Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T15:43:50.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mau Mau in Nakuru

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

M. Tamarkin
M. Tamarkin
Affiliation:
University of Tel Aviv
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This article attempts to trace the origins of Mau Mau movement in Nakuru, the capital of the White Highlands, and to follow its development through the turbulent post-war years. Mau Mau here is seen as a distinct militant movement which advocated the use of violence in the anti-colonial struggle. It developed within the ranks of the Kikuyu Central Association whose moderate political strategy it rejected. It had a distinct social basis, both its leadership and its mass support coming from the ranks of the dispossessed urban Kikuyu lumpenproletariat. Mau Mau emerged, by 1952, as the dominant African political force at the cost of alienating most non-Kikuyu tribes, and intensifying divisions and hatreds within Kikuyu society. Although Mau Mau did not have definite plans for a large-scale guerrilla war when the State of Emergency was declared in October 1952, nor was it prepared for such a war, it was certainly developing along these lines. There was a large measure of continuity between pre-Emergency Mau Mau and the forces which were later engaged in the forest fighting. The forest fighting was primarily a response, not of the bewildered Kikuyu masses, but of an organized militant and violent movement. It is not suggested that Nakuru's model applies to other Kikuyu areas. On the contrary, it is suggested that the full story of Mau Mau in Kenya will be revealed only after a series of intensive local studies have been undertaken.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , January 1976 , pp. 119 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Furedi, F., ‘The Social Composition of the Mau Mau Movement in the White Highlands’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 1 (1973–1974), 486–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Sorrenson, M. P. K., Land Reform in Kikuyu Country (O.U.P., 1967), 100–1.Google Scholar

3 Furedi, , ‘The Social Composition’, 497–9.Google Scholar

4 Furedi, F., ‘The African Crowd in Nairobi: Popular Movements and Élite Politics’, J. Afr. Hist., XIV, 2 (1973)Google Scholar; Spencer, J., ‘Mau Mau: Some Connections’Google Scholar, paper submitted to the Conference on the Political Economy of Colonial Kenya, 1929–1952Google Scholar, Cambridge University, 26–9 June 1975; Kaggia, B., Roots of Freedom (Nairobi, 1975), 108–15.Google Scholar

5 Furedi, , ‘The Social Composition’, 497–9.Google Scholar

6 Rosberg, C. G. and Nottingham, J., The Myth of Mau Mau (New York, 1966), 262Google Scholar; Buijtenhuijs, R., Le Mouvement Mau Mau (The Hague, 1971), 163.Google Scholar

7 Kaggia, , Roots of Freedom, 113.Google Scholar

8 For a fuller account of the KCA in Nakuru see, Tamarkin, M., ‘Social and Political Change in a Twentieth Century African Urban Community in Kenya’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, London University (1973), 290–4.Google Scholar

9 Tamarkin, , ‘Social and Political Change’, 298–9.Google Scholar

10 Rosberg, and Nottingham, , The Myth of Mau Mau, 248–58Google Scholar; Furedi, , ‘The Social Composition’, 492–4.Google Scholar

11 Interview: Mutungi, D. W., Nakuru, Feb. 1972Google Scholar; Gunjiri, A., Nakuru, Feb. 1972Google ScholarKamonjo, J., Limuru, Mar. 1972.Google Scholar

12 Rosberg, and Nottingham, , The Myth of Mau Mau, 255.Google Scholar

13 Tamarkin, , Social and Political Change, 436.Google Scholar

14 Corfield, F. D., Historical Survey of the Origins and Growth of Mau Mau, Cmd. 1030 (London, 1960), 77.Google Scholar

15 Corfield, Historical Survey, 78.Google Scholar

16 Interview: Gunjiri, A.; Karuggia, J., Nakuru, Feb. 1972.Google Scholar

17 Interview: A. Gunjiri.

18 Interview: Karuggia, J.; Getwa, K., Nakuru, Feb. 1972.Google Scholar

19 Interview: K. Karuggia; A. Gunjiri.

20 Interview: Gunjiri, A.; Mwaura, N., Rironi, Dec. 1971Google Scholar. J. Karuggia.

21 Interview: Mutungi, D. W.; Muitumi, G., Nakuru, Jan. 1972.Google Scholar

22 Interview: D. W. Mutungi.

23 Rosberg, and Nottingham, , The Myth of Mau Mau, 266–70Google Scholar; Buijtenhuijs, , Le Mouvement Mau Mau, 159–71.Google Scholar

24 Interview: Mutungi, D. W.; Kamonjo, J.; J. Mwaura, Kiambu, Mar. 1972.Google Scholar

25 Rosberg, and Nottingham, , The Myth of Mau Mau, 259–60.Google Scholar

26 Corfield, Historical Survey, 85–6.Google Scholar

27 Corfield, Historical Survey, 93.Google Scholar

28 Interview: D. W. Mutungi; A. Gunjiri; J. Karuggia; K. Getwa.

29 Interview: J. Karuggia; A. Gunjiri.

30 Interview: A. Gunjiri.

31 Interview: D. W. Mutungi.

32 Interview: D. W. Mutungi.

33 Interview: A. Gunjiri, J. Karuggia; K. Getwa.

34 Interview: A. Gunjiri.

35 Interview: A. Gunjiri; G. Muitumi; K. Getwa.

36 Interview: J. Kamonjo; D. W. Mutungi; J. Mwaura.

37 Interview: J. Karuggia, A. Gunjiri; K. Getwa.

38 Interview: G. Muitumi; K. Getwa.

39 Interview: J. Karuggia.

40 Furedi, , ‘The African Crowd in Nairobi’, 282–4.Google Scholar

41 Spencer, , ‘Mau Mau’.Google Scholar

42 Kaggia, , Roots of Freedom, 108–15.Google Scholar

43 These were: W. Rugi; A. Gunjiri; J. Karuggia; K. Mahugo; K. Wanjohi; K. Getwa; A. Ngata; K. Waihobo; Muitumi, G. and Wanyoike, J.. Except for the last who joined the committee in 1953Google Scholar, these were committee members from at least 1951.

44 Interview: Kabuba, K., Njoro, Feb. 1972Google Scholar; G. Muitumi; A. Gunjiri.

45 Buijtenhuijs, , Le Mouvement Mau Mau, 201.Google Scholar

46 Spencer, , ‘Mau Mau’.Google Scholar

47 Rosberg, and Nottingham, , The Myth of Mau Mau, 248.Google Scholar

48 Interview: G. Muitumi; A. Gunjiri; N. Mwaura.

49 Interview: J. Karuggia.

50 Interview: A. Gunjiri; J. Karuggia; G. Muitumi; N. Mwaura.

51 There were variations of the Batun oath as it spread. For a description of a ceremony, held in Nyeri, broadly similar to the one practised in Nakuru, see Barnett, and Njama, , Mau Mau From Within, 130–2.Google Scholar

52 Interview: G. Muitumi; J. Karuggia.

53 Interview: Njenga, J., Nairobi, Dec. 1971.Google Scholar

54 Interview: J. Karuggia.

55 Interview: Wanyoike, J., Nakuru, Feb. 1972.Google Scholar

56 Interview: D. W. Mutungi; J. Karuggia; K. Getwa.

57 Interview: D. W. Mutungi.

58 Interview: G. Muitumi.

59 Interview: Kanyua, J. F. G., Mombasa, Dec. 1971Google Scholar; Getata, E. P., Nairobi, Dec. 1971Google Scholar; Nge'the, S. M., Ruiru, Dec. 1971.Google Scholar

60 Interview: D. W. Mutungi.

61 Interview: S. M. Nge'the; E. P. Getata; D. W. Mutungi; J. Njenga.

62 Corfield, Historical Survey, 159.Google Scholar

63 Rosberg, and Nottingham, , The Myth of Mau Mau, 277Google Scholar; Buijtenhuijs, R., Le Mouve-ment Mau Mau, 192Google Scholar; Barnett, and Njama, , Mau Mau From Within, 71–2.Google Scholar

64 Buijtenhuijs, Le Mouvement Mau Mau, 201.Google Scholar

65 Itote, W., Mau Mau General (Nairobi, 1967), 47.Google Scholar

66 Interview: Gunjiri, A.; Getwa, K.; East African Standard, 16 Jan. 1953, p. 1Google Scholar; 17 Jan. 1953. P. 5; 6 July 1953, p. 1; 13 July 1953, p. 5; 29 July 1953, p. 5.

67 Interview: K. Kabuba; J. Wanyoike; G. Muitumi.

68 East African Standard, 17 Mar. 1953, p. 7.Google Scholar

69 East African Standard, 1 July 1953, p. 7.Google Scholar

70 East African Standard, 29 May 1953, p. 3.Google Scholar

71 Interview: J. Karuggia; G. Muitumi; K. Getwa.

72 Interview: G. Muitumi; J. Wanyoike; K. Getwa; Kangata, J., Nakuru, Feb. 1972.Google Scholar

73 Interview: G. Muitumi.

74 Interview: A. Gunjiri.

75 Interview: K. Getwa; Muhuhu, D., Nakuru, Mar. 1972.Google Scholar