Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire

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• White Settlement of Kenya Begins whole source

  That was how it had been in Kenya since 1902, when the first white settlers arrived, encouraged by a colonial governor, Sir Charles Eliot, w…

• End of the Mau Mau Emergency whole source

  When it finally came to an end, in January 1960, the revolt had lasted more than seven years.

• Harry Thuku Arrested and the Nairobi Shooting whole source

  In a scene that would anticipate events thirty years later, Thuku was taken into custody in Nairobi on 14 March 1922.

• The Female Circumcision Crisis and the Kijabe Murder whole source

  To make their consciences suffer even more, on 3 January 1930 an elderly woman missionary at the Kijabe headquarters of the AIM was found mu…

• The Kenya Land Commission Report whole source

  When the Commission reported, in 1934, the Kikuyu were to be gravely disappointed.

• Forced Repatriation of Rift Valley Squatters whole source

  Between 1946 and 1952 the trickle would turn into a torrent, as more than 100,000 Kikuyu squatters were forcibly ‘repatriated’.

• The Olenguruone Oath of Unity whole source

  To cement greater political solidarity, the Olenguruone squatters first took an oath of unity in 1944, based upon the old KCA membership oat…

• The Nairobi general strike of 1950 whole source

  During its brief life, the EATUC was by far the most important ‘militant vehicle for championing African aspirations’ in Nairobi, a role epi…

• Mau Mau Outlawed whole source

  Alarmed by reports of the increasing scale of oathing, the government had taken steps in August 1950 to ban ‘the Mau Mau society’ as an unre…

• The First Mau Mau Killings whole source

  The first bodies were found floating in the Kirichwa river, in Nyeri, on 15 May 1952, at a remote spot away from any settlements.

• Assassination of Senior Chief Waruhiu whole source

  On that bright, clear morning of 7 October 1952 Waruhiu had left his home early to attend a Native Tribunal hearing close to Nairobi.

• The State of Emergency Splits Kikuyu Society whole source

  only two days after Waruhiu’s killing, on 9 October 1952, Baring had cabled London to request that a State of Emergency be declared.

• State of Emergency and Operation Jock Scott whole source

  plans were laid for a mass round-up, code-named Operation Jock Scott, to take place from midnight on 20 October 1952.

• Governor Baring bribes the judge in Kenyatta's trial whole source

  Jomo Kenyatta was to be the principal in this judicial spectacle, designed to placate settler opinion and to show the watching world how Ken…

• The Killing of Chief Nderi whole source

  On 22 October, as the last of the suspects were being rounded up in Operation Jock Scott, another prominent colonial chief was killed. Nderi…

• The Thika Market Shooting whole source

  It occurred when police opened fire on a crowd of 2000 Kikuyu gathered at a market near Thika, on 22 November, apparently believing them to…

• The Nyeri Christmas Eve Attacks whole source

  With deliberate calculation the attacks took place just after sunset on Christmas Eve, when it was known that those good Christians would al…

• The Murder of Eric Bowker whole source

  The first European victim to be murdered by Mau Mau was the reclusive Eric Bowker, who had taken up his remote farm on the Kinangop, in the…

• Murder of the Ruck family whole source

  The slaughter of the Ruck family, at their farm in Kinangop on 24 January 1953, was to be the definitive moment of the war for the white hig…

• Nehru Pledges Support for the Mau Mau whole source

  Two months earlier, on the anniversary of the Amritsar massacre, he had pledged his country’s moral support for the Mau Mau freedom fighters…

• The Lari massacre whole source

  From the fifteen homesteads attacked, spread over an area of some 30 square miles, the final death toll was seventy-four.

• The Lari massacre whole source

  The grim truth was that, for every person who died in Lari’s first massacre, at least two more were killed in retaliation in the second.

• The Lari massacre and Naivasha raid escalate the war whole source

  Another contingent broke open the gates of the detention camp adjacent to the barracks, liberating some 170 prisoners, among their number se…

• The Mau Mau Trials and Hangings whole source

  In all, over the course of the emergency, 1090 Kikuyu would go to the gallows for Mau Mau crimes.

• The First Lari Hangings at Githunguri whole source

  In the bitter cold of the early morning of 15 October, in the hour of grey darkness just before dawn, twelve Lari convicts were hanged at Gi…

• The Murder of Tom Mbotela whole source

  One month into the Emergency, on the evening of 26 November, Mbotela was stabbed and hacked down in a Nairobi street as he walked home from…

• Operation Anvil Mass Detention in Nairobi whole source

  When dawn broke on the morning of 24 April 1954, Nairobi’s citizens woke to find their city under siege.

• General China captured, giving the state an intelligence coup whole source

  China’s glories came to an end on 15 January 1954.

• The Formation of the Kikuyu Home Guard whole source

  The suggestion that resistance groups might be mobilized as a militia was first discussed at Government House in November 1952.

• The PRC’s first constitution, which was adopted in 1954, enshrined the Socialist principles from the whole source

  On 10 March, Lyttelton announced that Kenya would have a new constitution establishing a multi-racial Council of Ministers, to include two A…

• Kimathi's capture ends the military phase whole source

  Finally, in the very early hours of the morning, on 21 October 1956, four years to the day since the start of the Emergency, they cornered K…

• Typhoid epidemic at Manyani camp whole source

  By the end of the year a total of 1151 typhoid cases had been reported at Manyani, of which 115 proved fatal.

• Hola Camp Massacre whole source

  The guards had then set upon them with whips and batons. At the finish, eleven detainees lay dead, clubbed to death by their African guards…

• The Release of Jomo Kenyatta whole source

  On the morning of 14 August 1961 Kenyatta arrived home, to Gatundu in Kiambu, wearing his trademark belted leather jacket and looking robust…

• KANU's Election Victory and Kenyatta's Rise to Power whole source

  KANU’s runaway victory in the national elections of 1963 swept Kenyatta into power as Kenya’s first president.

• Parliament praises friendly Kenya while debating emergency war whole source
• Kill rewards and scoreboards whole source
• Operation Anvil Sweeps Nairobi whole source
• Detention Without Trial and the Pipeline whole source