History Mau Mau Uprising

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The Mau - Mau Uprising 1954

COURSE OF THE MAU-MAU MOVEMENT

Due to the failure of the Devonshire White paper to solve African problems, Africans started forming underground movements. Up to 1944 a European missionary represented Africans on the Legislative council.  The Kenyan population broke down into secret societies on tribal and   tradition basis.
 After 1945, a number of political groups were formed some of which led to the
formation of the Mau-Mau. The group that spearheaded this was that of the dissatisfied ex-soldiers known as the “FORTY GROUP” in 1946.They began by organizing opposition of European policies e.g. stopping the kikuyu from terracing their land.
 The group was then joined by the other groups and formed one called “Kenya Land and Freedom Army”. In 1946, they got in touch with Kenyatta after he had returned from Britain, he was the leader of the Kenya African Union (KAU) (after James Gichuru) and this organization was later called Mau-Mau.
 The rebels had many demands from the government but most important of all was independence for all Kenyans and a return of land grabbed by the Europeans. Kenyatta as KAU (Kenya African Union) leader had kept in touch with the local leaders and their activities and later became their leader. Although he tried to get national support for the party, it remained predominantly Kikuyu and failed to gain significantly beyond the central province. The Europeans became hostile to Kenyatta’s political activities and even threatened to deport him.

By 1948 the legislative council membership had 4 Africans and African demand for independence was growing. However, the colonial government felt that it needed more of their guidance. In 1950 the KAU extremists and the ex-soldiers lost patience and the movement became violent.
Basing their underground movements in Nairobi, they made plans for direct action using forceful traditional oath practices promising to oust the settlers, obey their leaders and keep secrets under threat of death.
They attacked European and Asian shops and businesses so as to get guns and disappeared into forests to wedge guerrilla warfare against the Europeans.
In 1951 the Mau-Mau was declared unlawful by the government due its acts of violence. In 1952 the Mau-Mau made bases in the Aberdare forests and Mt. Kenya spreading their hostile activities over the highlands, rift valley region and Nairobi.
They attacked European farms, raided villages for food and murdered those they thought were loyal to the government. Diplomatic or constitutional means employed to stop the Mau-Mau by peaceful means failed.
Governor Sir Evelyn Baring realizing that the Mau-Mau fighters were a potential danger declared a state of emergency on 28th October 1952. More armed forces were brought into action and British troops flown into Kenya to control the situation but without success. Many suspected leaders of the Mau-Mau were arrested e.g. Tom Mbotela the vice president of the KAU and a Nairobi City Councilor was assassinated. Several villages were burnt down in the Lari massacre.
In April 1953 Kenyatta was arrested with his colleagues, he was tried and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment after being found guilty of managing and directing the Mau-Mau activities. In June 1953 KAU was banned. Despite the arrest of its members, its activities continued.
In 1954 many members of the Kikuyu were rounded up in Nairobi and forced into special emergency villages or camps partly for their own protection and partly to stop them from contacting the rebels.
In January 1956, Itote popularly known as ‘General China’ a prominent military leader of the Mau-Mau was captured and executed and in October the same year, Dedan Kimathi was also killed.
By 1960 the movement had broken down due to conflicts over leadership and shortly after came to an end.
The rebellion became a path for the future independence of Kenya which was later achieved on 12th December 1963.

WHY DID THE MAU-MAU TAKE LONG TO END?

• Africans were using guerrilla warfare based in Abedare mountains and mountain Kenya making it difficult for the government to suppress them.
  
• The rebels adopted good military strategies and spy network as the majority were ex-soldiers.
  
• They had been able to acquire guns, which gave them military advantage.
• The British were depending on the Africans, some of whom were secret members of the Mau-Mau. The Africans were forced to take traditional oaths, which unified them.
  
• The availability of able leaders like Jomo Kenyatta and General China.
  
• African determination gave them courage to persist for a long time.

WHY WAS THE UPRISING SUPPRESSED/ REASONS WHY THE
RESISTANCE FAILED

• Some Africans allied with the British. These included the brain washed Africans who called themselves ‘good Christians, law abiding citizens of Kenya’, and African chiefs who were appointed by the British. These collaborated with the British and defeated the Africans.
  
• The resistance was affected and weakened by the removal of African strong leaders through detention,imprisonment and executions for example, in April 1953, Jomo Kenyatta was arrested, tried and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment.
• The British were better-equipped and better fighters. Militarily the British had superior weapons although the Africans had the zeal to fight they used locally made weapons to execute their cause as compared to the British who had armoured trains, guns and automatic tracing equipment like Binoculars. This partly explains why the Mau Mau was defeated.
  
• There were disagreements among the political parties in the later stages of the rebellion. The lack of a single mass political party that would have spearheaded the struggle for example, Kenya African National Union (KANU) which comprised of the Kikuyu and Luo advocated for a military government while Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) dominated by the Kalenjin and Coastal Bantu tribes advocated for a central government. These disagreements and quarrels partly explain the defeat.
  
• The eventual death of Mau Mau commanders led like General China and Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi led to its defeat. These two had been the most experienced soldiers who had participated in the Second World War and knew well the weakness of European soldiers. Worse still, their death by public hanging served to frighten many Africans from joining the Mau Mau.
  
• They had no enough food as they did not have time to engage in farming.  The food stores where burnt by the colonial government so the fighters had to survive by feeding on bitter roots, fish and wild game. Such a diet greatly demoralized them.
  
• A part from forcing them to unite, the idea of forcing Africans to take an oath was disadvantageous to some extent since some people were not faithful.
  
• The British were constantly re-enforced by their home governments.
  
• Africans fought single handedly, for example the British were constantly provided with food, ammunition and clothing. The British police could frequently be flown into Kenya to help the Kenya African riffles in disorganizing the Mau Mau movement.
  
• Banning of political parties in Kenya weakened Mau Mau movement. After the British realizing that political violence towards the Africans had failed to contain the strength of the guerrilla movement, they banned KAU and political leaders like Kenyatta were imprisoned. The party supporters threatened to withdraw their support while the combatants at the front lost the morale to fight. Such confusion could not yield any victory to the Mau Mau fighters.
  
• The determination of the British to calm down the rebellion. They used violent approaches to weaken the Mau Mau further for example, the government detained the Africans in reserves and this reduced the level of interaction amongst the Africans. The leaders of the uprising such as General China were publicly hanged, Jomo Kenyatta who was so influential was detained for seven years. This weakened the uprising which was defeated by 1956.

MEASURES TAKEN BY THE GOVERNMENT TO SUPPRESS THE UP RISING

At first it was regarded as a minor rising, so it deployed the police who were using the King’s African Rifles. On realizing that this strategy had failed, the then governor, Sir Evelyn Baring declared a state of emergency and more troops were sent in from Europe as step one.
All political parties were abolished and Kenyatta and other prominent leaders suspected of being the key leaders of the movement were arrested. In April 1953, Kenyatta was sentenced to a term of seven years imprisonment.
Having got rid of the prominent leaders, government troops headed for the forests where serious fighting ensued. Meanwhile, a number of Kikuyu were rounded up and taken to special emergency camps in various areas, example, Nairobi, Embu, Meru
In 1954, government organized more raids in Nairobi area and rounded up more than 26,000 Kikuyu and also moved to other areas, like Kamba, Embu, Meru and so on.

Besides rounding up the Kikuyu, in Nairobi, the government also came for the Kikuyu who were studying at Makerere University.
In that same year (1954) General China was also arrested .His real name was Waruhiu Itote. He was captured and sentenced to death.  He was leading the struggle from Mt. Kenya.

Another leader, Dedan Kimathi who had continued with the struggle after General China was also captured and sentenced to death in 1956.After their capture, the struggle begun declining. However, fighting continued until 1960 when government declared that the emergency was over.

EFFECTS/RESULTS OF THE MAU-MAU RISING

• Many people lost their lives which led to depopulation. 100 Europeans and 2000 Pro-British Africans lost their lives. Over 10,000 energetic men were killed and this massive loss of productive labor led to economic decline in Kenya after 1956.
  
• The Kenyans were allowed to participate in the Legislative council in large numbers. In 1958, a constitution (Lennox) was drawn which provided for 15 members of African representation to the council and therefore members like Arap Moi ,Oginga Odinga ,Tom Mboya joined  the legislative council who became influential  in the independence struggle.
  
• Kenyans became involved in various economic activities as equal partners from which they had been excluded .They were allowed to grow profitable crops like coffee, tea, cotton from which they obtained profits and improved their standards of living.
  
• It led to the formation of political parties. Due to the increased constitutional reforms and increased education, African elite emerged and these formed strong political parties which included Kenya African National Union. (KANU) Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU). These parties strongly advocated for Kenyan Independence.
  
• It led to the leaders of the Mau-Mau and many people being arrested and detained in prison for a long time hence their suffering and misery  for example Jomo Kenyatta detained for seven years and Dedan Kimathi.
• The activities of the Mau Mau uprising put pressure on the colonial government to the extent that Kenya got her independence in 1963. The colonial government was forced to undertake social, economic as well as political reforms. In 1958, constitutional reforms were adopted which quickened the way to multi-racial form of government in Kenya. For the first time the Africans were included in the local and national politics in Kenya.
  
• The uprising led to the exodus of many white settlers in Kenya and the plans to make Kenya a white man’s country became futile. After 1956, all parts that were racially restricted were made open to all races including the Kenyan highlands.
  
• Farms were destroyed which led to food shortage in the area. There was massive destruction of the food stores, granaries and burning of fields and yet people were confined in camps and reserves. These became congested and over crowded with no land for agriculture. The political instability destabilized the agricultural development in Kenya.
• The war was costly to both Britain and Kenya. Britain. For example it’s estimated that the British Government spent over 50million pounds on buying auxiliary weapons and financing the war. In addition there was loss of business and therefore money since trade was paralyzed. Administrative centers, churches, farm machinery worth millions of pounds were also destroyed.
  
• The colonial administration was forced to with draw the foreign labour policy and many Kenyans began looking for jobs in their own country reducing the Asian domination of the commercial and retail sectors.
  
• The removal of Kikuyu leaders gave an opportunity to other leaders to rise up, example, Tom Mboya, Oginga Odinga etc. These worked to sensitize the Africans to fight on and intensify the massive destruction of property that belonged to the British, Asian retail shops were frequently looted. This created economic pain that forced the British subdue to the African cry for independence by promising quick constitutional transformation.
• The whites accepted that a multi-racial society was the only solution and each race had to accept peaceful existence with one another. Equality of races was witnessed in schools, agriculture and government especially the ministerial ranks.  The exclusive white occupation and settlement of Kenya highlands was abolished. In this respect the Mau Mau achieved the objective of its leaders i.e. Equal treatment of races.
• Mau Mau rebellion affected the settlement patterns of the kikuyu:  Small and protected villages were created by the government as a means of separating civilians from guerillas (fighters).A total of 80,000 Kikuyu men, women and children were confined in detention camps. The 1952 state of emergency forced the kikuyu to live in the protected villages together instead of the formerly scattered settlement. This later enabled easy provision of schools, health services, and market services to the people.
• It led to the release of political prisoners .For instance in August 1961 Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was released, elected to Legislative Assembly and made president of Kenya African  National Union (KANU).Similarly, 173 prisoners who were released by rebels during the height of the Mau Mau uprising.
  
• Increased Africanisation of Kenya’s educational system, Africans were allowed to access good quality education similar to that of the white settlers. Many were admitted in public schools, more schools for the African children were constructed even in the rural areas. Further still African children were given priority on scholarship awarded by the government which never happened before.

In conclusion, the British were quick to hand over power to Africans i.e. Ghana 1957, Tanganyika (Tanzania) 9/12/1961, Uganda 9/10/1962, Kenya 12/12/1963. This was done so as to avoid worse embarrassment and bloodshed as the case was with the Mau Mau in Kenya.

THE EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN EAST AFRICAN NATIONS 1900 - 1963
                     Learners' activities

Activity one
Role play
Divide the class into groups and ask them to act out the roles of the following:-
(i)         Nationalists like Jomo Kenyatta, Dedan Kimathi, General China and Tom Mboya.
(ii)        The Ex-service men from the Second World War
(iii)       The Kikuyu whose land was alienated (taken away)
(iv)    British administrators in Kenya
Questions for learners

1. What skills have you acquired from acting out the above roles?

1. How can the skills mentioned above be applicable in today’s life situation?

Activity two
At the end of the topic, assign the class to do the following:-

1. Guide them to describe a crisis from their own experience and perspective.
2. Task them to suggest the possible causes of the above crises and to

suggest various ways of addressing different crises facing Uganda
Activity three
Organize a class debate on the following motion:
“THE MAU -MAU UPRISING OF 1952-60 WAS A BLESSING IN DISGUISE”.
Write an article for the New vision about the Mau Mau uprising of 1952-60