Mau Mau Emergency (1952–1960)

Abstract During the 1930s and 1940s, white settlers in the central highlands of British colonial Kenya expelled most of the indigenous Kikuyu from their land. The Kikuyu became squatters working for low pay on white owned commercial farms, lived in small, infertile, and overcrowded reserves, or moved to growing slums in Nairobi. A small number of Kikuyu gained land for farming and cultivated ties with the colonial administration. Protest began in the early 1940s with a series of labor strikes, livestock maiming, and burning of farm buildings and crops. By the late 1940s loyalty and unity among rebels was enforced by secret oath ceremonies. Led by Jomo Kenyatta, the moderate Kenya African Union (KAU) failed to win any political reforms from the colonial regime in the early 1950s. Violence escalated in late 1952 with attacks on Kikuyu loyalists and the killing of a Kikuyu chief. Soon after arriving in Kenya the new governor, Sir Evelyn Baring, declared a State of Emergency on October 20, 1952. Beginning on the same day, colonial security forces launched Operation Jock Scott in which a hundred African political leaders, including Kenyatta, and eight thousand others were arrested to remove the leadership of what was now called Mau Mau. In reality, African political leaders had little to do with this grassroots rebellion by mostly illiterate people. Violence against Europeans and loyalist Kikuyu increased with the first killing of settlers in January 1953. Calling themselves the Land and Freedom Army, insurgents organized a “passive wing” of non‐combatants who supplied food, sanctuary, and information to the “active wing,” which amounted to around twelve thousand at the beginning of the conflict. In late March 1953 the insurgents launched their two largest attacks; 80 rebels raided a police station at Naivasha killing two policemen and another group massacred 84 African civilians at Lari. The Land and Freedom Army had few firearms, fought mostly with spears and machetes, and its leaders lacked military experience.