Mau Mau - Vita Books

Mau Mau, the Revolutionary
Force From Kenya
by
Shiraz Durrani
Notes & Quotes Study Guide Series
No. 2 (2014)
ISBN 978-1-869886-03-5
http://vitabooks.co.uk
1
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2
Overview
•
What was Mau Mau
fighting for?
•
Politics fails to meet
people’s needs
•
3 Streams into
torrent: resistance
spreads
•
The colonial attack
•
Mau Mau responds
3
•
Kenya Defence
Council; Kenya
Parliament: Prime
Minister Kimaathi
•
1963 Independence
but Not Yet Uhuru
•
Facing neo-colonial
challenge: struggle
for Kenya’s future
Key events
•
1950: General Strike
•
1952: State of Emergency
•
1953: Mwathe Conference: Kenya Defence Council,
Kimathi as President.
•
1953 Bus boycott
•
1954: Kenya Parliament: Kimathi P.M.
•
1963: Independence: Facing the neo-colonial
challenge
4
What was Mau Mau?
A movement based on “perverted nationalism and a sort of
nostalgia for barbarism” - British Colonial Secretary.
or
“We are fighting for our lands - the Kenya Highlands which
were stolen from the Africans by the Crown through the
Orders in Council 1915 which evicted Africans from their
lands at present occupied by the settlers or reserved for their
future generations while landless Africans are starving of
hunger or surviving on the same land as cheap labourers to
the settlers”.
- Quoted in Barnett, D. and Karari N. (1966)
5
Land
By the end of the Second World War, 3,000
European settlers owned 43,000 sq. km. of
the most fertile land, only 6% of which they
cultivated.
The African population of 5.25
million occupied, without ownership rights,
less than 135,000 sq. km. of the poorest land.
On the “native reserves” much of the land was
unsuitable for agriculture.
- Slaughter, Barbara (1999)
6
Freedom: politics fails
Mau Mau was formed by KAU militants who had lost
faith in constitutional methods of fighting for
independence. Kikuyu Central Association & Kenya
African Union followed constitutional methods.
But
instead of the settlers or the colonial government
granting any concessions, behind the scenes policies
were being enacted to maintain settler control. Instead
of gradually introducing changes to give Africans selfrule, the government was passing harsh laws.
- Kaggia, Bildad (1975)
7
Secret mass organisation
The period after the 1950 general strike saw rapid
progress of a secret mass organisation. The organisation
could be joined by persons who took an oath pledging
themselves to secrecy, dedication and sacrifice for the
cause of land and freedom. The aim of the Uhuru-oath
organisation was to unite and mobilise the people in the
struggle for independence and to resort to armed struggle
if and when it became obvious that there was no other
way of achieving independence of Kenya.
- Singh, Makhan (1969)
8
Streams into torrent (1)
Militant nationalism
At first Africans sought to obtain redress for
their grievances within the framework of the
settler orientated colonial state; following
the Second World War many came to
challenge its very legitimacy. A nationalism
of petition and constitutional protest
ultimately gave way to a militant
nationalism employing direct action in
seeking a new political and social order.
- Roseberg and Nottingham (1966)
9
- Barnett & Njama (1966)
General Kariba
10
Streams into torrent (2)
Militant TU leadership
Mau Mau was radicalised by a militant leadership that emerged from
the trade union movement in Nairobi. Transport & Allied Workers
Union led by Fred Kubai, and Clerks & Commercial Workers Union
led by Bildad Kaggia were at the heart of the resistance.
Most
accounts of the Mau Mau movement either ignore or play down the
role of the trade unions in the struggle, but the fact is that without
their participation a sustained revolt would not have been possible.
Militants of TU threw themselves into the revolutionary movement
and established themselves as a new radical leadership committed
to overthrowing colonial rule by mass action, strikes, demonstrations
and armed struggle.
- Newsinger, John (2006)
11
The Trade Union movement
•
Kenya’s trade union movement has
always been a part of her national struggle
for resisting British imperialist colonial rule,
for winning national independence, for
consolidating the independence after
winning it, and for bringing prosperity to
the workers and peoples of Kenya.
•
We want freedom for all workers and
freedom of East African territories
- Singh, Makhan (1969)
12
Streams into torrent (3)
People’s struggles
•
Kenya Defence Council’s Kimaathi Charter(1953)
was of immense importance in mobilising the
patriotic forces to continue their anti-imperialist
struggle.
•
Bus Boycott, September, 1953. Initiated by the Mau
Mau freedom fighters, it was a national protest
against the oppressive Emergency Regulations: eg.
History of Employment Cards (Green Cards);
forcing Africans into 'villages' (detention camps)
•
It was a protest against the imprisonment and
detention of tens of thousands of patriots; the Bus
Boycott continued for many months.
13
Developing anti-imperialist consciousness
Using Kenyan languages, the newspapers were vital
in developing anti-imperialist consciousness amongst
the Kenyan masses. Some of them were widely read
and had great political influence in the country. For
instance, Mumenyereri was the most popular paper in
Central Kenya and the squatter areas of the Rift
Valley, with an average circulation of 20,000 copies. It
played a patriotic role in agitating against British
colonial land and labour policy, vehemently opposed
white racism and cultural imperialism, and supported
the underground movement.
Kinyatti (2008)
14
Endangering colonial rule
The colonialists concluded that Kenya’s national
movement for freedom and independence, of which
Kenya’s trade union movement was an important part,
had become too strong for them and was now
endangering the very existence of colonial rule in
Kenya. They had therefore decided to suppress and
crush the movement.
They declared a state of
emergency [1952], which enabled them to rule by
decree and force of arms.
- Singh, Makhan (1969)
15
The battle commences
Field Marshal
Muthoni
Gen. Kariba
16
Kamba Mau Mau
• Kenya
African Union Nairobi branch run by Mau Mau militants since 1952
included members from many ethnic groups. Paul Ngei, Assistant
Secretary, a Kamba, invited “politically-minded” Kamba to take the oath …
Thousands took it.
• 1953:
officials concerned at penetration of Mau Mau among the Kamba.
“The cancer is spreading”, noted one. Officials estimated that the “vast
majority” of Kamba in Nairobi had taken the oath. Security forces found
members of a Kamba oathing team in Arusha in Tanganyika and
discovered a Kamba Mau Mau “general” heading a battalion of 1,000 in
the Abedares.
• I954:
security forces arrested a fighting force of Kamba Mau Mau. The
government identified 253 Kamba members of Mau Mau, all railway
workers.
•A
Mau Mau major from Meru recalled that a Kamba general named Kavyu
(“knife”) was in charge of his fighting unit in the forests around Mount
Kenya. “In every fighting group of about thirty, there might be five or six
Kambas”.
- Osborne (2010)
17
Maasai Mau Mau
• Mzee
Paita was the leader of Mau Mau fighters in Kajiado in the 1950s.
He was imprisoned alongside other big names during the struggle.
• ShomoNews
estimates that there are 50 Mau Mau veterans in Kajiado.
Majority of them are Maasai. The group led by Mzee Paita and Aden
Hassan Elmi narrate how they were evicted from their hideouts at
Oldoinyo Orok in Namanga which was the base for Mau Mau along the
Kenya-Tanzania border and a link to freedom fighters in Tanzania.
• Oldoinyo
OrokM hosted more than 2,000 Mau Mau freedom fighters by
1954 before the British overran them, detaining the fighters and taking
thousands of livestock from communities that supported them. Most of
the freedom fighters were held at Isinya detention camp.
-Shomo News: www.shomonews.com
Miriam ole Kisio, widow of the late
Narok Mau Mau General Kurito ole
Kisio with her son.
Kisio
Mzee Sadira Ole Paita
18
Gen. ole Kisio (1)
• The
Maasai played a vital role in the struggle. Young warriors
sacrificed their lives for the country under the leadership of one of
the most revered Mau Mau generals, the late Kurito ole Kisio. A
defiant Kisio marshalled the Narok war front that heavily
destabilised the colonialists, prompting them to put a heavy
bounty on his head.
• His
valour would later see his then pregnant wife, Miriam
Enekurito, become the first person to be arrested for collusion with
the Mau Mau. She was tortured until Kisio was killed in 1954.
• “They
took oath and never looked back. They started raiding
settler homes and detention camps across Narok in search of
firearms,” says Sironka ole Ketikai, who played the role of ‘piki piki’
(gun runner) for the Mau Mau in the 1950s. Then aged 19, he
would ferry stolen guns, drugs, and military uniform and supplied
those in Nyandarua with livestock for food. Under Kisio’s
leadership, and with Nkere, Nkapian and Nahangi as generals, the
battalion caused the imperialists sleepless nights.
19
Gen. ole Kisio (2)
• Karari
Njama says the Maasais were crucial in the resistance
against the British. “Kisio led an army of more than 800 fighters
in Nairegi Enkare. They would move all the way to Suswa and
destabilised the Britons,” he states. The warrior is said to have
employed guerrilla tactics in raiding British facilities where they
would release prisoners.
• It
was during one such raid in Olololunga that Ketikai’s uncle
was captured by the 'lolonkana' (home guards).
• Before
long, Kisio and Nkapain officially became generals in
the Mau Mau and the former rose to fourth in command in the
movement’s national hierarchy. The Britons paraded Kisio’s
body, complete with his firearm, outside a hospital in Narok to
serve as a warning to villagers. General Nkapian was captured
shortly after, paraded in a cage and then hanged.
The Standard (2014)
20
Mau Mau influence spreads
• In
Nairobi, the situation is grave and acute. Mau Mau orders are carried
out in the heart of the city, Mau Mau courts sit in judgement and their
sentences are carried out. The revenues collected by Mau Mau are used
for bribery and Mau Mau supplies.
• 44
Wakamba were arrested in Tanganyika & returned to Kenya.
• ︎There
were Mau Mau cells in Mombasa, Pemba, Zanzibar, and other
coastal regions. In Tanzania, Mau Mau succeeded in winning over
hundreds of Kenyan migrant workers. The colonial authorities in both
countries banned the Mau Mau.
• The
Ethiopian intelligence is aware of what is going on in Kenya. Mau Mau
and its causes is a subject about which they frequently ask questions…
there seems a parallel with their own mountain rebels, the Shiftas.
• ︎“In
S. Africa it is considered there is an underground movement by the
natives to overthrow established Government throughout Africa and this is
certainly the idea of Mau Mau”.
- Sources can be found in Durrani,S (2006)
21
Women Mau Mau
Without women’s contributions nothing could have been achieved. It was
the women who transported arms and food to the forest edge, who steered
loyalists into the fighters’ traps, who stole guns and bullets, who spied for
the freedom fighters. The women as much as the men hazarded their lives
to gain back a country.
- Likimani (1985).
Wanja wa Johana and Wangui wa Kimani were the first KLFA women
guerrillas to be sentenced to death in 1954 by the British. Wanja led a
KLFA village detachment in Nyeri, which ambushed an enemy patrol.
- Kinyatti (2008).
From 1954 to 1960, the British detained approximately 8000 women under
the Emergency Powers. Kamiti Detention Camp was the main site of
women's incarceration. New evidence has revealed the existence of a
second camp established for women at Gitamayu, created in 1958 explicitly
to deal with the remaining “hardcore” female detainees. The charge that
hardcore women were “of unsound mind” was used for a variety of
purposes in the late 1950s, including covering up the abuses in the camps.
- Bruce-Lockharta (2014).
22
The South Asian connection
Makhan Singh, Pio Gama
Pinto and many others
contributed and learnt from
being active in nationalist and
working class struggles in
India. Their experience
enriched the struggles in
Kenya.
23
Makhan Singh
Mau Mau liberated areas
• 1952:
In large parts of Central Province, colonial law and law courts “had
virtually ceased to exist”. Their function had been taken over by Mau Mau
administration, which established a revolutionary administration and legal
system and carried out sentences.
• 1953:
Parts of Kikuyuland were Mau Mau republics, and the great
majority of the Kikuyu were passive supporters of Mau Mau. Those in the
forests of the Aberdares and Mount Kenya were living fairly comfortably.
They were well supplied with food, clothing, arms & ammunitions.
• So
successful had the Mau Mau movement been that large areas of land
and people had been liberated from colonial rule. These included not
only the liberated forest bases in Nyandarwa and Mount Kenya - “The
forests were virtually impregnable to the [British] army for about eighteen
months”. In addition, there were semi-liberated rural areas in the settler
farms and in the “reserves”. There were liberated and semi- liberated
areas in Nairobi itself. Large parts of the city of Nairobi were under the
rule of the guerrilla forces.
- Source available in Durrani, S (2006)
24
Mau Mau Infrastructure (1)
•
Reports received reveal a large number of hideouts found (in the
Aberdare forests), some considerable size and many were
skilfully constructed. One consisted of four huts for 80 men and
with a piped water supply from a waterfall 30 yards away.
•
An army patrol discovered a 40 bed Mau Mau hospital with
complete medical kits. It was 5 miles east of Mount Kinangop.
•
On the outskirts of Nairobi, Kikuyu guards and men of the Kenya
Regiment, killed four freedom fighters, destroyed a Mau Mau
hospital furnished with a supply of medicine and food, and
arrested six women food carriers.
•
Security Forces searching the Aberdare Forests found a
deserted hospital which had been evacuated a few days before,
also a Council Chamber with accommodation for about 150.
25
Mau Mau Infrastructure (2)
• There
are various accounts of Mau Mau gun factories and guns
made in Mau Mau factories are still available. Kinyatti says “The
Shauri Moyo and Pumwani bases played a special role as KLFA gun
factories. Karura Forest was the main KFLA gun factory in Nairobi. It
was also a KLFA major hospital.
• Police
discovered and destroyed a Mau Mau “arms factory” in the
Meru forest. Police today discovered a Mau Mau gun shop and store
in a part of Nairobi where the city’s two hundred street sweepers live.
• The
terrorist camps were well built. The sites were laid out with
solidly constructed huts of split bamboo, with kitchens and stores,
quarters for women and children and signboards indicating the
commander of the camp...from these camps, arms and ammunition,
food, clothing and valuable documents have been recovered.
-Durrani (20006)
26
40,000 Kenyans accuse UK of abuse in second Mau Mau case
Castration and inhuman treatment among claims of 41,000 Kenyans
seeking damages
The claims refer back to 1952, when the colonial governor, Sir Evelyn
Baring, declared a state of emergency in Kenya in an attempt to quash
a mounting anti-colonial insurgency known as Mau Mau. Over the
ensuing eight years, an estimated 90,000 Kenyans were killed or
injured.
More than 1 million were forced from their homes into detention
facilities, which Kenya’s then attorney general Eric Griffith-Jones
described as “distressingly reminiscent of conditions in Nazi
Germany”.
In 1960, Kenya’s state of emergency was ended and the Mau Mau
detention camps were emptied. Back in London, officials kept mum on
exactly what had transpired during Emergency rule. “If we are going to sin,”
Kenyan attorney general Griffiths-Jones had written, in a 1957
memorandum, “we must sin quietly.”
Katie Engelhart The Guardian, Wednesday 29 October 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/29/kenya-mau-mau-abuse-case
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The colonial attack
•
The defeat of the Mau Mau involved a degree of
savagery that is quite unprecedented in British 20th
century colonial wars. In Kenya the flogging, torture,
mutilation, rape and summary execution of suspects
and prisoners were everyday occurrences.
•
Elements within the security forces in Kenya,
particularly the police, used the methods of the Gestapo
at their worst.
•…
the [colonial] Government presided over a judicial
massacre. By 1952,1,090 were hanged … A mobile
gallows was specially built so that prisoners could be
hanged in their home districts to provide an example.
- Newsinger, John (2006):
29
Mau Mau responds: organise, organise
•
Mwathe Conference (1953): The Kenya Defence
Council formed. The highest military and political organ
of the armed struggle with “power to formulate overall
strategy and policy, enact rules and regulations and sit as
the highest judicial body, [and had] the authority to
implement and enforce its rulings.”
•
Leadership elected: Kimaathi, the President, Gen.
Macaria Kimemia as V-P. Kimaathi also highest military
authority as Field Marshal. The leadership was thus
charged with planning, organisation, & execution of both
aspects of the struggle, military and political.
•
The total fighting forces organised into eight armies.
(Barnett & Njama)
30
Wakamba wood carvings depict Mau Mau war of liberation
Armed warriors marching to battle
Photos: SD (from personal collection)
Details about carvings: History of Kenya, 1976
Mau Mau gun factory
Activists confront homeguards
while protecting children
31
Organise, organise, organise
Kenya Parliament
•
800 Mau Mau representatives set up Kenya Parliament
(1954), the first legitimate African Government of Kenya.
Twelve members elected to the Kenya Parliament,
Kimaathi elected the first Prime Minister of Kenya.
•
Aims: (1) separate political and military aspects of the
struggle, making the former paramount (2) emphasise the
national character of the freedom movement (3) ensure
the representation of all Kenyan nationalities, (4) assume
political authority over liberated and semi-liberated areas.
•
It established its authority over fighting units and prepared
a new military offensive. Formulated foreign policy.
32
The fighting force
Gen. Tanganyiks Muriuki Kamotho
Field Marshal Baimungi
33
General Kago
Field Marshal
Mwariama N’Kirigua
A flavour of Mau Mau activism
Jaswant Singh made contacts with Mau Mau
fighters. Together, they started collecting material
and started manufacturing guns and other weapons.
He was caught doing this work in May 1954 and was
charged in colonial court of law and sentenced to
death by hanging. Progressive lawyers took up his
case and managed to reduce the sentence to life
imprisonment. He was imprisoned at Takwa
Detention Centre on Manda Island. Others in this
detention centre included Pio Gama Pinto, John
Mbiyu Koinange, Achieng Oneko and M.C. Chokwe.
- Durrani, Nazmi (1986)
34
Mau Mau Badges of Rank
Mau Mau Freedom Fighters
35
Mau Mau declaration
Before we come out of the forest, the British
Government must grant Kenya full independence
under African leadership, and hand over
alienated lands to Kenya African Government
which will redistribute the land to its citizens.
If we do not get land and freedom now, we will
continue to fight till the Government yields or the
last drop of blood of our last fighter is spilt.
- Mau Mau, quoted in Barnett and Njama (1966)
36
Revolutionary Justice
The poor are the Mau Mau.
Poverty can be stopped, but
not by bombs and weapons
from the imperialists. Only the
revolutionary justice of the
struggles of the poor can end
poverty for Kenyans.
- Kimaathi wa Wachiuri in a letter written from his headquarters in Nyandarua in 1955 to
the Nairobi newspaper Habari za Dunia
37
Karari & Njama (1966)
38
Mau Mau’s line continued (1961) (1)
The Struggle For Kenya's Future - Economic level
The struggle for Kenya's future is being
waged today on three distinct levels political, racial and economic. We
Africans are being allowed to 'win' in
the first two spheres as long as we
don't contest the battle being waged on
the third, all important, economic level.
39
Mau Mau’s line continued (1961) (2)
The Struggle For Kenya's Future - building socialism
Let us create a new society which allows
to each the right to eat, the right to the
products of his/her labour, the right to
clothe, house and educate children, the
right, in short, to live in dignity amongst
equals. It is a socialist society we should
be struggling to build, a system which,
unlike capitalism, concerns itself with the
welfare of the masses rather than with
the profits and privileges of a few.
40
Mau Mau’s line continued (1961) (3)
The Struggle For Kenya's Future - ideology
Let us fashion an ideology which will unify
the vast majority of our people by articulating
their needs and by advancing a programme
of socialist development in agriculture and
industry which promises to eradicate poverty,
disease and illiteracy, a programme which
will draw out the creative talents & energies
of our people, giving them that personal
dignity & pride which comes from socially
constructive and productive activity.
41
Mau Mau’s line continued (1961) (4)
The Struggle For Kenya's Future - organisation
Let us provide our people with the
ideological and organizational tools
necessary for the achievement of
genuine independence and
development. Let us not sell them
cheaply down the glittering path of
neo-colonialism and social, economic
and cultural stagnation.
Documented in Barnett, Donald L. (1973)
42
43
ILRIG (1989)
44
Mau Mau liberation song
Our children will be forced to fight again
The story of Mau Mau should be studied carefully
for the lessons that can be learnt from such a
bitter failure. Political independence without
genuine decolonisation and socialism yields
continued misery and oppression for the peasantworker masses. Karigo’s prayer – “I only pray that
after independence our children will not be forced
to fight again” – as with those of other peasants
and workers caught up in the web of neo-colonial
accommodation after long years of struggle, will
not be answered. His and their children will be
forced to fight again.
- Barnett (1973)
45
The challenge
The sacrifices of the hundreds of thousands of
Kenya's freedom fighters must be honoured by
the effective implementation of the policy - a
democratic, African, socialist state in which the
people have the right to be free from economic
exploitation and the right to social equality.
Kenya's uhuru must not be transformed into
freedom to exploit, or freedom to be hungry and
live in ignorance. Uhuru must be uhuru for the
masses - uhuru from exploitation, from
ignorance, disease and poverty.
- Pinto, Pio Gama (1963)
46
One of the most revolutionary movements
It was without any doubt one of the most important
revolutionary movement in the history of modern
Africa and one of the most important revolutionary
movements to confront the British Empire.
- Newsinger, John (2006)
47
Arms used by Mau Mau
Kenya uhuru: whose freedom?
48
49
ILRIG (1989)
We will never be silent
On January 7th
we were surrounded at Bahati by the colonial army.
We will never be silent
until we get land to cultivate
and freedom in this country of ours, Kenya.
Home Guards were the first to go and close the gates
Johnnies entered while the police surrounded the location.
You, traitors! You dislike your children,
caring only for your stomachs;
You are the enemies of our people.
We will never be silent
until we get land to cultivate
and freedom in this country of ours, Kenya.
- Mau Mau song, quoted in Mathu, M. (1974)
50
References & Bibliography
Barnett, Donald L. and Karari Njama. (1966): Mau Mau from within. New York: MRP.
Barnett, Donald L. (1973): “Kenya: two paths ahead”. in: Muchai (1973).
Bruce-Lockharta, Katherine (2014): “Unsound” minds and broken bodies: the detention of “hardcore” Mau
Mau women at Kamiti and Gitamayu Detention Camps in Kenya, 1954–1960. Journal of Eastern African
Studies. Volume 8, Issue 4, 2014, pp. 590-608.
Durrani, Nazmi (1986): Jaswant Singh Bharaj. Alakmalak (Nairobi).
Durrani, Shiraz (2006): Never be Silent, publishing and imperialism in Kenya, 1884-1963. London: Vita Books.
History of Kenya, 1952-1958. (1976): A guide to the exhibition by Kenyan artists Mule wa Musembi [and
others]. Nairobi. Publicity. Exhibition organised by Sultan Somjee.
ILRIG (1989): Kenya, Whose freedom? Salt River, South Africa.
Kaggia, Bildad. (1975): Roots of freedom, 1921-1963. Nairobi: EAPH.
Kinyatti, Maina wa (2008): History of resistance in Kenya,1884-2002. Nairobi: MMRC.
Likimani, Muthoni (1985): Passbook Number F.47927: Women and Mau Mau in Kenya. London: Macmillan.
Mathu, Mohamed (1974): “The urban guerrilla”. Ed. Donald Barnett. LSM.
Muchai, Karigo (1973): Hard Core. Richmond, BC, Canada. LSM Information Centre.
Newsinger, John (2006): The Blood Never Dried: a People’s History of the British Empire. London: Bookmarks.
Odinga, Oginga (1967): Not Yet Uhuru: the autobiography of Oginga Odinga. London: Heinemann.
Osborne, Myles (2010): The Kamba and Mau Mau: ethnicity, Development, and Chiefship, 1952-1960.
International Journal of African Historical Studies Vol. 43, No. 1 (2010).
Pinto, Pio Gama (1963): Glimpses of Kenya's nationalist struggle. Nairobi: Pan Africa.
Roseberg, Carl G. Jr and John Nottingham (1966). The Myth of "Mau Mau": Nationalism in Kenya. Nairobi:
Transafrica Press [reprint, 1985].
Singh, Makhan (1969): History of Kenya’s TU Movement to 1952. Nairobi:EAPH.
Slaughter, Barbara (1999): “How Britain crushed the ‘Mau Mau rebellion’ . Channel Four TV’s Secret History –
Mau Mau”
The Standard (2014): How Maasai warriors led revolt against colonialists. 18-10-14. Available at:http://
www.standardmedia.co.ke/m/story.php?id=2000138655&pageNo=1.
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More available at
http://vitabooks.co.uk
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55
Illustrations from:
Photos: Nazmi Durrani Collection
1989
1966
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Donald Barnet and Karari Njama
Soundtrack
Joseph Kamaru (1998): Uhoro uria maiguire (The news that they heard)
The song starts by praising the God of Agikuyu, it talks about the hardship that people,
especially children in Rift Valley, faced after the colonial government violently evicted
them in 1949 and destroyed their properties, including their maize plantations.
The song also says that they resisted by refusing to cooperate with system and this
made some to be arrested and taken to Yatta concentration camp.
Maina wa Kinyatti (History of Resistance in Kenya, 1884-2002. Nairobi: MMRC, p.86)
documents this under “The Olenguruone Resistance”.
- Kimani Waweru, Nairobi, 26-10-14
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Also available
Every Inch A Fighter
Reflections on Makhan Singh and the Trade Union
Struggle in Kenya
Notes & Quotes Series No. 1 (2014):
Every Inch A Fighter
Reflections on Makhan Singh and the Trade Union Struggle in Kenya
By: Shiraz Durrani
http://vitabooks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2014/11/Every-inch-a-fighter-MakhanSingh-03-08-13-Nairobi-copy.pdf
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