745R.00/12–552
The Consul General at Nairobi (Dorsz) to the Department of State1
No. 158
Ref:
- Consulate General’s Despatch No. 93 of October 24, 1952.2
Subject:
- Six weeks of the State of Emergency
After six weeks filled with intensive police activity the Kenya Government finds it necessary to continue piling restrictive measures on restrictive measures in its effort to restore law and order to Kikuyuland. [Page 353] It now admits that this will be a long term and very expensive operation. A running account of the action taken by the Government and accounts of the continued crimes of violence are contained in the Consulate General’s Weekly Reviews and Fortnightly Surveys for the period, and will not be recapitulated here.
Economic Results
In addition to the financial burden placed on the Kenya Government by the extraordinary police and military activities, which is now estimated to have reached £500,000, an official of the Government has stated that trade is now at about 75% of normal in Kenya as a whole. It is certainly at less than that in the affected area. Collections are slow, 120 days credit being expected; motion picture houses and night clubs are seriously affected, one large restaurant-night club being about to be closed by the creditors; resort hotels in the area report an abrupt drop in tourists, their guests consisting mostly of women and children of the area who are there for reasons of protection. Sales of real estate have dropped, with little interest being shown in farm land in the affected area. Some nine families have made inquiries at the Consulate General concerning the possibilities of migrating to the United States. Their period of residence ranges in Kenya from 8 to 40 years. The Consulate General has been unable to get any estimate of the adverse affect on the inflow of capital arising from the Emergency. Members of the Legislative Council and the press say the loss has been substantial, and we agree.
The forced evacuation of all Kikuyu from certain sections around Thomson’s Falls has created a serious labor problem in that rich cattle area. The Labour Office is encountering difficulties in recruiting laborers from other tribes to replace the evacuated Kikuyu. Restrictions on the travel of Kikuyu has [have] also created difficulties for the coffee planters in the Kiambu district, a few miles outside of Nairobi. The planters are required to bring their casual labor from some distance each day by trucks which can only travel during the daylight hours.
Trial of Jomo Kenyatta
After being held in a remote part of the Northern Frontier District for a month, Jomo Kenyatta and five other leaders3 of the Kenya African Union were arraigned and are now being tried. The manner in which he is being tried has resulted in considerable criticism. The trial is taking place at Kapenguria, a remote village some 25 miles over a dirt track from Kitale, the nearest White Highland town. A school room has been converted into a court for this trial. A retired [Page 354] Puisne Judge4 was appointed “Resident Magistrate” for this district (which had theretofore had no magistrate) a few days before the trial. However, the press is permitted access to the courtroom. From reports of the trial it would appear that the defendants are represented by able counsel.
The special venue of the trial, the specially chosen magistrate, the short time allowed the defense to prepare for the trial and other factors combine to give the impression that the Government is determined to obtain a conviction at any cost, even at the risk of being subject to the accusation of having “railroaded” the defendants. Several responsible persons here, including a top jurist, have confidentially expressed the belief to us that the Government has made a serious error in this regard, stating that it would have been preferable to have held the trial (with adequate security measures) at the “scene of the crime”. They feel that the good faith of the Government will be attacked by detractors, both here and abroad. They do not think the Kikuyu would rise in rebellion at the scene of the trial. But if they did, this would be no worse than the hit-and-run type of fighting which Mau Mau is pressing forward. I believe we can expect Kenyatta’s conviction at Kapenguria and to see this followed by appeals as far as the Privy Council, accompanied by propaganda attacks on both the Kenya and British Governments, with Kenyatta depicted as a martyr to racial repression.
Solution to the Problem
It would appear that the Kenya Government is now fully aware that there is no pat solution to the Kikuyu problem and is at a loss as to how to deal with it. While the Mau Mau movement may possibly be brought under control within a matter of months, that will be only a palliative unless the causes which made the Mau Mau so attractive to many of the Kikuyu are dealt with imaginatively. These causes, economic, political and social, are many and complex. An attempt to analyze them will be made in a future despatch.
The Consulate General questions whether the Government and the European community is prepared to take measures which are adequate to deal with these causes. As an example of European thinking, the weekly Comment of December 4 states that it is a submission to blackmail to even discuss at this time the possibility of giving more land to the Kikuyu.
The Government has been either unable or unwilling until last week to permit moderate Africans to go to the Kikuyu and preach against Mau Mau violence. African members of Legislative Council and the present Executive Committee of the Kenya African Union have repeatedly asked to do this, but it was only on December 1 that Mr. [Page 355] Mathu,5 African Leader of Legislative Council was permitted to address the Kikuyu on a broadcast over the Government radio facilities. Africans would have been very appropriate spokesmen in favor of moderation. Failure to use them earlier is attributed to the belief that these leaders, while attacking the Mau Mau would, if not rigorously controlled, have advocated reforms which the Government is not prepared to make.
The Consulate General believes that, regardless of what degree of success the Government may have in stamping out Mau Mau, there will be continued political unrest in Kikuyuland, with continued pressure being exerted on the Government for greater political and economic freedom. The measure of the British success here may well be their ability to introduce substantive changes designed to eliminate the causes for the political turmoil and economic losses now besetting the Colony.
- This despatch was repeated to London.↩
- Supra.↩
- Achieng Oneko, Paul Ngei, Fred Kubai, and Bildad Kaggia of the national executive committee of the Kenya African Union (KAU) and Kungu Karumba, the chairman of the Chura Divisional Branch of KAU.↩
- Ransley Samuel Thacker, Q.C., who had been the Senior Puisne Judge in Kenya and twice had acted as Chief Justice.↩
- Eliud Mathu had been the first African nominated to the Legislative Council on Oct. 10, 1944.↩