that's a
:15:44. > :16:08.bit more comfortable. By throwing this party, my great
:16:09. > :16:12.grandmother is continuing the tradition started by her late
:16:13. > :16:13.husband, of gathering friends and family together on the first day of
:16:14. > :16:26.the year. So right now, the party's in full
:16:27. > :16:31.swing. Most people have eaten. There's still some people getting
:16:32. > :16:34.served over here. We still have some late arrivals coming in, as you can
:16:35. > :16:38.expect. We have my great-uncle right now giving a speech and saying once
:16:39. > :16:43.everyone's eaten, all the family get together and take a group picture of
:16:44. > :16:47.our family tree. Ment -- family tree. Next time for the guest of
:16:48. > :18:13.honour to take the microphone. Time for cake and one of Elizabeth's
:18:14. > :18:24.granddaughter's does the honours. Happy birthday... To you. Happy
:18:25. > :18:36.birthday. APPLAUSE
:18:37. > :18:43.Great grandma puts her longevity down to a diet of boiled yam and
:18:44. > :18:49.milky tea. But for today she's happy to indulge. Everyone has been given
:18:50. > :18:58.some cake. The first people to be given some cake was everyone named
:18:59. > :19:03.after my great granddad. So what my auntie said is all the Koinanges
:19:04. > :19:08.come and get some cake. She's really happy. I think she's had a lot of
:19:09. > :19:13.cake. Hopefully when I'm holder than 100 years old, I will be fed cake by
:19:14. > :19:23.all the people who come after me. Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. I'm
:19:24. > :19:33.quite jealous, to be honest. We're just going to wait... This cake is
:19:34. > :19:38.good. We're going to wait for my great grandmother to go to where
:19:39. > :19:43.we're taking a family picture. Once we've sat down we will start moving
:19:44. > :19:52.towards that area. Organising so many people is a tough task.
:19:53. > :19:54.Everybody's keen to catch up. While great grandmother patiently waits,
:19:55. > :20:02.it's a chance to meet relatives I didn't know I had. Do you know how
:20:03. > :20:07.we're related? I belong to the grandmother older than her. This is
:20:08. > :20:17.my cousin... Cousin? His son is your dad? Yeah. Hi. Hi. Thank you very
:20:18. > :20:23.much. I'm your aunt. Yeah. People are so excited to see each other
:20:24. > :20:26.that they're socialising and they're slowly, slowly, slowly moving
:20:27. > :20:34.towards this way. Hopefully we get the picture by the
:20:35. > :20:37.end of the day. ? First to join our living family true, great
:20:38. > :20:45.grandmother Elizabeth, surrounded by her six surviving children, who have
:20:46. > :20:53.a combined age of more than 400. Next to join, my aunts and uncles.
:20:54. > :21:00.Now the third generation has been called. So that means the people who
:21:01. > :21:03.call my great grandmother great grandmother, so I'm part of them and
:21:04. > :21:08.I'm going to join them. My mother has been holding this party for
:21:09. > :21:13.about 20 years. She enjoys it. She would like to do it every quarter of
:21:14. > :21:19.a year. She's happy to see her family coming together. She has
:21:20. > :21:30.become like the pillar for the family unit.
:21:31. > :21:36.APPLAUSE Many of us enjoy tracing our family
:21:37. > :21:40.tree. But for most families, gathering so many generations
:21:41. > :21:46.together like this isn't possible. It's no surprise that people have
:21:47. > :21:54.travelled from far and wide because great grandmother Elizabeth's
:21:55. > :22:03.enthusiasm for life is infectious. I finally got my selfie. Hers is a
:22:04. > :22:06.life well lived. A life focussed on providing her descendants with
:22:07. > :22:13.advantages that she didn't get to enjoy. Faith, love and food are the
:22:14. > :22:18.fundamentals of my great grandmother's life. Although she
:22:19. > :22:24.rarely leaves her small house, the world comes to her through her
:22:25. > :22:30.children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, like me. One of the
:22:31. > :22:35.things which I like about her, and I think this is God given, is her
:22:36. > :22:40.memory. Because she doesn't get old. If you come here and you talk say
:22:41. > :22:42.hello to her and you talk to her, next time you come, she remember you
:22:43. > :23:01.very well. She can't forget. Bye. Bye-bye. Improvements in
:23:02. > :23:09.medicine mean we can all expect a longer life. But it's how you live
:23:10. > :23:11.it that really matters. And for this, my great grandmother Elizabeth
:23:12. > :23:39.is my inspiration. For most parts of the country
:23:40. > :23:41.there's a fair amount of cloud this afternoon, producing some