Imperial Reckoning

by Caroline Elkins

  119. Njuki, interview, 23 January 1999.

  120. The detainees nicknamed Kwa Futi after the district officer in charge, Keith Foot. For a reference to Kwa Futi, see PRO, CO 822/1272, Jack Report on the Shuter allegations, statement of Aaron Irwin. For sign above Aguthi Camp, see Kenya National Archives, Mau Mau photograph collection; and for Ngenya Camp, Samson Karanja, interview, Ngecha, Limuru, Kiambu District, 28 February 1999; and Gilbert Kamau Muroki, interview, Kihara, Kiambaa, Kiambu District, 11 August 2003.

  121. Njuki, interview, 23 January 1999.

  122. Ibid.

  123. Mahehu, interview, 23 January 1999.

  124. Kagombe, interview, 24 February 1999.

  Seven: The Hard Core

  1. Letter from Kendall Ward, executive officer of the Electors’ Union, to chairman, Elected Members’ Organisation, 7 August, 1952, reprinted in Anthony Howarth, Kenyatta: A Photographic Biography (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1967), 86. KNA, AB 1/94/54/1, memorandum from G. E. C. Robertson, “Monthly Report from the Mageta and Saiyusi Classification Centres,” 10 September 1956.

  2. Anonymous, interview, Naivasha, Kenya, 14 January 1999.

  3. Wilson Njoroge, interview, Kariokor, Nairobi, 10 December 1998.

  4. PRO, CO 822/797/2, Resettlement Committee, “Resettlement of Kikuyu Embu and Meru,” 4 October 1954; and KNA, JZ 8/7/90, “Machinery for Reconstruction,” November 1954.

  5. PRO, CO 822/1075/14, Kenya Colony and Protectorate, public relations officer, “Governor’s Speech at Nyeri,” 19 January 1955. Colonial officials made numerous public statements about their plan for the future exile of the Mau Mau hard core. See, for example, PRO, CO 801/822/51, Reuters report, “Exile,” July 1955.

  6. PRO, CO 822/1334/7, letter from H. Steel to F. A. Vallat, 24 April 1957.

  7. PRO, CO 822/1334, minute to file from Gorell Barnes, 26 May 1959.

  8. Charles Karumi, interview, Westlands, Nairobi, 9 August 2003. Defence Minister Jake Cusack ordered the first movement of detainees out of Manyani to begin constructing Hola in October 1955. PRO, CO 822/801/59A, Detention Camps—Progress Report No. 21, 13 October 1955.

  9. The reference to the hard core, especially the politicals, posing a future “public danger” to Kenya is discussed in numerous memoranda and minutes in PRO, CO 822/1334, “Maintenance of Law and Order in Kenya.” The most comprehensive account of the creation of the Galole Irrigation Scheme, otherwise known as Hola, is contained in African Land Development in Kenya (Nairobi: English Press, 1962), 216–17.

  10. Many detainees recalled such discussions, the content of which was forwarded to the Colonial Office through petitions smuggled out of the camps. See, for example, that written by James Koinange from Manda Island Camp in PRO, CO 822/1234/76/1, C. M. Johnston, memorandum on James Koinange, with attached petition from Koinange, 12 November 1958.

  11. Eric Kamau Mithiori, interview, Mugoiri, Kahuro, Murang’a District, 16 January 1999.

  12. As quoted in Bildad Kaggia, Roots of Freedom, 1921–1963: The Autobiography of Bildad Kaggia (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1975), 134.

  13. Jomo Kenyatta, Suffering without Bitterness: The Founding of the Kenya Nation (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1968), 67.

  14. Kaggia, Roots of Freedom, 139.

  15. Bildad Kaggia, interview, Makutano, Kandara, Murang’a District, 24 March 1999.

  16. Kenyatta, Suffering without Bitterness, 68.

  17. Kaggia, Roots of Freedom, 145–47.

  18. Kaggia, interview, 24 March 1999.

  19. T. G. Askwith, interview, Cirencester, England, 9 June 1998.

  20. Njoroge, interview, 10 December 1998.

  21. KNA, AB 1/85/1, memorandum from Howard Church, September 1953.

  22. PRO, CO 822/794/39, “Resettlement Committee—Future of Athi River Detention Camp,” 19 July 1955.

  23. KNA, AH 14/26/1/1, P. S Foss, “Memorandum on a Visit to Kajiado,” 18 March 1953.

  24. KNA, AB 1/85/4A, memorandum from S. H. La Fontaine, “Establishment Athi River Internment Camp,” 8 September 1953.

  25. KNA, AH 14/26/24, memorandum from Lewis, “Supplementary Provision 1953—Rehabilitation of Internees,” 29 June 1953; KNA, AH 14/26/36, memorandum from Lewis, “Athi River Internment Camp,” 8 July 1953; KNA, AB 4/18/1, Annual Report, Athi River Detention Camp, 23 March 1954; PRO, CO 822/1742/1, Kenya Special Branch report—Moral Re-Armament Movement in Kenya, 2 March 1957; and “Rehabilitating the Kikuyu, Work of the Athi River Detention Camp,” East Africa and Rhodesia, 22 April 1954.

  26. “What Makes a Man Co-Operate?” Kenya Weekly News, 9 July 1954.

  27. Letter to editor from Father Colleton, Kenya Weekly News, 15 August 1954.

  28. Phillip Njoroge Mwangi, interview, Mugoiri, Kahuro, Murang’a District, 30 January 1999.

  29. KNA, AH 14/26/36, memorandum from Lewis, “Athi River Internment Camp,” 8 July 1953. The fourth category was “D-Women.” Until Kamiti Camp was opened in the spring of 1954, most female detainees were held in compound 1 at Athi River.

  30. KNA, AH 14/26/1/1, P. S Foss, “Memorandum on a Visit to Kajiado,” 18 March 1953.

  31. Alan Knight, interview, Nairobi, Kenya, 21 January 1999.

  32. This is certainly not the only instance historically when liberation theology embraced the story of the Israelites. See Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and Salvation (New York: Orbis Books, 1973); and Kofi Appiah-Kubi and Sergio Torres, eds., African Theology en Route (New York: Orbis Books, 1983).

  33. David Githigaita, interview, Kirimukuyu, Mathira, Nyeri District, 1 February 1999.

  34. KNA, AB 1/94/61/1, G. E. C Robertson, Report from the Saiyusi/Mageta/Kisumu Classification Centres for the Month of September, 1956.

  35. Letter from James Breckenridge to John Lonsdale, 16 August 2003 (seen courtesy of Lonsdale).

  36. Gakaara wa Wanjau, interview, Karatina, Nyeri District, 22 February 1999.

  37. Ibid. Gakaara wa Wanjau attributes the participation of some Kamba, like Paul Ngei, and Luo, like Achieng’ Oneko, in the predominantly Kikuyu movement of Mau Mau to their days of political indoctrination at Alliance High School. It was there that many future African nationalists studied and exchanged ideas, which they would later disseminate to members of their own ethnic groups.

  38. Gakaara wa Wanjau, Mau Mau Author in Detention (Nairobi: Heinemann, 1988), x.

  39. The first Kikuyu vernacular newspaper, Muigwithania (the Reconciler), was started in 1928 by the KCA. Edited by Jomo Kenyatta, it was banned by the colonial government in 1940, though it was clearly the precursor to many of the publications that proliferated after the Second World War. In 1945 Henry Muoria Mwaniki started the weekly Mumenyereri (the Guardian), and not long thereafter there emerged the KAU’s Sauti ya Mwafrika (Voice of Africa), John Cege’s Wiyathi (Freedom), and Muthamaki (the Statesman), among others. It was during this intense period of publication that Gakaara wa Wanjau published his monthly Waigua Atia (What’s Up?), along with his 1948 political treatise in Kiswahili, Roho ya Kiume na Bidii kwa Mwafrika (The Spirit of Manhood and Hard Work for the African).

  40. Wanjau, Mau Mau Author in Detention, 250.

  41. Knight, interview, 21 January 1999.

  42. For example, PRO CO 822/1233/96, secret memorandum from J. L. F. Buist to L. F. G. Pritchard, 27 June 1958.

  43. “Over My Name, by Trial and Error,” Kenya Comment, 29 November 1957.

  44. KNA, AB 1/87/70, letter from district commissioner, Lamu to Askwith, 7 September 1954; and KNA, AB 1/87/106/1, internal memorandum from Becker, February 1954.

  45. Wanjau, Mau Mau Author in Detention, 64–65.

  46. This account is recorded in ibid., 64–74; it was also recounted to me by Gakaara wa Wanjau during several discussions, including 23 February 1999, in his office in Karatina, Nyeri District.

  47. KNA, JZ 7/4/131, Albert Mbogo Njoroge, Gatundu Works Camp, Kiambu, no date.

  48. KNA, JZ 7/4/79A and KNA, AH 9/17/172, “T
he black people of Kenya in Manyani Detention Camps and others who are in Detention Camps as we are,” no date.

  49. KNA, AH 9/17/169, Muhongo Kimani, Gathere Njehia, Njau Karingu, Gicuna Kuiri, Mburu Kimani, and Kihara Wangaru to governor of Kenya, 31 December 1956.

  50. KNA, MAC/KEN 33/10, J. M. Njoroge, K. Kigo, W. Muhoro, M. Kamau, E. Kamau, “Re: Detainees Complaints,” 15 February 1958.

  51. KNA, JZ 7/4/89A, detainees in nos. 5 and 10 to commissioner of HM prisons, Kenya, 10 January 1957.

  52. KNA, AH 9/17/106/1, Mageta Detention Camp “to the Attorney General,” 8 July 1956; for the British colonial government’s listing of the worst hard-core camps, see KNA, JZ 6/26/50A, “Ministry of Community Development—Community Development Conference,” January 1957.

  53. KNA, JZ 7/4/96A, Nganga Munyua to the secretary, parliamentary delegation in Kenya, 14 January 1957.

  54. Pascasio Macharia, interview, Mugoiri, Kahuro, Murang’a District, 17 January 1999.

  55. Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, “Mau Mau” Detainee: The Account by a Kenya African of His Experiences in Detention Camps, 1953–1960 (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), 41, 131; KNA, JZ 9/17/169, Muhongo Kimani, Gathere Njehia, Njau Karingu, Gicuna Kuiri, Mburu Kimau, and Kihara Wangaru to governor of Kenya, 31 December 1956; KNA, JZ 7/4/89A, detainees in nos. 5 and 10 to commissioner of HM prisons, Kenya, 10 January 1957; and KNA, AH 9/17/106/1, Mageta Detention Camp “to the Attorney General,” 8 July 1956.

  56. 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.

  57. KNA, JZ 7/4/24A, letter from LX 52045 John s/o Gitiri “to the Honourable Secretary of the States for the Colonies,” 5 September 1954.

  58. KNA, JZ 7/4/97, “Black African Detainees in Manyani Camp,” no date.

  59. KNA, JZ 7/4/131, Albert Mbogo Njoroge, Gatundu Works Camp, Kiambu, no date.

  60. Note that camp commandants also wrote of such dietary deprivations and their effects on the detainees’ health. See KNA, AH 9/10/55/3, John D. Russell, officer in charge, Manda Island Special Detention Camp, “Health-Detainees,” 16 September 1955.

  61. KNA, JZ 7/4/97, “Black African Detainees in Manyani Camp,” no date.

  62. KNA, AH 9/17/49C/2, Athi River detainees to the chief secretary, 9 April, 1955.

  63. KNA, JZ 7/4/142, letter from “All Detainees from Aguthi Works Camp” to “Sir” [referenced in KNA, JZ 7/4/142A as Governor Baring], May 1957.

  64. KNA, AH 9/17/106/1, Mageta Detention Camp “to the Attorney General,” 8 July 1956.

  65. Many of the detainee letters address these issues. They include KNA, JZ 7/4/85, “Detainee, S. Yatta Works Camp to Commissioner of Prisons,” 2 February 1957.

  66. KNA, AH 9/17/106/1, Mageta Detention Camp “to the Attorney General,” 8 July 1956.

  67. KNA, AH 9/17/49C/2, Athi River detainees to the chief secretary, 9 April 1955.

  68. KNA, JZ 7/4/26A, “Your obedient detainees” to “The Chief Secretary of Kenya,” 19 October 1954; and KNA, AH 9/17/131/1, letter from Thiba Works Camp, “Complints of Dention,” 30 September 1956.

  69. KNA, AB 1/83/87, letter from J. Bischoff, community development officer, Mara River, to Askwith, 28 April 1956.

  70. KNA, JZ 7/4/24A, letter from LX 52045 John s/o Gitiri “to the Honourable Secretary of the States for the Colonies,” 5 September 1954.

  71. For “head injuries” reference, see KNA, JZ 7/4/26A, “Your obedient detainees” to “The Chief Secretary of Kenya,” 19 October 1954.

  72. KNA, JZ 7/4/85, “Detainee, S. Yatta Works Camp to Commissioner of Prisons,” 2 February 1957.

  73. KNA, AH 9/17/159, memorandum from A. B. Simpson for the secretary of defense to Lewis, “Complaints by Detainees,” 11 December 1956.

  74. PRO, CO 822/801/88, telegram from deputy governor to secretary of state for the colonies, 26 June 1956.

  75. KNA, JZ 8/1, memorandum from district officer, Kikuyu District, to district commissioner, Kiambu, 2 February 1956.

  76. Anonymous, interview, Kariokor, Nairobi, 14 December 1998.

  77. KNA, MAC/KEN 33/10, letter from J. M. Njoroge, S. A. Kamau, W. Muhoro, G. Githiri, G. N. Kamani, and K. Kigo to Barbara Castle, 8 March 1958.

  78. RH, Mss. Brit. Emp. s. 527/528, End of Empire, Kenya, vol. 1, Barbara Castle, interview, 115. For reference to the volume of letters received by Fenner Brockway from detainees, see PRO, CO 822/489/104, letter from Brockway to Lyttelton, 30 April 1953.

  79. KNA, JZ 7/4/120, H. Durant, officer in charge, Nyeri camps, to Lewis, “Detained Persons—Anonymous Letter dated March 1957—Aguthi Works Camp,” 18 April 1957.

  80. PRO, CO 822/489/42, “Atrocities,” c. July 1953.

  81. “New Regulation for Detention Camps,” East African Standard, 26 January 1954; and KNA, AH 9/5/3, minute to file from Lewis to minister of defense, 14 May 1954.

  82. PRO, CO 822/1789/26, “Record of Meeting with the 1959 CPA Delegation to Kenya and secretary of state for the colonies,” 21 April 1959.

  83. Kamau Mwangi, interview, Kariokor, Nairobi, 15 December 1998.

  84. Kariuki, “Mau Mau” Detainee, 76–78.

  85. KNA, AH 9/17/173/1, “Mwangi Makeri and Muriu Ngoroge and the rest [of the] detainees” to “Members of Kenya Ligislative Council,” 1 January 1957; and KNA, JZ 7/4/144B, “all detainees” stamped received by commissioner of prisons, March 1957.

  86. KNA, JZ 7/4/97, “Black African Detainees in Manyani Camp,” no date. Note that other detainees make similar queries about Governor Baring and the purpose of his inspections. For example, KNA, JZ 7/4/79A and KNA, AH 9/17/172, “The black people of Kenya in Manyani Detention Camps and others who are in Detention Camps as we are,” no date; and KNA, JZ 7/4/24A, letter from LX 52045 John s/o Gitiri “to the Honourable Secretary of the States for the Colonies,” 5 September 1954.

  87. T. G. Askwith, interview, Cirencester, England, 8 June 1998

  88. KNA, JZ 7/4/73B, copy of letter to the Right Honorable Sir Thomas Dugdale, MP, from the secretary of state for the colonies, 7 December 1956; and KNA, JZ 6/26/50A, “Ministry of Community Development—Community Development Conference,” January 1957.

  89. PRO, CO 822/802/141, telegram from E. W. M. Magor to Buist, 19 December 1956.

  90. KNA, AH 9/17/49C/2, Athi River detainees to the chief secretary, 9 April 1955.

  91. KNA, JZ 7/4/144B, “all detainees” stamped received by commissioner of prisons, March 1957.

  92. PRO, CO 822/1234/9, savingram from governor’s deputy to the secretary of state for the colonies, 25 April 1957.

  93. PRO, CO 822/1234/51, letter from Governor Baring to W. A. C. Mathieson, 16 August 1958, with enclosure of letter from Baring to the Honorable Sir Ronald Sinclair, chief justice of Kenya, 17 June 1958.

  94. Anonymous, telephone interview, 12 March 2004.

  95. PRO, CO 822/1234, “Advisory Committee set up to deal with appeals submitted by persons detained under Emergency Regulations in Kenya.”

  96. Askwith, interview, 8 June 1998.

  97. Helen Njari Macharia interview, Mugoiri, Kahuro, Murang’a District, 16 January 1999; Shifra Wametumi, interview, Mugoiri, Kahuro, Murang’a District, 30 January 1999; and Susanna Wanjiku, interview, Ngecha, Limuru, Kiambu District, 29 March 1999.

  98. Wametumi, interview, 30 January 1999.

  99. Ibid.

  100. Macharia, interview, 16 January 1999.

  101. Many former detainees from Kamiti described such acts of violence and torture in their interviews with me, including Macharia, 16 January 1999; Susanna Wanjuku, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 22 March 1999; Maritha Wanjiru Kanja, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 22 March 1999; Molly Wairimu, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 3 October 2003; Mary Nyambura, Banana Hill, Kiambu District, 16 December 1998; Winnie Njoki Mahinda, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 24 January 1999; and Wametumi, 30 January 1999.

  102. Wametumi, interview, 30 January 1999.

  103. Machari
a, interview, 16 January 1999.

  104. PRO, CO 822/437, “Intimidation of and Attacks on Government Servants, Crown Witnesses, Women and Children by Mau Mau.”

  105. PRO, CO 822/794/1, “Rehabilitation,” 6 January 1954, 3.

  106. KNA, DC/KBU 1/44, Kiambu District Annual Report, 1953; and KNA, MAA/ARC 2/3/36, Central Province Annual Report, 1953.

  107. Lucy Ngima Mugwe, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 31 January 1999.

  108. KNA, AB/1/92/90, memorandum from Askwith to W. Hale, game warden, Coryndon Museum, 19 October 1955; and KNA, AB 1/92/93, memorandum from W. Hale to Askwith, 21 October 1955, in which the game warden writes that he is sending “Four Lion claws, Two large, Two small. I hope they do the trick.”

  109. KNA, AB 1/92/92, memorandum from Alison, officer in charge, Kamiti, “Rehabilitation and Screening—Kamiti Prison and Detention Camp—Monthly Report, September, 1955,” 19 October 1955; and KNA, AB 1/92/106, memorandum from Paul Gathii, “Rehabilitation and Screening—Kamiti Prison and Detention Camp—Monthly Report, December 1955,” 10 January 1956. Numerous former detainees and convicts from Kamiti Camp also discussed these classifications and animal terms, noting consistently that Warren-Gash was the one who coined terminology in the camp.

  110. Wanjiku, interview, 29 March 1999.

  111. Mahinda, interview, 24 January 1999.

  112. Shifra Wairire Gakaara, interview, Ngorano, Mathira, Nyeri District, 23 January 1999.

  113. Wametumi, interview, 30 January 1999.

  114. Mahinda, interview, 24 January 1999.

  115. Ibid.

  116. Ibid.

  117. Wanjuku, interview, 22 March 1999.