The enemy within: Loyalisys and the war against Mau Mau in Kenya

Journal of African History

Volumn 48, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 291-315

  Branch, Daniel ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EXETER   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Conflict; Decolonization; Kenya; Mau Mau

Indexed keywords

COLONIALISM; DECOLONIZATION; POLITICAL CONFLICT; POST-COLONIALISM; SOCIAL HISTORY; WAR;

AFRICA; EAST AFRICA; KENYA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA;

EID: 34548551606     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: 14695138     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853707002812     Document Type: Article

References (316)

1. This paper concentrates on the Kiambu, Fort Hall, Nyeri, Embu and Meru districts that made up the Native Reserves of Central Province. For discussions of loyalism in the White Highlands, see F. Furedi, 'The social composition of the Mau Mau movement in the White Highlands', Journal of Peasant Studies, 1 (1974), 497-8
2. F. Furedi, The Mau Mau War in Perspective (London, 1989), 93-8
3. T. Kanogo, Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau (London, 1987), 130-5
4. M. Tamarkin, 'Mau Mau in Nakuru', Journal of African History, 17 (1976), 119-34
5. M. Tamarkin, 'The loyalists in Nakuru during the Mau Mau revolt and its aftermath, 1953-1963', Asian and African Studies, 12 (1978), 247-61.
6. Kenya National Archive (KNA) DC/MUR/3/4/21, N. Langford-Smith, 'Judgement must begin: An interim report on the African Anglican church in the Northern Highlands', Jan. 1953, 1.
7. A similar figure is given in C. Elkins, ' Reckoning with the past: The contrast between the Kenyan and South African experiences', Social Dynamics, 26 (2000), 18. Widespread use of coercion and force during oathing means that this figure must not be used as an indicator of support for Mau Mau.
8. For tensions within Mau Mau over methods of oathing, the use of violence, in-discipline more generally and the failure of the government to successfully mobilize this unease in the first months of the war, see G. Kershaw, Mau Mau From Below (Oxford, 1998), 231 and 237-8.
9. KNA AHC/9/23, Gatheru to Editor.
10. J. Lonsdale, 'The moral economy of Mau Mau: The problem', in B. Berman and J. Lonsdale, Unhappy Valley: Conflict in Kenya and Africa (Oxford, 1992),1, 326.
11. See for more detailed discussion, J. Lonsdale, 'The moral economy of Mau Mau: Wealth, poverty and civic virtue in Kikuyu political thought', in Berman and Lonsdale, Unhappy Valley, 11, 315-504. Although a Gikuyu term, wiathi was common to Embu and Meru peoples.
12. See Lonsdale, 'Wealth', 347-8.
13. E. S. Atieno Odhiambo and J. Lonsdale, 'Introduction', in E. S. Atieno Odhiambo and J. Lonsdale (eds.), Mau Mau and Nationhood: Arms, Authority and Narration (Oxford, 2003), 3.
14. Colonial statistics recorded 11,500 Mau Mau fighters, 170 African members of the official armed forces and 1,800 loyalists killed. In contrast, 32 settlers and 63 European combatants lost their lives. Less commonly noted are the 77 Asian fatalities.
15. See Colony & Protectorate of Kenya, The Origins and Growth of Mau Mau: An Historical Survey (Nairobi, 1960), 316.
16. Anderson estimates the fatalities to be likely closer to 20,000: See D. M. Anderson, Histories of the Hanged: Britain's Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire (London, 2005), 4.
17. Elkins believes the casualties of the war could be 'tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands', in C. Elkins, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya (New York, 2005) (published in the UK as Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya [London, 2005], xvi).
18. KNA AHC/9/23, Gatheru to Editor.
19. The National Archives, Kew (TNA: PRO) WO 276/392, Meru District Intelligence Summary for week ending 22 Oct. 1953, 2
20. Richard Kanampiu Githae and Stephen Murocha, interviews with the author, Chogoria, Meru South, 15 Sept. 2003
21. Celestino Kirengeni, interview with the author, Chogoria, Meru South, 18 Sept. 2003.
22. KNA ARC(MAA) 2/5/307 11, District Officer (DO) Kangema to District Commissioner (DC) Fort Hall, 23 Aug. 1953.
23. Kariuki Kiruma, interview with the author, Ihururu, Nyeri, 7 Feb. 2004.
24. KNA AHC/9/24, Elisha Munene Mweya to Editor, Kayu ka Embu, 30 Jan. 1954, 1.
25. Rhodes House Library, Oxford (RHL) Mss Afr s 1727, J. J. Nyagah to M. Foote, 16 Oct. 1954.
26. See, for comparative and theoretical discussion, S. Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence in Civil War (Cambridge, 2006).
27. Lonsdale, 'The problem', 266.
28. The term is still widely used both in Kenya and in the secondary literature to denote opposition to Mau Mau. It is for this reason that I continue to use loyalism' to describe the activities detailed below.
29. While specific citations are made at relevant points in the following passage, my understanding of the concept of self-mastery in the pre-Mau-Mau period is derived from Kershaw, Mau Mau From Below; Lonsdale, 'Wealth'; D. R. Peterson, 'Wordy women: Gender trouble and the oral politics of the East African Revival in Northern Gikuyuland', Journal of African History, 42 (2001), 469-89
30. D. R. Peterson, Creative Writing: Translation, Bookkeeping, and the Work of Imagination in Colonial Kenya (Portsmouth NH, 2004), 1-27.
31. The broader arguments advanced here have much in common with those made for Nyeri in D. R. Peterson, 'The Home Guard in Mau Mau's moral war' (paper given at the African Studies Association annual conference, Boston, 2003).
32. P. A. Buckner and C. Bridge, 'Reinventing the British world', Round Table, 368 (2003), 81.
33. B. Berman, D. Eyoh and W. Kymlicka, 'Introduction: Ethnicity and the politics of democratic nation-building in Africa', in B. Berman, D. Eyoh and W. Kymlicka (eds.), Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa (Oxford, 2004), 4.
34. Peterson, 'Wordy women', 473.
35. A. Heyer, '"Nowadays they can even kill you for that which they feel is theirs": Gender and the production of ethnic identity in Kikuyu-speaking Central Kenya', in V. Broch-Due (ed.), Violence and Belonging: The Quest for Identity in Post-Colonial Africa (Abingdon, 2005), 41. A similar case has been made for Maasai ethnicity.
36. See R. D. Waller, 'Pastoral poverty in historical perspective', in D. M. Anderson and V. Broch-Due (eds.), The Poor Are Not Us: Poverty and Pastoralism in Eastern Africa (Oxford, 1999), 24.
37. J. Lonsdale, 'Mau Maus of the mind: Making Mau Mau and remaking Kenya', Journal of African History, 31 (1990), 418.
38. Lonsdale, 'The problem', 295.
39. J. Lonsdale, 'Jomo Kenyatta, God and the modern world', in J.-G. Deutsch, P. Probst and H. Schmidt (eds.), African Modernities: Entangled Meanings in Current Debate (Oxford, 2002), 33.
40. For broader discussions of these issues see B. Berman, 'Ethnicity, patronage and the African state: The politics of uncivil nationalism', African Affairs, 97 (1998), 305-41
41. B. Berman, 'Ethnicity, bureaucracy and democracy: The politics of trust', in Berman, Eyoh and Kymlicka (eds.), Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa, 38-53.
42. The following passage is based upon Anderson, Histories, 9-53
43. Kershaw, Mau Mau From Below, 212-47
44. Lonsdale, 'Wealth';
45. D. Throup, Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau 1945-53 (London, 1988), 63-119, 139-70.
46. See M. S. Clough, Fighting Two Sides: Kenyan Chiefs and Politicians, 1918-1940 (Niwot CO, 1990)
47. R. L. Tignor, 'Colonial chiefs in chiefless societies', Journal of Modern African Studies, 9 (1971), 339-59.
48. For more detailed discussion of colonial patronage and clientage see Berman, 'Ethnicity, patronage', 316-18.
49. The East African Revival could be understood in such terms. See Peterson, 'Wordy women'.
50. J. Lonsdale, 'Moral and political argument in Kenya', in Berman, Eyoh and Kymlicka (eds.), Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa, 82.
51. D. Peterson, 'Writing in revolution: Independent schooling and Mau Mau in Nyeri', in Atieno Odhiambo and Lonsdale (eds.), Mau Mau and Nationhood, 89.
52. A. Heyer, 'The mandala of a market: A study of capitalism and the state in Murang'a District, Kenya' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, SOAS University of London, 1998), 159.
53. Kershaw, Mau Mau From Below, 201
54. J. Lonsdale, 'Authority, gender and violence: The war within Mau Mau's fight for land and freedom', in Atieno Odhiambo and Lonsdale (eds.), Mau Mau and Nationhood, 59.
55. For a discussion of the Anake a Forti and the growth of Mau Mau, see Anderson, Histories, 36-7, 189, 231
56. F. Furedi, 'The African crowd in Nairobi: Popular movements and elite politics', Journal of African History, 14 (1973), 282-5
57. Throup, Economic and Social Origins, 141, 162-4, 173-6.
58. R. M. Githige, 'The religious factor in Mau Mau with particular reference to Mau Mau oaths' (unpublished MA thesis, University of Nairobi, 1978), 53
59. D. Peterson, 'Writing in revolution', 88. For a detailed history of generational transitions
60. see G. Muriuki, A History of the Kikuyu 1500-1900 (Nairobi, 1974), 15-24.
61. For a concise summary of the build-up to Mau Mau, see Anderson, Histories, 9-53.
62. Lonsdale, 'The problem', 295.
63. Kanampiu Githae and Murocha, interviews; Kirengeni, interview; Duncan Ngatia Muhoya, Sihar Gitahi Ribai and Kariuki Kiruma, interviews with author, Ihururu, Nyeri, 7 Feb. 2004.
64. Kershaw, Mau Mau From Below, 327-8.
65. See for example, J. M. Kariuki, 'Mau Mau': The Account of a Kenya African of his Experiences in Detention Camps 1953-1960 (Nairobi, 1975), 37
66. M. Mathu, The Urban Guerrilla: The Story of Mohamed Mathu, ed. D. Barnett (Richmond BC, 1974), 15, 56
67. D. Njagi, The Last Mau Mau Field Marshals: Kenya's Freedom War 1952-1963 (Meru, 1993), 51
68. O. Odinga, Not Yet Uhuru (Nairobi, 1967), 125.
69. See. for such a depiction of loyalism, B. Berman, Control and Crisis in Colonial Kenya: The Dialectic of Domination (London, 1990),357
70. R. B. Edgerton, Mau Mau: An African Crucible (London, 1990), 82
71. Elkins, Imperial, 29, 49, 118, 246
72. W. O. Maloba, Mau Mau and Kenya: An Analysis of a Peasant Revolt (Oxford, 1998), 88-9
73. D. M. Ng'ang'a, 'Mau Mau, loyalists and politics in Murang'a 1952-1970', Kenya Historical Review, 5 (1977),368-9
74. C. G. Rosberg Jr. and J. Nottingham, The Myth of'Mau Mau': Nationalism in Kenya (New York, 1966), 292, 295.
75. Ng'ang'a, 'Mau Mau, loyalists', 365-84
76. B. A. Ogot, 'Revolt of the elders. An anatomy of the loyalist crowd in the Mau Mau uprising 1952-1956', in B. A. Ogot (ed.), Hadith 4: Politics and Nationalism in Colonial Kenya (Nairobi, 1972), 134-49
77. M. Tamarkin, 'The loyalists', 247-61.
78. Mumenyereri article translated in KNA MAA/8/106, Director of Intelligence and Security to Chief Native Commissioner, 6 Feb. 1948.
79. Mumenyereri article translated in KNA MAA/8/106, Director of Intelligence and Security to Minister of Labour and Chief Native Commissioner, 15 Sept. 1948.
80. Quoted in B. A. Ogot, 'Politics, culture and music in Central Kenya: A study of Mau Mau hymns, 1951-1956', in T. Falola and E. S. Atieno Odhiambo (eds.), The Challenges of History and Leadership in Africa: The Essays of Bethwell Allan Ogot (Trenton NJ, 2002), 118.
81. Originally published in Kenya Historical Review, 5 (1977), 275-86.
82. G. wa Wanjau, 'The spirit of manhood and perseverance for Africans', translated in G. wa Wanjau, Mau Mau Author in Detention, trans. Ngigi wa Njoroge (Nairobi, 1988), 236.
83. Originally published as Mageria Nomo Mahota (Nairobi, 1952).
84. Mumenyereri article translated in KNA MAA/8/106, Director of Intelligence and Security to Minister of Labour and Chief Native Commissioner, 15 Sept. 1948.
85. See Peterson, 'Writing in revolution', 76-96
86. Peterson, Creative Writing, 139-58.
87. Mumenyereri article translated in KNA MAA/8/106, Director of Intelligence and Security to Chief Native Commissioner, 10 Aug. 1948.
88. Peterson, 'Wordy women', 488-9.
89. B. Kaggia, The Roots of Freedom 1921-1963: The Autobiography of Bildad Kaggia (Nairobi, 1975), 66; see also 22-59
90. wa Wanjau, Mau Mau Author, x.
91. See, for a counter-argument, H. Brands, 'Wartime recruiting practices, martial identity and post-World War II demobilization in colonial Kenya', Journal of African History, 46 (2005), 103-25
92. T. Parsons, The African Rank-and-File: Social Implications of Colonial Military Service in the King's African Rifles, 1902-1964 (Oxford, 1999), 11.
93. KNA AHC/9/23, Chief S. Kiama, 'A conspiracy', Uhoro wa Nyeri, 18 Aug. 1954.
94. Wa Wanjau, Mau Mau Author, viii.
95. Lonsdale, 'Mau Maus of the mind', 419.
96. Quoted in Mumenyereri article translated in KNA MAA/8/106, Director of Intelligence and Security to Chief Native Commissioner, 8 June 1948.
97. H. Muoria, I, the Gikuyu and the White Fury (Nairobi, 1994), 170.
98. Quoted in Ogot, 'Politics, culture and music', 118.
99. Githige, 'The religious factor', 47.
100. KNA DC/LKA/1/4, Laikipia District Annual Report 1953, 7.
101. See, for example, accounts of the Lari massacre of March 1953, during which up to 100 members of the families of ex-Chief Luka Wakahangare and Chief Makimei Kuria and their clients were killed. See Anderson, Histories, 139-51
102. Marshall S. Clough, Mau Mau Memoirs. History, Memory, and Politics (Boulder CO, 1998), 156-7
103. Furedi, The Mau Mau War, 122
104. Rosberg and Nottingham, The Myth, 156-7
105. M. P. K. Sorrenson, Land Reform in the Kikuyu Country: A Study in Government Policy (Nairobi, 1967), 100.
106. Quoted in Githige, 'The religious factor', 311.
107. Quoted in Lonsdale, 'Wealth', 326.
108. Despite being a leading dissident in the early 1920s and jailed by the colonial government, by the 1950s Thuku was a committed loyalist. See H. Thuku, Harry Thuku: An Autobiography (Nairobi, 1970).
109. Colony & Protectorate of Kenya, History of the Loyalists (Nairobi, 1961), 28.
110. At various stages of the war and in different locations the Home Guard was known as the Kikuyu, Embu or Meru Guard, the African Home Guard, Farm Guards and Special Tribal Police. The generic term of 'Home Guard' is used here for convenience and to avoid confusion. For specific details of the various groups and the shifts in nomenclature see D. Branch, 'Loyalism during the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya, 1952-60' (unpublished D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 2005).
111. Peterson, 'Writing in revolution', 86-7.
112. Correspondence in KNA DC/MRU/2/1/2 gives very brief details of each victim in Meru (see Appendix I).
113. L. White, 'Separating the men from the boys: Constructions of gender, sexuality and terrorism in Central Kenya, 1939-1959', International Journal of African Historical Studies, 23 (1990), 10.
114. Kershaw, Mau Mau From Below, 237.
115. For examples of Home Guard refusing to engage Mau Mau units, see TNA: PRO WO 276/388, Kiambu District Intelligence Summary for the week ending 19 Dec. 1953, 2; KNA ARC(MAA) 2/5/307 111, DC Nyeri to Provincial Commissioner (PC) Central, 7 Oct. 1953. For Home Guards providing accommodation for Mau Mau fighters intending to attack a different Home Guard unit, see TNA: PRO WO 276/388, Kiambu District Intelligence Summary for week ending 25 Apr. 1953, 2-3. For Home Guard participation in an attack on a lorry containing Mau Mau prisoners and their subsequent liberation, see TNA: PRO WO 276/394, Embu District Intelligence Summary for the week ending 19 Nov. 1953, 4.
116. KNA MAA/7/546, Deputy Chief Secretary to Chief Native Commissioner (CNC), 27 Oct. 1953.
117. For discussion of the returning squatters see Elkins, Imperial, 56-9.
118. D. L. Barnett, '"Mau Mau": The structural integration and disintegration of Aberdare guerrilla forces' (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1963), 82
119. Kershaw, Mau Mau From Below, 260 fn.2.
120. KNA VQ/1/31, DC Fort Hall, 'The future of Kikuyu guards', 2, attached to DC Fort Hall to PC Central, 31 Oct. 1953.
121. Anderson, Histories, 266-7.
122. For example, an attack on a guard post in Embu in January 1954 was considered notable as it had been executed by 'strangers'. See Anderson, Histories, 267.
123. KNA VP/2/20, Naivasha District Intelligence Summary for the week ending 26 Mar. 1954, 2.
124. KNA AHC/9/24, J. Nyaga, 'Devil finds work to the lazy', Kayu ka Embu 15 Jan. 1954, 2.
125. KNA VQ/1/31, 'Extract from the Provincial Commissioner, Nyeri's memorandum on "Future administration of the Kikuyu districts"', 31 July 1953.
126. KNA VQ/1/30, DC Nyeri to Executive Officer, Central Province Emergency Committee, 10 June 1954.
127. KNA VQ/1/31, DC Fort Hall to PC Central, 6 Oct. 1953, 1.
128. KNA VQ/1/51, 'Record of a meeting held at Nyeri on 22nd December, 1953', 24 Dec. 1953. The tax had been introduced on 31 March 1953
129. see 'These Kikuyu must pay more', East African Standard, 1 Apr. 1953, 1.
130. KNA MAA/7/761, minute from 'F' to Chief Native Commissioner and Secretary for African Affairs, 3 Mar. 1954, 1-2.
131. KNA VP/14/13, DC Fort Hall, 'Agricultural policy in the Emergency', 21 Apr. 1954.
132. Those of Elkins's informants who were once employed in these labour gangs stated that they rarely, if ever, received payment. Elkins, Imperial, 128.
133. KNA VQ/1/51, Assistant Superintendent of Police Special Branch Nyeri to PC Central, 16 June 1954, 1.
134. KNA VQ/1/51, Assistant Superintendent of Police Special Branch Nyeri to PC Central, 19 June 1954.
135. A. Clayton, Counter-Insurgency in Kenya: A Study of Military Operations Against Mau Mau (Nairobi, 1975), 30.
136. Furedi, 'The African crowd in Nairobi', 275-90
137. Throup, Economic and Social Origins, 171-202.
138. For accounts of the war in the city, see D. M Anderson, ' The battle of Dandora Swamp: Reconstructing the Mau Mau Land Freedom Army Oct. 1954', in Atieno Odhiambo and Lonsdale (eds.), Mau Mau and Nationhood, 155-90
139. Anderson, Histories, 181-229
140. Mathu, The Urban Guerrilla.
141. For accounts of Anvil, see Anderson, Histories, 200-12
142. Elkins, Imperial, 121-5.
143. KNA migrated files from Tel Aviv currently being catalogued by RHL, Oxford TA Kenya 053, the Tenants of City Council Houses, Shauri la Moyo to City Council African Affairs Officer, 26 Aug. 1954
144. TA Kenya 050, Surinder K. Kochhar to DC Nairobi, 31 Aug. 1954
145. TA Kenya 051, Security Officer, Block Hotels to DO Pumwani, 2 Sept. 1954
146. TA Kenya 054, Major F. R. Corner to N. F. Harris MLC, 20 Sept. 1954
147. TA Kenya 052, Traffic Superintendent, Kenya Bus Services to DC Nairobi, 23 Oct. 1954.
148. KNA VP/1/16, Chief J. Z. Gacingiri to DC Nairobi, 1 Oct. 1954.
149. For further evidence of changing attitudes towards Mau Mau and details of mass sweeps of the forests by thousands of civilians, at least some of whom were forced to participate, see KNA MSS/124/5, W. H. Laughton to M. McKeag, 16 Jan. 1955
150. 'Women rise up against terrorists: 8.000 act as "Beaters" in South Nyeri operations', East African Standard, 8 Aug. 1955
151. KNA AB/8/31, minutes of Meru African District Council meeting, 6-7 Dec. 1955, 1
152. KNA ARA/6/1, G. Irvine, 'Chogoria Hospital', attachment to Dr. C. Irvine, 'Chogoria Hospital Report: 1955', 4
153. KNA VP/1/47, Lt. Col. Watson Gandy, CO 7th KAR, 'Operation Schemozzle', 5 Dec. 1955
154. KNA DC/EBU/1/1/15, Embu District Annual Report 1956, 1
155. Furedi, The Mau Mau War, 124
156. G. Lathbury, 'The security forces in the Kenya Emergency', in F. S. Joelson (ed.), Rhodesia and East Africa (London, 1958), 41.
157. KNA WC/CM/1/5, Department of Information, 'Notes for the press on the Kenya Emergency', 18 Oct. 1955, 3.
158. KNA VP/14/13, DC Nyeri, 'Review of situation - Nyeri District', 27 July 1955, 1.
159. See correspondence in KNA AM/1/21, 'Murders Nyeri area', relating to alleged murders of Mau Mau suspects committed by Home Guards under the supervision of European officials, and half-hearted attempts at investigation of such cases.
160. KNA ARC(MAA) 2/5/323, G. Adamson to DO Mukugodo, 1 Aug. 1954
161. G. Adamson, Bwana Game: The Life Story of George Adamson (London, 1968), 201-2.
162. KNA DC/FH/3/16/39, M. Muturi to DC Fort Hall, 29 May 1955. Jackson has argued that the consumption of meat played a central role in Mau Mau discourses due to its limited availability. The recurrence of consumption of livestock in accusations made against loyalists may be a reflection of this. See K. Jackson, Jr., '"Impossible to ignore their greatness": Survival craft in the Mau Mau forest movement', in Atieno Odhiambo and Lonsdale (eds.), Mau Mau and Nationhood, 182.
163. KNA ARC(MAA) 2/5/1981, B. N. Kamau to CNC, 16 Aug. 1956. In the same file, see also K. Waharwigi to Secretary for African Affairs, 10 Aug. 1956; G. W. Kibuku to Chief Secretary, 7 Oct. 1956; N. Kimau to Ministry of African Affairs, 24 Nov. 1956; J. K. Ngure to CNC, 29 Nov. 1956; N. Mwaniki to Minister of African Affairs, 6 Dec. 1956
164. W. M. Gichuhi to Minister of African Affairs, 6 Dec. 1956.
165. KNA DC/FH/3/16/39, Station Master Fort Hall to DC Fort Hall, 6 Dec. 1955. The Ndakaini Home Guard units reported their headman as carrying out similar activities in KNA DC/FH/3/16/39, Ndakaini Home Guards to DC Fort Hall, 13 Feb. 1955.
166. C. Elkins, 'Detention, rehabilitation and the destruction of Kikuyu society', in Atieno Odhiambo and Lonsdale (eds.), Mau Mau and Nationhood, 233-74.
167. See, for an account of 'Kenya's Belsen', Anderson, Histories, 297-307.
168. The announcement was made in KNA WC/CM/1/1, 'H. E. the Governor's Directive No. 4 of 1954', 31 Dec. 1954.
169. For explicit acknowledgement of the significance of accusations of abuses for the disbandment of the Home Guard see KNA ARC(MAA) 2/5/327, PC Central to Minister for African Affairs, 16 Dec. 1954
170. KNA DC/NYK/3/1/30, 'Record of a meeting held at Government House on Thursday, December 23rd 1954', 24 Dec. 1954, 1.
171. Lonsdale, 'Authority', 62.
172. KNA DC/MUR/3/13/12, Kenya Calling, 15 Jan. 1955, 3-4.
173. For Tribal Police, see KNA DC/NYK/3/16/36, G. M. Kaman to DO Nanyuki, Nov. 1956
174. M. Jacob to DC Nanyuki, 9 Nov. 1956
175. K. Njeru to DC Nanyuki, 12 Nov. 1956
176. M. Muli to DC Nanyuki, 19 Nov. 1956
177. G. N. Mburi to DC Nanyuki, 26 Nov. 1956
178. M. Riumpu to DC Nanyuki, 1 Dec. 1956
179. for Provincial Administration, see KNA DC/NYK/3/16/36, W. Ndebere to DC Nanyuki, 10 Dec. 1956.
180. KNA DC/NYK/3/16/36, S. K. Magana to the Forester, Nanyuki, 16 Oct. 1956
181. Chief I. Munyori to DC Nanyuki, 28 Nov. 1956 (forestry)
182. KNA DC/NYK/3/16/36, Z. M. M'Nabeu to DC Meru, 8 Oct. 1956 (liquor)
183. KNA DC/NYK/3/16/36, K. Kaman to DC Nanyuki, 9 Sept. 1956
184. W. Maene to DC Nanyuki, 9 Oct. 1956
185. N. Wamutitu to DC Nanyuki, 9 Oct. 1956 (livestock trading)
186. KNA DC/NYK/3/16/36, S. K. Magana to Transport Licence Board, 10 Oct. 1956 (transport licences).
187. KNA VP/14/13, DC Nyeri, 'Development in Nyeri district - January-June 1954', 14 July 1954, 1.
188. Kershaw, Mau Mau From Below, 259.
189. KNA AB/8/31, minutes of Meru African District Council meeting, 6-7 Dec. 1955, 4.
190. KNA AHC/9/52, 'Malipo kwa Waaminifu Wajane (Compensation for loyalist widows)', Mwanamke, 25 Aug. 1954, 2.
191. KNAVP/1/16, DC Nyeri to PC Central, 25 June 1954
192. KNAVP/14/13, DC Nyeri, 'Review of the situation', 27 July 1954, 2.
193. KNA VQ/5/1, DC Fort Hall to PC Central, 10 Dec. 1955.
194. KNA DC/EBU/1/2/4, DC Embu to DO Ndia, 2 July 1956, 2
195. KNA DC/EBU/1/2/4, DO Ndia, 'Handing over notes, June 1956, 9, 18 and 19
196. KNA DC/EBU/1/2/6, DC Embu, 'Embu district handing over report: R. H. Symes-Thompson - H. C. F. Wilks', 20 Nov. 1956, 12
197. KNA DC/EBU/1/2/7, DO Ndia, 'Ndia division handing over notes: Gordon - Johnson', Apr. 1957, 3
198. KNA DC/EBU/1/2/8, DC Embu, 'Handing over Report - Mr. A. P. Palmer to Mr. P. G. Derrick', 3 May 1958, 14.
199. KNA VP/1/27, DC Nyeri to DOs North Tetu and Mathera, 10 May 1954
200. DO North Tetu to DC Nyeri, 21 June 1954
201. KNA DC/KBU/1/45, Kiambu District Annual Report 1955, 17
202. Kiambu District Annual Report 1957, 4
203. KNA DC/KBU/2/1, DO Kikuyu, 'Handing over report Kikuyu division - Kiambu: J. D. Campbell to E. D. Fox', 30 May 1955, 3
204. KNA MA/7/7, Land Consolidation Officer Kiambu to DC Kiambu, 28 Sept. 1957.
205. For examples of publicity for such actions, see KNA AHC/9/52, 'Magaidi Wengine Wanapoteza Nchi Zao (More terrorists to lose their land)', Mwanamke, 14 July 1954, 1
206. 'Trees from terrorist's land used to build and protect villages', East African Standard, 9 June 1955.
207. For the most detailed discussion of this process, see Sorrenson, Land Reform.
208. RHL Mss Afr s 633, box 18, file 4, G. Sluiter, 'Confidential report on migrant labour and connected matters in four villages in the Kiambu Reserve of Kenya', 1957, 48
209. D. M. Ng'ang'a, 'Mau Mau, loyalists', 371
210. Sorrenson, Land Reform, 166.
211. KNA VP/1/27, R. G. Wilson, L. Ward and R. Sandford, 'Fort Hall district: land feform', 7 Apr. 1954, 7.
212. KNA VP/2/70, Assistant Superintendent of Police Special Branch Nyeri to Senior Superintendent of Police Provincial Special Branch, 12 Sept. 1960, 1.
213. KNA PC/NKU/2/17/18, Special Commissioner, 'Reabsorption of detainees', 17 Jan. 1957, 3.
214. KNA MA/1/2, DO Kikuyu to all residents of Kikuyu and Kabete settled areas, 3 Feb. 1955.
215. See Nanyuki district employment registers in KNA DC/NYK/3/16/49.
216. KNA VP/1/38, Minister for Forest Development, Game and Fisheries, 'Scheme for reabsorption of Kikuyu, Embu and Meru displaced as a result of the Emergency', 8 Dec. 1954.
217. KNA VP/1/38, DC Embu to PC Central, 13 Nov. 1954
218. Joint Secretaries, 'Resettlement committee: Guarded villages at Mwea/ Tebere', 23 Nov. 1954
219. KNA VQ/1/32, DC Embu to PC Central, 19 Feb. 1954
220. PC Central to CNC, 1 Mar. 1954.
221. KNA AHC/9/23, 'Working at Nyeri', Uhoro wa Nyeri, 3 Dec. 1954
222. AHC/9/52, 'Wanawake Waafrika Wengi Wameandikiza Kazi Nairobi (More African women employed in Nairobi)', Mwanamke, 16 June 1954, 1.
223. KNA WC/CM/1/2, minutes of 104th meeting of the War Council, 10 May 1955, 3-4
224. KNA WC/CM/1/3, minutes of the 144th meeting of the War Council, 22 Nov. 1955, 4
225. KNA WC/CM/1/3, minutes of the 149th meeting of the War Council, 29 Dec. 1955, 7-8.
226. KNA VP/5/1, minutes of meeting of DCs Central Province, 28 Feb.-1 Mar. 1957, 2.
227. KNA VP/1/42, Laragwan Screening Camp Screening Team, 'Application for a restriction order dossier: Gickuki Tama', 20 Feb. 1956
228. DC Nyeri to DO Othaya, 23 Feb. 1956
229. DC Nyerito DO Othaya, 4 Apr. 1956
230. DC Nyerito DO Othaya, 4 June 1956.
231. See also wa Wanjau, Mau Mau Author, 206-12.
232. Wa Wanjau, Mau Mau Author, 207.
233. KNA DC/NYI/1/1, Nyeri District Annual Report 1959, 8.
234. For a discussion of changing memories of allegiances during the war, formed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, see G. Kershaw, 'Mau Mau from below: Fieldwork and experience, 1955-57 and 1962', Canadian Journal of African Studies, 25 (1991), 288-9.
235. S. Carruthers, Winning Hearts and Minds: British Governments, the Media and Colonial Counter-Insurgency (Leicester, 1995), 156-7, 165.
236. KNA AHC/9/23, M. Kinaichu to Editor, Uhoro wa Nyeri, 3 Nov. 1954.
237. KNA AHC/9/25, J. M. Mwangi to Editor, Kayu ka Embu, 31 Aug. 1955.
238. KNA AHC/9/24, S. Mugo to Editor, Kayu ka Embu, 20 June 1954.
239. RHL Mss Afr s 1727, J. J. Nyagah to M. Foote, 16 Oct. 1954.
240. KNA DC/NKU/2/24/73, J. N. Wanyaga to DC Kiambu, 29 Sept. 1953.
241. KNA AHC/9/23, M. Kinaichu to Editor, Uhoro wa Nyeri, 3 Sept. 1954.
242. Lonsdale, 'Authority', 59. Similarly in the mid-1980s, Gikuyu elders counselled restraint during protests against the Moi regime by deploying memories of the trauma of the Mau Mau war. See 'Whither Kenya? Why there is no chaos yet', Finance Magazine, Mar. 1986, cited in M. S. Kimenyi and N. S. Ndung'u, 'Sporadic ethnic violence: Why has Kenya not experienced a full-blown civil war?' in P. Collier and N. Sambanis (eds.), Understanding Civil War: Evidence and Analysis - Volume I: Africa (Washington DC, 2005), 153.
243. KNA AHC/9/24, M. M. Nyambura, 'A house-fly and tsetse-fly', Kayu ka Embu, 28 Feb. 1955.
244. KNA AHC/9/24, G. K. N. Njirata to Editor, Kayu ka Embu, 15 Feb. 1955, 2.
245. KNA ARA/8/4, 'Original Kikuyu hymn book (Presbyterian)'.
246. KNA AHC/9/23, D. Waweru to Editor, Uhoro wa Nyeri, 3 Nov. 1954.
247. KNA AHC/9/25, L. Njiru, 'What could develop our country', Kaya ka Embu, 15 Jan. 1956.
248. KNA AHC/9/25, B. N. M'Chandi to Editor, Kayu ka Embu, May 1955.
249. KNA AHC/9/23, Senior Chief Muhoya, 'The disobedience of the Kikuyu children', Uhoro wa Nyeri, 3 Nov. 1954.
250. KNA AHC/9/23, Chief S. Kiama, 'A conspiracy', Uhoro wa Nyeri, 18 Aug. 1954.
251. KNA AHC/9/25, B. N. Harrison to Editor, Kaya ka Embu, 15 Nov. 1955.
252. White, 'Separating the men', 25.
253. KNA AHC/9/23, M. Kinaichu to Editor, Uhoro wa Nyeri, 3 Sept. 1954.
254. KNA AHC/9/24, S. Njeru, 'What should I do?', Kayu ka Embu, 28 Feb. 1955, 2.
255. KNA AHC/9/24, Headman N. Mabui to Editor, Kayu ka Embu, 31 Jan. 1955.
256. KNA AHC/9/24, E. Munene to Editor, Kayu ka Embu, 30 Jan. 1954.
257. KNA AHC/9/23, N. Njarua, 'Care of the children - the African women advised', Uhoro wa Nyeri, 3 Nov. 1954.
258. See, for example, KNA AHC/9/23, K. Waiganjo to DC Nyeri, 8 June 1954, Uhoro wa Nyeri, 18 Aug. 1954
259. KNA AHC/9/24, H. Mwaniki to Editor, Kayu ka Embu, 30 June 1954
260. KNA AHC/9/24, C. N. M. Kaguyu, 'A story of an oldman and his three sons', Kayu ka Embu, 22 Nov. 1954.
261. See, for widespread use of animals in morality tales, C. Chesaina, Oral Literature of the Embu and Mbeere (Nairobi, 1997), 59-122
262. R. Mwangi, Kikuyu Folktales: Their Nature and Value (Nairobi, 1982), 57-130.
263. The term 'hyena', in Nairobi at least, was a pejorative term that denoted sexual indiscipline, another trait of youthful delinquency; see White, 'Separating the men', 23.
264. KNA AHC/9/24, O. Kunguru, 'Advice to all teachers', Kayu ka Embu, Jan. 1955.
265. KNA AHC/9/24, B. M. Njeru to the Editor, Kayu ka Embu, 30 June 1954.
266. KNA AHC/9/57, W. Kireru to Editor, Utheri wa Nyeri, Aug. 1957, 5.
267. See also Elkins, Imperial, 261-2
268. White, 'Separating the men', 24-5
269. A. Wipper, 'The Maendeleo ya Wanawake organization: The co-optation of leadership', African Studies Review, 18 (1975), 99-120.
270. Cora Ann Presley, Kikuyu Women, the Mau Mau Rebellion, and Social Change in Kenya (Boulder CO, 1992), 165-7.
271. For discussions of community development in postwar Kenya, see Joanna Lewis, Empire State-Building: War and Welfare in Kenya 1925-52 (Oxford, 2000), 298-359.
272. KNA AHC/9/25, 'Maendeleo ya Wanawake clubs', Kaya ka Embu, 30 June 1955.
273. Also cited in Elkins, Imperial, 261-2.
274. KNA AHC/9/24, M. Muthanji to Editor, Kayu ka Embu, 31 Jan. 1955.
275. KNA AHC/9/25, S. M. Ngai to Editor, Kaya ha Embu, 30 June 1955.
276. KNA AHC/9/25, J. Muthoni to Editor, Kaya ha Embu, 15 Dec. 1955.
277. KNA DC/EBU/9/1, Greet Sluiter, 'A study of Kabare-Village in the Embu-District', May 1956, 3.
278. Lynn Thomas, '"Ngaitana (I will circumcise myself)": The gender and generational politics of the 1956 ban on clitoridectomy in Meru, Kenya', Gender and History, 8 (1996), 338-63
279. Lynn Thomas, Politics of the Womb: Women, Reproduction, and the State in Kenya (Berkeley CA, 2003), 79-101.
280. Lonsdale, 'Authority', 62.
281. KNA AHC/9/23, Nancy Njarua, 'African women', Uhoro wa Nyeri, 3 Nov. 1954.
282. Peterson, 'Wordy women', 471.
283. KNA DC/EBU/9/1, Sluiter, 'A study of Kabare-Village', 6.
284. Heyer, 'Mandala of a market', 264.
285. Anderson, Histories, 232
286. Kenya, A History of the Loyalists, 80.
287. KNA DC/EBU/1/2/3, DC Embu, 'Handing over report: Mr. R. A. Wilkinson to Mr. F. R. Wilson', 19 July 1954, ch.V, 1-2; KNA AHC/9/52, 'Macukuru Meru Bururi wa Embu (New schools in Embu)', Mundu-wa-Nja, 10 Mar. 1954. See also DO Kandara to DC Fort Hall, 19 Mar. 1954. for details of cess imposed after destruction of school in Gatundu.
288. For the latter, see Peterson, 'Writing in revolution', 90.
289. For discussions of the importance of colonial educational policy, in particular the Beecher report of 1950, in the growth of unrest, see Kershaw, Mau Mau From Below, 227
290. Lonsdale, 'Wealth', 424
291. Donald L. Barnett and Karari Njama, Mau Mau From Within: Autobiography and Analysis of Kenya's Peasant Revolt (New York and London, 1966), 141-3.
292. KNA AHC/9/57, D. Ndujiu to Editor, Utheri wa Nyeri, June 1957, 5.
293. KNA AHC/9/24, P. N. Jacob to Editor, Kayu ha Embu, 15 Sept. 1954.
294. KNA AHC/9/57, S. King'ori to Editor, Utheri wa Nyeri, July 1957, 5.
295. KNA AHC/9/24, G. Wambura to Editor, Kaya ka Embu, 30 July 1955.
296. This was agreed in KNA VQ/1/51, 'Record of a meeting held at Nyeri on 22nd December, 1953', 24 Dec. 1953.
297. See, for example, KNA DC/MUR/3/4/21, Education Officer, Fort Hall, to Supervisor, A. A. C. Weithaga, & President, ACC&S, Gituru, 8 Sept. 1953.
298. KNA AHC/9/25, L. M. Njoka,'Wambere people during the Emergency', Kaya ka Embu, 30 June 1955.
299. KNA AHC/9/25, S. M. Ngai to Editor, Kaya ka Embu, 30 June 1955.
300. KNA AHC/9/24, M. Karanga to Editor, Kayu ka Embu, 22 Nov. 1954.
301. KNA AHC/9/24, N. K. Muciri to Editor, Kayu ka Embu, 15 Aug. 1954.
302. KNA AHC/9/24, E. N. Ngari to Editor, Kayu ka Embu, 31 July 1954.
303. KNA AHC/9/23, Headman S. M. Kibubu to Editor, Uhoro wa Nyeri, 18 Oct. 1954.
304. Kershaw, Mau Mau From Below, 186.
305. KNA AHC/9/23, M. Kinaichu to Editor, Uhoro wa Nyeri, 3 Sept. 1954.
306. KNA AHC/9/24, B. M. Njeru, 'What our reader says', Kayu ka Embu, Dec. 1954.
307. See, for one of the first descriptions of a modernist response to Mau Mau, KNA VQ/1/51, PC Central, 'The civil problem of Mau Mau and some thoughts on its possible solution', 14 Jan. 1954, 5.
308. D. Branch, 'Loyalists, Mau Mau and elections in Kenya: The first triumph of the system, 1957-58', Africa Today, 53 (20o6), 27-50
309. D. K. Leonard, African Successes: Four Public Managers of Kenyan
310. For descriptions of the operation in Murang'a district of postcolonial patron-client networks headed by loyalists, in particular Julius Kiano, see G. Lamb, Peasant Politics: Conflict and Development in Murang'a (Lewes, 1974)
311. N. G. Wanjohi, The Politics of Ideology and Personality Rivalry in Murang'a District, Kenya: A Study of Electoral Competition, Institute of Development Studies, University of Nairobi, working paper 411 (Nairobi, 1984).
312. Quoted in Lonsdale, 'Wealth', 326.
313. Quoted in Peterson, Creative Writing, 10.
314. KNA VQ/1/51, Assistant Superintendent of Police Special Branch Nyeri to PC Central, 16 June 1954, 1.
315. KNA AHC/9/57, M. Wambugu to Editor, Utheri wa Nyeri, Feb. 1957.
316. Quoted in Lonsdale, 'Wealth', 327.