Reconsidering the Mau Mau

For four decades after independence, the Mau Mau were denied respect even within the nation they helped liberate. Thankfully, that is finally changing.

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By Charles Wachira

Perhaps it's true after all that prophets are readily dismissed, if not crucified as felons within their backyards. It's certainly true in Kenya, where a battle is afoot regarding the remains of "Field Marshall" Dedan Kimathi, a hero of Kenya's war of independence and a leader within Africa's inaugural guerrilla movement, the Mau Mau. But while Kimathi's body, currently buried in an unmarked grave within the grounds of a penitentiary, may yet find a more respectful home, his story only hints at the larger re-evaluation of the Mau Mau and their era.
According to the lawsuit, at least 11,000 freedom fighters were killed by the British government during the independence era, and more than 20,000 were placed into detention camps.
Kenya's government, led by President Mwai Kibaki, already lifted the 40-year-old ban on the Mau Mau, a ban that had been announced shortly after independence from England, the colonial power, and long upheld by the government of Daniel arap Moi. Now many in this East African nation would like to see Kimathi — who was hanged in 1957 for his role in the struggle — declared a national hero and re-interred in a state funeral, and they want compensation for what they regard as mass murder by British soldiers during the country's independence struggle.

In a country short of heroes, the current political establishment is seeking to reap moral capital by identifying itself with the movement.

And the drama is being played out in England as well as Kenya. Last year the BBC aired a 45-minute documentary titled Kenya: White Terror, which revealed — for the first time to many Britons —the atrocious nature of colonial rule during the Mau Mau insurgence, when thousands of indigenes were indiscriminately murdered in cold blood.

Still, the Daily Telegraph, an English newspaper, editorialized against any hero's burial for Kimathi, whom it describes as a "terrorist." Not so far from what the English government said in 1950: "The governor in council hereby declares the society commonly known as the Mau Mau to be a society dangerous to the good government of the colony."

During the milestone occasion the Minister of Justice and Constitutional affairs, Kiraitu Murungi, whose own father had been a Mau Mau general, stated: "We feel ashamed that after 40 years down the road we are still ruled by colonial rules. We have decided to exhume also the remains of Kimathi as a symbolic gesture that will remove the criminal taint from the character of one of our true heroes. "

Terrorists or heroes, many of the surviving Mau Mau are readying themselves for a lawsuit against the British government.

"We have been able to access documents showing the torture and other cases of human rights abuses committed by the British colonial forces during the Mau Mau war," says lawyer Paul Muite, a Kenya legislator. He will be joined by a team of local human rights lawyers including Martin Day, the English lawyer who is also engaged in suing the Brits for decades of alleged rapes of local women by English soldiers.

"The British are very good at keeping records and all that happened during the Mau Mau war was recorded and we have since found the documents very revealing in their horror," adds Muite. "An indemnity no doubt needs to be paid as compensation."

According to the lawsuit, at least 11,000 freedom fighters were killed by the British government during the independence era, and more than 20,000 were placed into detention camps. Many who survived are now banding together. A group of former soldiers has formed the Mau Mau War Council, aimed at representing the needs of aging veterans — about 8,000 men claim membership.

In the 40 years since Kenya won its independence from Britain, those who fought its eight-year guerilla war have found themselves persecuted by their own, as first Jomo Kenyatta and then Moi disparaged the Mau Mau. The Mau Mau, they perfunctorily proclaimed, should be viewed only as a historical curiosity within the textbooks, but not as analogous to the attainment of Uhuru, or independence.

Perhaps worst of all, nobody in the Kenyan government fought the dangerous stereotype that was propagated during the colonial era, of the Mau Mau as a band of subhuman, cannibalistic warriors, bloodthirsty "natives" who committed unspeakable acts. Instead, it appears that the English soldiers were the ones committing crimes against humanity, according to Professor Caroline Elkins, of Harvard University.

"Mau Mau members have been condemned as being savage human beings, which is, of course, nonsense," Professor Elkins told the East African newspaper. "But the stereotype of Mau Mau will be hard to tack. The British colonial government spent a lot of energy trying to depict the Mau Mau as savage, as sub-human. Given the lasting impression of Mau Mau being synonymous with savagery, I would say the British did a pretty effective job."

It took the continent's most famous freedom fighter, Nelson Mandela, to begin the rehabilitation of the Mau Mau's reputation. Upon his release in the 1990 from the infamous Robben Island, Mandela paid a visit to Kenya and wondered aloud why former freedom fighters had not been part of the official team scheduled to meet him. He in particularly wanted to meet Elsie Mukami, Kimathi's widow.

First published: October 1, 2003

About the Author

Charles Wachira is a journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya.