| in Kenya
_ One of the most
| terrible documents

ever written

LONDON

]* One of the most terrible documents ever written, the
Ban kus people of Kenya are appealing to the people of
;

there.

lett

ain to help them against the reign of terror now raging

This document, which has come in the form of a
h ér from the Kikuyu people themselves, was written in

ikuyu language, and has been literally translated

Hom the original.

British

Wing names, dates and places, it shows that under
tule and with the active assistance of the British-led

a2 Police Reserve-—called by the Kikuyu the White

du M.

du—the Africans of Kenya are being massacred.

m the Kikuyu country, there are some villages in

which the

Camps.

Tus letter is to greet you and
Th ene you news from here.
ribly ee here have grown ter-
don’t ad and I am sure that you
a the whole truth of how

are here, b if is!”
only th » because it is

are ity Papers you read, which

itten pb th Thi ,
May in ea e White Mau

aoe ome Guards you hear

‘ fee the greatest enemy of

those Untry because of what

with beople have done together

Which ‘ white settlers, things

bundy © one will forget for many
eds of years to come.

Th
ose among the Home Guards

Who :
about Tae eviously had disputes

ahy ys or cash crops or of
“homes took advantage of the
Versariog” to eliminate their ad-

If e
and Mae happen: to be well off
Deng Bia Lies Home Guard hap-
Is the 4°, 1ealous of you, this
Of yoy Me Whem they get rid

ik ie find this is a good time

Home Tminate those people. The
sion to suards are given permis-
: siete whatever they like, to

any hiv Ody without reference to
'sher authority.

Ui .

“a things are happening
legs , Places where people are
- Kiany Ucated like Githunguri,

ee and Gatundu.
Guang cir meetings the Home
of ie down lists of names
take ty Whom they want to kill,
Who a Show the district officer
ight, Sea them a motor-car at
Man fro then they fetch every
in th, m his home, put them

~~ the

Some ; Car and then shoot them,
Toaq : € Car, others at a cross-
and oy 2VNS the bodies there,

&  Udvot

ests ters they take to the for-
ok Shoot them there.

R. th Rian. the bodies they take

- they ay WU and in the morning

cog is oe to be terrorists,

Boing ee of thing has been

or a long time, and’

population has been completely exterminated,
We mass arrests are sending thousands to concentration

those who are doing that work
are both Home Guards and White
Mau Mau — the Kenya Police
Reserve.

*

What I would like to tell you,
which I know is true, is that
with the exception of Laris there
is not a single place in Kiambu
district which has ever been at-
tacked b¥ terrorists, yet no other
has had so many people killed
by the Home Guard and the

An ‘African child peers
through the barbed wire of a
compound.

Scores of Kikuyu tribesmen Squat on the ground inside a barbed wire compound in Kenya—

in the shadow of a portable gallows.

White Mau Mau, the Kenya Pol-
ice Reserve. -

I cannot tell you the names of
all the people who have been
killed, but I can make mention of
a few like Njorogo wa Kago
(Simeoni) and Stefano, the father
of Thiani; those are from Waid-
ake school and were taken from
their houses by the Kenya Police
Reserve on denunciation from
the Home Guards.

From the Githunguri side the
people who were also killed on
April 1 are: Naftari Boro, a pop-
ular doctor, Kageche wa Gacagwi,
Muiruri wa Gacagwi, Gathua wa
Wakagiki , Kinyanjui wa Mwathi,
Gathita wa Ginganga, Ngumbha wa
Gatuku, Wainana wa Nijogu,
Karugari, Ndaba wa Kanugu,
Githare wa Nijiri, Njungana wa
Kuru, Mbatia wa Kierere, Mbogo
wa Rungatho, Kamau wa Wak-
jerere, Kamanu wa Waikanga,
Makena wa Njuki, Muya and

any others. ’
all those were killed by Home
Guard and White Mau Mau, the
Kenya Police Reserve, and they
were taken from their homes at
night on Wednesday. Gikuni wa
Wang’ang’a was killed the same
night and many others. :

On Limuru _ side _Wakiru,
Mbuthia wa Mukoma, Muika wa
Maye, Kimrubi wa Kungu, Muiru
wa Gikanga, Gathitu, Wakari,
Kihugu wa Njuguna, Njoroga wa
Githu and many others. ;

The people I am telling you
about were all fetched from their
houses and killed though inno-

cent.
*

Because of these killings of in-
nocent people whenever those
concerned feel like it, many
young people feel compefled to

. go away from home, for fear of

death. Even the elder men are
er at home.
es buses of those who go
away from home for fear _of
death or castration are being
burnt. Many men have been cas-
trated by the White Mau Mau.
Many/fof their homes have been
burnt and many of their child-
ren were burnt inside them. No

goods or property are allowed |

to be taken out of the burning
huts, not even cash, it ‘has all
be burnt.

sare of the houses. are burnt
during the day, they are always
burnt at night, and even the
houses of people who were ar-
rested and detained in the past
are now being burnt.

The house of Kungu Karumba
has been burnt and that of ,De-

dani Mugo has been demolished.
Waira wa Kamau’s house has
also been demolished and many
other homes.

What is happening here is ter-
rible—even we are not living at
home. Rev. Bwana Gatungu and
Charles Karao were arrested in
May and were sent to Kajiado.

In the past they have been ear-
rying out cleansing ceremonies.
Whether you know anything or
not, you must say that you took
the Mau Mau oath, because if you
refuse to do so, your home and
that of the locust will “be. the
same, or you will be given to the
white settlers, who will certainly
shoot you without mercy.

*

Another terrible thing nodw
happens at certain locations, for
example, at Gathage water mills.
There .the women of that side
are compelled to go to the mill,
where they are shut in and all
their clothes taken off.

From 5'p.m. to 6.30 they are
forced to go into the water be-
hind the dam with their hands
raised above their heads; they
are up to their necks in water
and stay there for 25 to 30 min-
utes.

Then they are taken out, still
naked, and are beaten and beat-
en, being at the same time told
to say that Kenyatta administer-,
ed the Mau Mau oath to them at
his home, which is not far away.

A great number of women are
continually in this trouble.

The women of Majugu’s loca-
tion are in a great trouble. They
are being arrested and all their
clothes taken: off them.

When a woman says she does
not know about the Mau Mau
oath, boiling water is kept near-
by and is poured on her breasts
until her skin comes off there
and then and she is just left
there.

If she is dead, she is dead. If

‘not, that is her own business.

*

What I could tell you is that
nobody is allowed to move from
one village to. the other without
a pass, even Indians are not al-
lowed to enter Kikuyu country.

The reason is that they should
not disclose what is happening
there. There are some villages
in which -the populations has
been completely exterminated.
Even to gather the information
which I have given you in this
letter is not easy.

There is another new thing. It
is to arrest anybody without dis-
crimination, children as well as

PACIFIC TRIBUNE —

‘

se

a

women. People are being arrest-
ed in hundreds and thousands
without being given any reason
why.

Some are beaten, others are
detained, and then given three,
five, six or seven years imprison-
ment. They are said to be Mau
.Mau.

They are lined up, and then
cut up and teld—up to here, one
year; up. to here, two years; and
so on, and you are. not to ask
why.

The people of Rift Valley were
expelled under the pretext of be-
ing Mau Mau and put into de-
tention camps. Those are the
people who were given three to
seven years sentences.

They are the people who re-
fused to work for the white man
and returned to the reserve.

Many of them have been e€as-
trated.

At a camp in the farm of a
certain European when all the
men were imprisoned, their fam-
ilies, wives and children were
left in the camp without any-
thing ‘to eat because none of
them had been allowed to take
anything with them when they
were driven out.

They left all their goats and
crops behind on the European

farm. There. are séme- who left.

about two stores of maize and
others about 80 to 100 goats.

After some time it was deeid-
ed to bring the women and child-
ren to the Kikuyu reserve. They
were packed on lorries and told
to get out at Limurwu station,
others at Kikuyu station, with-
out knowing where to go or what
to eat.

The great trouble they found
is that of hunger, because the
people in the reserve had very
little to eat themselves.

It has become a custom with
the women to go to the market
to pick up waste of sugar cane
and banana peels to eat. That-is
the type of food which they give

. to their children.

Another thing is that of people
who have been’ detained in camps
like Githunguri, Kiamuangi, Up-
lands. Every night two or four
of them are taken out by the
white Mau Mau, the Kenya Pol-
ice Reserve, to be shot, =

Three young men from Mzari,y
Kihara were shot on July 18.
These bad things are still going
Ons

What should we do about this?
Of course, we are still being beat-
én and killed. Can you see some
people and tell them the story?

SEPTEMBER 18, 1953 — PAGE 9

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