70. The phrase “the trickle became a stream” was used often by Legislative Council members during debates over the movement of Kikuyu, and indicated the shift in the volume of Kikuyu repatriates from the Rift Valley to the Kikuyu reserves that occurred between late 1952 and January 1953. See Kenya Legislative Council Debates, vol. 54, 19 February 1953, 128–85; and Kenya Legislative Council Debates, vol. 55, 7 May 1953, 74–117.
71. John Nottingham, interview, Nairobi, Kenya, 7 August 2003.
72. KNA, MAA 8/163, “Advisory Committee on Kikuyu Movement.” This file contains the minutes from the Advisory Committee that met four times to attempt to coordinate the Kikuyu forced removals. The minutes provide details on the movements, the opening of the transit camps, and commentary on the volume of deportations.
73. KNA, AH 9/31/40 and KNA, JZ 8/8/108, memorandum from K. M. Cowley, “Repatriation of Kikuyu, Embu and Meru who have not been Detained in Central Province,” 10 December 1954; and KNA, AH 9/31/65, memorandum from Wainwright, “Repatriation of Kikuyu by Magistrates,” 25 February 1955.
74. KNA, MAA 9/939/10, memorandum from Desmond O’Hagan to chief native commissioner, “Future Administration of the Kikuyu Districts,” 31 July 1953.
75. Kenya Legislative Council Debates, vol. 55, 7 May 1953, 96.
76. Ibid., 80.
77. Ibid., 108.
78. In the early 1950s, the Churchill government was notably concerned about white minority interests in its East and Central African colonies. There was a determination at this point not to let these colonies go the way of African majority rule; rather the British government wanted to promote multiracialism and the creation of federations (ultimately rejected for Kenya) to safeguard white interests. There was a uniformity between the Churchill, Eden, and Macmillan governments, at least until 1959–60, that this move toward multiracialism would be very slow and significantly different from the relatively rapid retreat in West Africa. For a comprehensive account of the gradualist approach toward decolonization in Britain’s settler colonies in Africa, see Frank Heinlein, British Government Policy and Decolonisation, 1945–1963—Scrutinising the Official Mind (London: Frank Cass, 2002), 119–23, 177–78, 189–91, 237–38, 243–63. Also note that while the settlers and the British government had different visions of Kenya in the long term (the former demanding white minority rule in perpetuity, while the latter conceding that some form of multiracialism would be necessary, albeit one that would protect white interests and temper African majority rule), both parties shared a short-term commitment to stamping out Mau Mau in order to make the country governable. Of course, restoring order could have been achieved by granting the Kikuyu more land and socioeconomic opportunities, though the British government believed its own rhetoric about Mau Mau savagery and illegitimacy and would never step back to reevaluate its perception of Mau Mau or its policies, even in the face of rapidly worsening colonial violence.
79. RH, Mss. Afr. s. 596, Electors’ Union and the European Elected Members Organisation, papers, box 38(A), East Africa Women’s League, newsletter no. 2, February 1953. This sentiment is expressed repeatedly in the writings of Baring, the colonial secretary, and various members of the Administration and settler community. For the creation of a moderate African political class in Britain’s own image, see Berman, Control and Crisis, 309–14.
Three: Screening
1. D. H. Rawcliffe, The Struggle for Kenya (London: Victor Gollancz, 1954), 68.
2. Records of the Anglican Church, Imani House, Nairobi, “Mau Mau” files, box 2, Christian Council of Kenya, “The Forces of Law and Order,” c. January 1954.
3. RH, Mss. Afr. s. 917, memoirs of Christopher Todd, 55–56.
4. Ibid., 240–41.
5. Ibid., 263.
6. Anonymous, interview, Naivasha, Kenya, 14 January 1999.
7. Njama Ireri, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, Kenya, 31 January 1999.
8. RH, Mss. Brit. Emp. s. 527/528, End of Empire, Kenya, vol. 2, Kirigumi Kagunda, interview, 52.
9. RH, Mss. Afr. s. 917, memoirs of Christopher Todd, 263.
10. Margery Perham, foreword to Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, “Mau Mau” Detainee: The Account by a Kenya African of His Experience in Detention Camps, 1953–1960 (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), xii.
11. KNA, MAA 7/206/1, memorandum, “Screening Camps and Centres,” c. December 1954; and KNA, MAA 7/206/2, memorandum from E. G. Eggins, “Screening Centres,” 15 December 1954. For details on the relationship between the CID and the settlers in screening operations that oscillated between European farms and screening centers like that at Mweiga in Nanyuki, see KNA, DC/NKY 3/15/4, “CID Nyeri—Confession—R. Nelson Ngodit” and KNA, DC/NKY 3/9/24, “Screened Mweiga” KNA, DC/NKY 3/15/5, “CID Nyeri—Mweiga S/Camp—Confessions.”
12. KNA, DC/NKU 1/6, Annual Report—Nakuru District, 1953, 9.
13. Anonymous, interview, Nairobi, Kenya, 12 January 1999.
14. Alan Knight, interview, Nairobi, Kenya, 21 January 1999.
15. Margaret Nyaruai, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 21 March 1999.
16. Ibid.
17. Kamau Githiriji, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 24 February 1999.
18. Anonymous, interview, Kiambaa, Kiambu District, Kenya, 11 August 2003.
19. Interviews with Hunja Njuki, Ngorano, Mathira, Nyeri District, 23 January 1999; Lucy Ngima Mugwe, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 31 January 1999; and Jean Wanjiru Cliffe, Tigoni, Limuru, Kiambu District, 10 August 2003.
20. Douglas Kariuki Njuguna, interview, Mugoiri, Kahuro, Murang’a District, 17 January 1999.
21. RH, Mss. Afr. s. 424, J. A. Rutherford, History of the Kikuyu Guard, 169.
22. Ibid.; and RH, Mss. Afr. s. 1579, S. H. Fazan, “A Tribute to the Tribal Police, African Guards and All Loyalists of the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru Tribes Who Resisted the Mau Mau Revolt,” 1956.
23. RH, Mss. Afr. s. 424, Rutherford, History of the Kikuyu Guard, 178–79.
24. Ibid., 178–79.
25. Ibid., 337.
26. Muthoni Waciuma, interview, Limuru, Kenya, 10 August 2003.
27. The Times, 11 March 1954; and PRO, WO 32/15834, “Court of Enquiry into conduct of troops in Kenya during operations against Mau Mau, 1953–1954,” closed for sixty years. See also Michael Chege, “Mau Mau Rebellion Fifty Years On,” African Affairs 103(2004): 134.
28. Molly Wairimu, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 3 October 2002.
29. Joseph Karuanji, interview, Thigio, Ndeiya, Kiambu District, 9 August 2003. A similar account was provided by Rachel Mwihaki Kiruku, interview, Thigio, Ndeiya, Kiambu District, 12 August 2003.
30. Samuel Kamau, interview, Ngorano, Mathira, Nyeri District, 20 March 1999.
31. Muringo Njooro, interview, Kirimukuyu, Mathira, Nyeri District, 23 February 1999.
32. Nesiphorus Muragu Nganga, interview, Mugoiri, Kahuro, Murang’a District, 20 February 1999.
33. Mwaria Juma, interview, Kiamariga, Mathira, Nyeri District, 10 February 1999.
34. Frederick Waweru Kinyanjui, interview, Ruthigiti, Kurai, Kiambu District, 12 August 2003.
35. See the Kenya Official Gazette and its supplements for the years 1953 to 1959 for extensive lists of Africans against whom the Kenya government ordered the confiscation of land, livestock, or material property such a bicycles. For example, Kenya Official Gazette, Supplement No. 4, 26 January 1954, 29–32, “The Emergency Regulations, 1952—Forfeiture Order,” provides an example of a government order that officially supported the district officer of the Muthuaini Itura in the Tetu Location of South Nyeri District to exercise the powers vested in him by Regulation 4A of the Emergency Regulations, 1952. In this case the DO seized several thousand heads of cattle, goats, and sheep.
36. Wachehu Magayu, interview, Aguthi, North Tetu, Nyeri District, 25 February 1999.
37. Magayu Kiama, interview, Aguthi, North Tetu, Nyeri District, 25 February 1999.
38. Ndiritu Goro, interview, Kirimuk
uyu, Mathira, Nyeri District, 22 February 1999.
39. Sir Frank Loyd, interview, Aldeburgh, England, 13 July 1999.
40. Njuguna Karatu Robinson Mwangi, interview, Kinyona, Mununga, Murang’a District, 6 August 2003.
41. Karuma Karumi, interview, Kinyona, Mununga, Murang’a District, 6 August 2003; and Paul Mwangi Kimanja, interview, Kinyona, Mununga, Murang’a District, 6 August 2003.
42. Mwangi, interview, 6 August 2003.
43. Waciuma, interview, 10 August 2003.
44. Ibid.
45. RH, Mss. Afr. s. 486, Sir Arthur Young, papers, box 5, file 3, Her Majesty’s Supreme Court of Kenya, Nyeri, criminal case no. 240 of 1954.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid., box 5, file 3, memorandum from G. Hill, district officer in charge, Nyeri, 4 December 1954.
48. Ibid.
49. PRO, CO 822/499/7, secret telegram from Governor Twining to W. L. Gorell Barnes, 25 November 1953.
50. PRO, CO 822/697, “Reports on the Kenya Situation by the Secretary to the Emergency Council and Emergency Committee, Nairobi, 1953.”
51. For additional accounts of torture against Mau Mau suspects see Anthony Clayton, Counter-insurgency in Kenya: A Study of Military Operations against Mau Mau (Nairobi: Transafrica Publishers, 1976), 44–45, where he discusses, among other incidents, two KPR officers “torturing a prisoner over a slow fire,” and another “setting a fierce dog on a prisoner.” See also Peter Evans, Law and Disorder or Scenes of Life in Kenya (London: Secker and Warburg, 1956), chapter 31.
52. Kiama, interview, 25 February 1999.
53. Pascasio Macharia, interview, Mugoiri, Kahuro, Murang’a District, 17 January 1999.
54. Ibid.
55. Anonymous, interview, Naivasha, Kenya, 14 January 1999.
56. “Law and the People,” East African Standard, 2 December 1953.
57. Records of the Anglican Church, Imani House, Nairobi, “Mau Mau” files, box 2, Christian Council of Kenya, “The Forces of Law and Order,” c. January 1954.
58. W. W. Baldwin, Mau Mau Manhunt: The Adventures of the Only American Who Fought the Terrorists in Kenya (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1957).
59. RH, Mss. Brit. Emp. s. 527/528, End of Empire, Kenya, vol. 2, John Nottingham, interview, 180. For an example of Nottingham’s outspokenness during the Emergency, see PRO, CO 822/1911/260, telegram from R. E. Wainwright to F. D. Webber, 14 April 1961.
60. PRO, CO 822/489/1, letter from Inspector H. A. Cross, 1 March 1953.
61. KNA, MAC/KEN 33/6, The People, 7 February 1954.
62. Clayton, Counter-insurgency in Kenya 45, n. 89.
63. RH, Mss. Brit. Emp. s. 527/528, End of Empire, Kenya, vol. 2, John Nottingham, interview, 180.
64. Anonymous, interview, Naivasha, Kenya, 14 January 1999. For a similar account of police brutality involving testicle mutilation, see Robert Edgerton, Mau Mau: An African Crucible (London: I. B. Tauris, 1990), 160.
65. RH, Mss. Brit. Emp. s. 527/528, End of Empire, Kenya, vol. 2, Rhoderick Macleod, interview, 118
66. Ibid., vol. 1, Fitz de Souza, interview, 131.
67. Cyril Dunn, “Justice in Kenya,” Observer, 12 December 1954.
68. Richard Meinertzhagen, Kenya Diary, 1902–1906 (London: Oliver and Boyd, 1957), 51–52.
69. Fitz de Souza, interview, Muthaiga, Kenya, 11 August 2003. For a similar statement by de Souza made in the late 1980s, see RH, Mss. Brit Emp. s. 527/528, End of Empire, Kenya, vol. 1, Fitz de Souza, interview, 134.
70. Jan Philipp Reemtsma, “On War Crimes,” in Crimes of War: Guilt and Denial in the Twentieth Century, ed. Omer Bartov, Atina Grossman, and Mary Nolan (New York: New Press, 2002), 10.
Four: Rehabilitation
1. PRO, CO 822/471/5, “Canon T. F. C. Bewes, African Secretary of the CMS on his special mission to the ‘Mau Mau’ area of Kenya,” 9 February 1953; and PRO, CO 822/471/7, cable from Granville Roberts to Potter, 10 February 1953.
2. PRO, CO 822/471/5, “Canon T. F. C. Bewes, African Secretary of the CMS on his special mission to the ‘Mau Mau’ area of Kenya,” 9 February 1953.
3. PRO, CO 822/471/6, “Private and Confidential” letter from T. F. C. Bewes to Governor Baring, 28 January 1953.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. PRO, CO 822/471/7, cable from Granville Roberts to Potter, 10 February 1953.
7. PRO, CO 822/471/12, telegram no. 282 to the secretary of state for the colonies from Governor Baring, 9 March 1953.
8. Ibid.
9. PRO, CO 822/471, “Finding of R. A. Wilkinson, 1st Class Magistrate at Embu who was in charge of enquiring into the death of Elijah Gideon Njeru at Embu on the 29th January, 1953.”
10. PRO, CO 822/471/25, Reuters report on the verdict in the Elijah Njeru manslaughter case, 30 September 1953.
11. “African’s Death after Beating—Two Europeans Fined,” Times, 1 October 1953.
12. PRO, CO 822/471/36, letter from Canon T. F. C Bewes to Colonial Secretary Oliver Lyttelton, 22 October 1953.
13. PRO, CO 822/451/53, telegram from Governor Baring to Secretary of State Lyttelton, 15 November 1952.
14. PRO, CO 822/489/40, letter from eighteen detainees at Lamu to Fenner Brockway, c. October 1953.
15. Interviews with Gakaara wa Wanjau, Kirimukuyu, Mathira, Nyeri District, 23 February 1999; Wilson Ruhoni, Kirimukuyu, Mathira, Nyeri District, 1 February 1999; and Muthuita Zakayo, Mugoiri, Kahuro, Murang’a District, 17 January 1999.
16. European Convention on Human Rights and its Five Protocols, Articles 5 and 15, signed in Rome on 4 November 1950 and put into force in September 1953.
17. European Convention on Human Rights and its Five Protocols, Articles 3 and 15 (for the nonpermissible derogations), signed in Rome on 4 November 1950 and put into force in September 1953.
18. Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Article 3, adopted on 12 August 1949 and put into force 21 October 1950.
19. PRO, CO 822/692/3, letter from Governor Baring to the secretary of state for the colonies, 17 July 1953.
20. Barbara Castle, Fighting All the Way (London: Macmillan, 1993), xi.
21. RH, Mss. Brit Emp. s. 527/528, End of Empire, Kenya, vol. 1, Barbara Castle, interview, 116.
22. PRO, CO 822/485/2, telegram no. 515 from Governor Baring to the secretary of state for the colonies, 29 April 1953.
23. Fenner Brockway, African Journeys (London: Victor Gollancz, 1955), 87–88.
24. PRO, CO 822/489/125, letter from several detainees to officer in charge, Kilimani Police Station, 25 April 1953; PRO, CO 822/485/4, letter from Fenner Brockway to Colonial Secretary Lyttelton, 20 July 1953; PRO, CO 822/485/6, savingram no. 994 from the secretary of state for the colonies to Governor Baring, 21 July 1953; and PRO, CO 822/485/7, savingram no. 1259/53 from Governor Baring to the secretary of state for the colonies, 29 August 1953.
25. For further details on the formation of the Movement for Colonial Freedom, see Stephen Howe, Anticolonialism in British Politics—the Left and the End of Empire, 1918–1964 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), 231–67; and Fenner Brockway, Towards Tomorrow: The Autobiography of Fenner Brockway (London: Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, 1977), 160–67. See also Partha Sarathi Gupta, Imperialism and the British Labour Movement, 1914–1964 (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1975), 360–61. Gupta, however, points to the British Guiana crisis as the sole reason for the congress’s foundation and neglects to look at the anticolonial issues in Africa that were prompting Brockway and others to form a new organization. See Howe for a more accurate account of the genesis of the congress.
26. The birth of the Fabian Colonial Bureau coincided directly with the passage of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act in 1940. The bureau emerged more as an advisory organization, as opposed to a source for anticolonial criticism. A hallmark of the bureau was a policy of gradualism; this policy drew heavy criticism from indigenous leaders throughout the empire. By 1950 the influence of the bureau was in decline. Many of its members l
ost their seats in the general election of 1950, and when the Conservatives came to power in 1951 the bureau’s ability to work with the Colonial Office came to a near standstill. The bureau did continue to publish its journal, Empire, which after 1949 was renamed Venture. Venture provided the left with a twice-monthly source for expressing its opinion on colonial policy throughout the empire; during Mau Mau there were several pieces questioning the conduct of the Emergency, though more often addressing issues of future development and political participation in the colony. In 1958 the bureau changed its name to the Fabian Commonwealth Bureau to reflect the transformation in imperial relations that had taken place since its founding. Finally, in 1963 the bureau merged with the Fabian International Bureau to “avoid overlapping interests.” The anticolonial organizations founded after the war were clearly less interested in influencing the nature of development policy and geared more toward criticizing the Conservative government and demanding an end to the colonial anachronism. For complete details on the work of the Fabian Colonial Bureau, see RH, Mss. Brit. Emp. s. 365, Fabian Colonial Bureau, papers. See also David Goldsworthy, Colonial Issues in British Politics, 1945–1961 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), 123–44; and Gupta, Imperalism and the British Labour Movement, 301–48.
27. The Reverend Guthrie Michael Scott formed the Africa Bureau to pursue a twofold scheme: to raise and disburse funds; and to educate public opinion, to provide a platform for Africans, and to obtain guidance for them through the political and legal complications that they would face in their anticolonial endeavors. The members of the executive and advisory committees were a “who’s who” of notables in the anticolonial movement for Africa. They included Dingle Foot; Arthur Creech Jones; David Astor and Colin Legum, the editor and the East African correspondent, respectively, for the Observer; Charles W.W. Greenidge, secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society; Rita Hinden, former secretary of the Fabian Colonial Bureau; W. Arthur Lewis; and Margery Perham, fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford. In May 1956 the Africa Bureau organized the first Kenya Conference, which collected a wide range of nearly one hundred organizations interested in the issues and events of the Kenya Emergency, including the Mother’s Union, representatives from the Gold Coast Office and the Edinburgh House, Rotary International, and the YMCA. The Africa Bureau continued its operations until the end of the 1970s, though its directive changed from that of a political organization advocating the interests of the Africans to a more charitable one. For further details on the Africa Bureau, see RH, Mss. Afr. s. 1681, Africa Bureau, records.
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