Imperial Reckoning
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118. BBC interview, “Kenya: White Terror,” Wanyiri Gitatha, Othaya, Nyeri District, 1 October 2002.
119. Nyambura, interview, 16 December 1998. Molly Wairimu also provided vivid recollections of the burial brigade, as did Helen Macharia. Wairimu, interview, 3 October 2002; and Macharia, interview, 16 January 1999.
120. Macharia, interview, 16 January 1999.
121. Gakaara, interview, 23 January 1999; Mahinda, interview, 24 January 1999; Wanjuku, interview, 22 March 1999; Nyambura, interview, 16 December 1998; Wanjiku, interview, 29 March 1999; Kanja, interview, 22 March 1999.
122. Gakaara, interview, 23 January 1999.
123. Mugwe, interview, 31 January 1999.
124. KNA, AB 1/112/8, letter from Fletcher to Sam Morrison, 8 September 1955. For an estimate of 450 children, see also KNA, AB 1/92/106, memorandum from Paul Gathii, “Rehabilitation and Screening—Kamiti Prison and Detention Camp—Monthly Report, December 1955,” 10 January 1956.
125. KNA, AB 1/84/3, memorandum from Burke-Collis to Askwith, “Clothing—Children of Detainees,” 26 October 1956.
126. Nyambura, interview, 16 December 1998; Mugwe, interview, 31 January 1999; and Liberata Wanjiru, interview, Mugoiri, Kahuro, Murang’a District, 30 January 1999.
127. Gakaara, interview, 23 January 1999.
128. Macharia, interview, 16 January 1999.
129. Mugwe, interview, 31 January 1999
130. KNA, MAC/KEN 33/10, letter written by a woman from the Kamiti prison, no date.
131. “The Mau Mau Women at Kamiti,” Sunday Post, 1 April 1956.
132. Askwith, interview, 9 June 1998. For Warren-Gash being in charge of rehabilitation activities in Kamiti, see KNA, AB 1/92/86, minute from Askwith to file, 19 November 1955. The two extant files in the Department of Community Development and Rehabilitation’s deposit at the Kenya National Archives reference constantly Warren-Gash’s control over the screening and rehabilitation in Kamiti, as well as her pervasive influence over the rest of the camp’s operations, including the labor schemes and living arrangements. See KNA, AB 1/92, “Kamiti Rehabilitation, 12/5/54–11/7/58” and KNA, AB 1/112, “Administration Women’s Camps Kamiti, 1954–57.”
133. KNA, AB 1/92/42, memorandum from S. H. La Fontaine, “Propaganda Literature,” 20 November 1954; and KNA, AB 1/112/37, memorandum from Gathii to Askwith, “Re—Monthly Report—June, 1955,” 27 June 1955.
134. KNA, AB 1/92/120, Monthly Report, Kamiti Camp, March 1956; and Nyambura, interview, 16 December 1998.
135. KNA, AB 1/92/140, memorandum from Warren-Gash, “Monthly Report for March 1957.”
136. Nyambura, interview, 16 December 1998.
137. Macharia, interview, 16 January 1999.
138. KNA, AB 1/92/56, memorandum from Alison, officer in charge, “Singing of Kikuyu Hymns,” 17 January 1955.
139. Nyambura, interview, 16 December 1998.
140. KNA, AB 1/112/44, minute from J. B. S. Lockhart, 28 September 1955; and Askwith, interview, 8 June 1998.
141. KNA, AB 1/92/87, memorandum from Bennett to Askwith, “Mau Mau Detainees Cleansing Ceremony,” 13 September 1955.
Eight: Domestic Terror
1. Lawrence Langer confronted similar issues when collecting and analyzing testimonies from “former victims,” as he calls them, of the Nazi Holocaust. See Lawrence Langer, Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991).
2. Muringo Njooro, interview, Kirimukuyu, Mathira, Nyeri District, 23 February 1999.
3. Villagization took place throughout Kiambu, Fort Hall, Nyeri, and Embu districts. The Kenya government did not pursue a widescale policy in Meru District, largely because the district commissioner argued against it. In Meru, because of the sparser population density, the DC believed that it was a security benefit not to concentrate the indigenous population into villages. In total, fifty villages were officially created in Meru. See KNA, OP/EST 1/986/21/1, memorandum from the district commissioner, Meru, “Villagisation,” 6 November 1954. Also note that villagization had been introduced as an ad hoc measure in various locations throughout the Kikuyu reserves beginning in March 1953, though it was not until the War Council’s decision in June 1954 that it became a full-scale policy. See KNA, AB 2/53/1, “Memorandum on the Aggregation of the Population into Villages in Rural Areas,” 12 April 1954; and PRO, CO 822/481/1, Press Office, handout no. 28, 19 March 1953.
4. KNA, VQ 16/103, Central Province, Annual Report, 1956.
5. PRO, CO 822/481/2, savingram no. 585 from the secretary of state to Baring, 5 May 1953; KNA, CS 2/8/211, memorandum from Askwith to Potter, 28 August 1953; KNA, MAA 7/788/1/5, memorandum, “Oulong New Village—Taiping,” no date; KNA, MAA 7/788/1, memorandum from Askwith, “Resettlement and Rural Development,” August 1953.
6. PRO, CO 822/794/8, brief for secretary of state for the colonies, “Rehabilitation Programmes in Kenya,” c. July 1954.
7. RH, Mss. Brit. Emp. s. 365, Fabian Colonial Bureau, papers, box 118, file 2B, item 26, Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Public Relations Office, “Michael Blundell Press Conference,” 11 November 1954.
8. KNA, AB 2/13, minute from Askwith to Ohanga, 21 May 1955.
9. KNA, AB 2/5/110, letter from Askwith to the secretary of the Civil Service Commission, “Vacancies from Community Development Officers,” 8 July 1955.
10. KNA, AB 2/51/32, memorandum from Askwith to the secretary of local government, health, and housing, “Emergency Work among Women—Central Province,” 25 May 1955.
11. KNA, AB 2/72/29, memorandum from Askwith to the secretary of the treasury, “Rehabilitation—Women and Girls,” 26 November 1954.
12. KNA, AB 2/12/1, memorandum from B. A. Ohanga, “Development in the Field,” 1 September 1954.
13. Sir Frank Loyd, interview, Aldeburgh, England, 13 July 1999.
14. KNA, BZ 16/1/14, memorandum from the district commissioner, Nakuru to Colin Owen, 1 July 1953.
15. Gathoni Mutahi, interview, Kirimukuyu, Mathira, Nyeri District, 22 February 1999.
16. Ruth Wanjugu Ndegwa, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 22 March 1999.
17. KNA, AB 8/78/1/1, “Minutes of a Meeting of a Sub-Committee of the Council of Ministers set up to examine the Carothers Report in Accordance with Minute 63 of the Council of Ministers,” July 1954. This committee included the ministers of African affairs; local government, health, and housing; community development and rehabilitation; and education, labor, and lands. Michael Blundell, the European minister without portfolio, was also a member of the committee.
18. Beatrice Nduta wa Gatonye, interview, Ruthigiti, Karai, Kiambu District, 9 August 2003.
19. African Affairs Department, Annual Report, 1954, 33.
20. Wandia wa Muriithi, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 22 March 1999.
21. Ndegwa, interview, 22 March 1999.
22. Njooro, interview, 23 February 1999.
23. Simon Kihara, interview, Ngorano, Mathira, Nyeri District, 20 March 1999.
24. Marion Wambui Mwai, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 21 March 1999.
25. Gathoni Mwaria, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 24 February 1999.
26. Simon Rutho, interview, Ngorano, Mathira, Nyeri District, 20 March 1999.
27. Ibid.; also John Mariga, interview, Kihara, Kiambaa, Kiambu District, 11 August 2003.
28. These quotes are from anonymous interviews conducted with loyalists in Kihara, Kiambaa, Kiambu District, 14 August 2003.
29. Wachehu Magayu, interview, Aguthi, North Tetu, Nyeri District, 25 February 1999.
30. Shelmith Njeri, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 4 October 2002.
31. Milka Wangui Muriuki, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 22 March 1999; Njeri, interview, 4 October 2002; Margaret Nyaruai, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 21 March 1999; Mary Waruguru wa Kuria, interview, Thigio, Ndeiya, Kiambu District, 13 August 2003; Rachel Mwihaki Kiruku, interview, Thigio, Ndeiya, Kiambu District,
13 August 2003; Hannah Njoki Kinuthia, interview, Waithaka, Dagoretti, Kiambu District, 12 August 2003; and Wambui Ndegwa, interview, Murarandia, Kiharu, Murang’a District, 21 February 1999.
32. Susanna Wanjuku, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 22 March 1999.
33. Muriuki, interview, 22 March 1999; I also interviewed Muriuki on 4 October 2002 when she recalled the same story nearly verbatim.
34. Muriuki, interview, 4 October 2002.
35. Nyaruai, interview, 21 March 1999.
36. Muriuki, interview, 4 October 2002.
37. Njeri Wamai, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 22 March 1999.
38. Nyaruai, interview, 21 March 1999.
39. Gladys Wairimu, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 21 March 1999; and Maritha Wanjiru Kanja, interview, Ruguru, Mathira, Nyeri District, 22 March 1999.
40. Some counteroathing ceremonies did involve physical brutality. For instance, one ceremony involved the detainees repeating a counteroath in which they pledged, among other things, never to say “the lands in Kenya do not belong to Europeans.” At the end of the ceremony they were, according to several men who took the counteroath, “branded (with a hot steel) on the shoulder.” See KNA, MAC/KEN 33/9, “Maltreatment of Kikuyus in Central and Rift Valley Provinces in Kenya,” no date.
41. Njooro, interview, 23 February 1999. Ndegwa, interview, 21 February 1999, told of a similar kind of counteroathing ceremony in Murang’a District.
42. Nyaruai, interview, 21 March 1999.
43. Grace Wangui Kaharika, interview, Ngorano, Mathira, Nyeri District, 21 March 1999.
44. Wamai, interview, 22 March 1999.
45. Muriuki, interview, 22 March 1999.
46. Ibid.; Njeri, interview, 4 October 2002; Mwaria, interview, 24 February 1999; and Mwai, interview, 21 March 1999.
47. Anonymous, interview, Aguthi, North Tetu, Nyeri District, 25 February 1999.
48. Muriuki, interview, 22 March 1999 and 4 October 2002.
49. Ndegwa, interview, 21 February 1999; similar sentiments were shared with me by women from Kandara (August 2003) and Gacoce (August 2004), as well as from other areas of Murang’a District between 1999 and 2004.
50. Njuhi Gachau, interview, Thigio, Ndeiya, Kiambu District, 13 August 2003.
51. Stanley Njogu Wainaina, interview, Ruthigiti, Karia, Kiambu District, 9 August 1999.
52. Rahabu Wairimu Kibunja, interview, Thigio, Kikuyu, Kiambu District, 13 August 2003; Gatonye, interview, 9 August 2003; and Mary Wambui Wambote, interview, Thigio, Kikuyu, Kiambu District, 13 August 2003.
53. Gatonye, interview, 9 August 2003.
54. Rahab Wakibunja, interview, Thigio, Ndeiya, Kiambu District, 13 August 2003.
55. Esther Kabura Muchiri, interview, Thigio, Ndeiya, Kiambu District, 13 August 2003. Also note that a Bren gun is a kind of gas-operated, air-cooled submachine gun adopted by the British army during World War II.
56. Salome Njoki Maina, interview, Thigio, Ndeiya, Kiambu District, 13 August 2003.
57. Kuria, interview, 13 August 2003.
58. Gachau, interview, 13 August 2003.
59. Ibid.
60. Gatonye, interview, 9 August 2003.
61. Rahab Wambui Mungai, interview, Kerua, Ndeiya, Kiambu District, 13 August 2003.
62. Kiruku, interview, 13 August 2003.
63. Muchiri, interview, 13 August 2003.
64. Gachau, interview, 13 August 2003.
65. Grace Njambi, interview, Thigio, Ndeiya, Kiambu District, 13 August 2003.
66. Hosewell Gichuhi Ng’anga’a, interview, Ruthigiti, Karai, Kiambu District, 9 August 2003.
67. Gatonye, interview, 9 August 2003.
68. Maina, interview, 13 August 2003.
69. Kinuthia, interview, 12 August 2003.
70. Evanson Mungai Kaburugu, interview, Mutuini, Dagoretti, Kiambu District, 12 August 2003.
71. Muriithi, interview, 22 March 1999.
72. KNA, OP/EST 1/627/1, memorandum from A. C. C. Swann to Havelock, “Malnutrition,” 7 July 1955.
73. The two primary sources of international aid for the Christian Council of Kenya were the British Council of Churches and Inter-Church Aid. See KNA, AB 4/10, Christian Council of Kenya, Annual Report, 1955/56, 9 February 1956.
74. “45 Deaths in Kiambu Village,” East African Standard, 17 November 1955.
75. There are several examples of the British colonial government’s blatant refusal to allocate money for relief programs. For instance, by 1955 the African Land and Development Board (ALDEV) as well as the Resettlement Committee realized there would be no more funds allocated to the relief efforts established during the days of forced repatriation early on in the war. The Swynnerton Plan’s £5 million Development Fund, as administered through ALDEV, was the only source for relief works. Despite the estimated need for well over £1 million, the plan provided only £300,000 for fourteen thousand Kikuyu needing relief. This allocation was intended to fund the 1954 to 1956 period. By October of 1954, however, more funding was needed as ALDEV projections indicated that they would deplete all relief monies by early 1955. As it was, only twenty-five thousand Kikuyu were receiving assistance, the remainder denied relief entirely. R.O. Hennings, who was directing the ALDEV programs, appealed to the Treasury, though to no avail. The War Council had directed the finance minister, Ernest Vasey, not to allocate any more funds. In turn, he told Hennings “[to] consider the obtaining of further funds for Kikuyu Relief Works—if they are to continue—from some more appropriate source.” KNA, OP/EST 1/190/13, memorandum from G.J. Ellerton to R.O. Hennings, “Swynnerton Plan Estimates 1954–55,” 26 October 1954. See also KNA, OP/EST 190/5, memorandum from G.J. Ellerton to K.M. Cowley, “Kikuyu Relief Works—Central Province,” 1 October 1954; KNA, OP/EST 190/10, memorandum from Low to Cowley, “Kikuyu Relief Gangs,” 18 October 1954; KNA, OP/EST 190/22, memorandum from R.O. Hennings to Baron, “Kikuyu Relief Works,” 16 December 1954; and KNA, OP/EST 190/14, “Extract from 3rd Meeting of the Resettlement Committee of 28 October, 1954.”
76. The Red Cross workers were divided—two in each Kikuyu district, with the exception of Kiambu and Nairobi, where there were three and one posted, respectively. KNA, AB 2/51/34, memorandum from the secretary of local government, health, and housing to Askwith, “Emergency Work among Women—Central Province,” 6 June 1955. The missionaries’ perspectives are drawn, in part, from Archdeacon Peter Bostock, interview, Oxford, England, 20 March 1998; and Reverend Alan Page, interview, Bath, England, 14 June 1999.
77. KNA, AB 17/11/46, memorandum from the provincial medical officer, Central Province, to the director of medical services, “Commentary on Work of Red Cross Team in Nyeri,” 8 July 1954.
78. KNA, OP/EST 1/190/25, memorandum from the acting secretary of local government, health, and housing to Cowley, “Kikuyu Relief Workers,” 23 May 1955. For monthly reports from Red Cross workers throughout Central Province, see KNA, VQ 1/33, “Red Cross Welfare Workers and CD&R, Monthly Reports,” 1955.
79. The concept for Maendeleo ya Wanawake was born in the Jeanes School prior to the Emergency, though the villages were purported to be an ideal opportunity to expand the clubs into a larger, self-help network. See KNA, AB 2/13/44A, memorandum from the Community Development Department, “A Guide to all Welfare Workers in Kenya,” c. December 1954; and KNA, OP/EST 1/688/5, memorandum from Askwith to the secretary for African affairs, 25 April 1955. See also Audrey Wipper, “The Maendeleo ya Wanawake Movement in the Colonial Period,” Rural Africana 29 (1975–76): 195–214; Audrey Wipper, “The Maendeleo ya Wanawake Movement: Some Paradoxes and Contradictions,” African Studies Review 18, no. 3 (1975): 99–120; and Thomas Askwith, From Mau Mau to Harambee (Cambridge: African Studies Centre, 1995), 142–46.
80. KNA, OP/EST 1/688/1/2, memorandum from Mrs. Beecher, “Resolution,” 4 March 1955.
81. KNA, OP/EST 1/688/3, memorandum from A. C. C. Swann, “Communal Labour,” 7 April 1955.
82. KNA, OP/EST 1/688/5, memoran
dum from Askwith to the secretary of African affairs, 25 April 1955.
83. KNA, JZ 6/26/30, memorandum from Gillian Solly, “Interim Report of the Joint Sub-Committee of the EAWL and the Women’s Section, European Union,” April 1955; and KNA, JZ 6/26/31, memorandum from Gillian Solly, “Final Report of the Joint Sub-Committee of the EAWL and the Women’s Section, European Union,” September 1955.
84. See, for example, KNA, OP/EST 1/190/43, memorandum from D. C. Penwill to Frank Loyd, “Famine Relief and Welfare Food Supplies,” 18 June 1957; and KNA, OP/EST 1/627/21, memorandum from F. P. B. Derrick to Frank Loyd, “Malnutrition—Kiambu District,” 31 December 1959.
85. KNA, OP/EST 1/627/9, memorandum from N. R. E. Fendall to the permanent secretary for the Ministry of African Affairs, “Malnutrition and Starvation,” 9 November 1959.
86. Mary Wambui Wambote, interview, Thigio, Ndeiya, Kiambu District, 13 August 2003.
87. Anonymous, interview, 14 June 1999.
88. Kuria, interview, 13 August 2003.
89. KNA, OP/EST 1/986/21/1, memorandum from the district commissioner, Meru, J. A. Cumber, “Villagisation,” 6 November 1954.
90. KNA, MAA 7/813/26/4, memorandum from E. H. Risley to C. M. Johnston, quoting the director of medical services, “Screening—Nanyuki,” 11 January 1954; and KNA, MAA 7/813/165, memorandum from the director of medical services to the secretary of defense, “Movements of Repatriates and Langata Camp,” 10 March 1955.
91. KNA, AH 9/4/110, memorandum from the director of medical services to the medical officers in charge of Manyani and Mackinnon Road camps, “Disposal of Chronic Sick,” 9 June 1955. See also KNA, MAA 7/753/18, confidential memorandum from Cusack to Havelock, 27 July 1954, which details the government policy of repatriating those “grey” detainees back to the reserves who were diagnosed with an infectious disease.
92. KNA, OP/EST 1/988/14, minute from Baring to the ministers of African affairs and local government, health, and housing, 9 August 1956. For details on Baring’s tour through the Kikuyu reserves in June 1956, see KNA, OP/EST 1/988, minute from Baring to the ministers of the treasury and local government, health, and housing, June 1956.