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Mau mau rebels tortured and murdered slowly under brit colonial rule in kenya

cleo mcwilliams | 20.11.2002 14:35

Correspondent reveals over 50,000 Mau mau were brutally tortured and murdered during the 1950's rebellion, against brit colonial rule

Correspondent programe on BBC2 sunday night 7.00pm told the disturbing story of how, during the 1950's, the brit colonial army brutally and effectively put down the Mau, mau rebellion in Kenya. A Harvard American resercher, has been taking down accounts by Kenyan survivors of the massacre, detailing the mass torture and murder perpetrated under the brit colonial rule at the time. Mau, mau rebels were sent to special camps, where they were made to retract their mau, mau vows before they were allowed to be released. Kenyan mau mau rebel survivors, told of the torture they endured at the hands of brutal brit camp commandents, many told how they were hung upside down, naked and beaten repeatedly until they recanted their mau mau vows. One kenyan mau, mau rebel told how the beatings he endured, were so bad, that he had been castrated by the blows to his lower body. Another mau mau rebel showed the scars, from subsequent operations to his belly, he had to have to rectify the damage to his internal organs due to the ferocity and brutality of the beatings given by brit soldiers. Others told of the anal torture they had witnessed the brit soldiers perpetrate, holding mau mau victims upside down, and alternately pouring sand and water into the interrogated mau-mau's anal passage, and pushing the mixture in with a long stick, this continued untill the victim recanted or died. Kenyan wimin and children villagers, who were suspected of supporting the mau, mau, were herded into more special compounds, where the mau-mau wimin and young girls, were beaten, raped, straved while being forced to do gruelling hard labour. The elderly kenyan survivors of these camps told of the terrible hunger, stravation and admitted with visible shame, that wimin and girls were raped repeatedly in front of their siblings and grandparents by brutal brit colonial soldiers. One woman told of how she was beaten, with her 6 month old baby strapped to her back, how the baby took most of the blows from brit soldiers and later died. Another told of how during a beating, her 2 yr old child had run towards her, to comfort her and was trampled to death, by hefty brit soldiers. Thousands died and were buried in unmarked graves. The kenyan mau-mau survivors of the brit army colonial repression, are now seeking compensation/reparation for the suffering and torture they endured at the hands of brit colonial soldiers.

cleo mcwilliams

Comments

Hide the following 10 comments

mau mau

20.11.2002 18:49

thousands killed - no. 11 at Hola. see  http://bluegecko.crosswinds.net/kenya/tribes/kikuyu/maumau.htm#hola.

rapes? no. I don't believe that was part of the programme.

sceptic


god knows what they're up to today

20.11.2002 21:01

If this was the sanctioned behaviour of brit soldiers during the 1950's, god knows what they're up to these days, in Bosnia, afghanistan and other foreign places

jenny b


following example set by civillised world

20.11.2002 22:21

This explains how babaric tinpot dictators/tyrants like Idi amin were created. The generation of impressionable african wee kids that grew up under colonial rule and in those toture compounds in Kenya, watching their mas, sisters, grannies being sexually assaulted and brutally beaten everyday, must have been desensytised, dehumanised, degraded and brutalised by the spectacle displayed by their so called civillised/sophisticated/socially superior great white massers babaric behaviour towards their family members and fellow human beings. Children learn by examples set by adults, and african children learnt by watching the babarism, cruelty and brutality of the brit and colonial soldiers actions towards their mothers, sisters, siblings and grannies. Similar behaviour is exhibited by concentration camp survivors suffering from shock and post traumatic stress, whole races are never the same again. Many survivors adopt the tactics, the behaviour and the mannerisms of their torturers/persecutors, as a defence mechanisms to overcome the horror and defenceless, of their situation, they embrace the violence and injustice, espeacially young kiddies, who have known nothing else, but the emerging horrorific environment within which they are imprisoned. Those kenyans who colloborated with British colonial rule, participating in and accepting the repression of the Mau-mau, were rewarded with lucrative top jobs, in the post colonial Kenyan government, so essentially the same people, with the same policies, same outlook, same behaviour towards their fellow human beings( accept the faces were now a different colour, black), were placed in power, by the brits. Again the cycle of repression, brutality, is not broken, the rulers have just changed colour. These rulers share the same principles, and will use the same tactics as the brits, having collaborated and participated in the Colonial repression.

solida walsh


Mau-mau rebels wrote to the Queen to ask help

20.11.2002 22:33

It was also discovered during the correspondent programme that, the Mau-mau rebels held in the special camps, wrote secretly to the Queen, as she was then the head of state of Kenya, to ask her, to intervene on their behalf, detailing their torture and conditions inside the camps, pleading for help. The Queen did not reply their letters, but Royal aides wrote, back to the British High commisioner for kenya, not intervening to put a stop to the beatings, torture, murder and imprisonment, but to ask'Is there not some way you can stop these people writing these letters' he was then ordered to try and stop the flow of smuggled correspondence from the Mau-mau prisoners highlighting their plight, to the Queen.

afeni okote


Yes 'sceptic' -- nice to see you online again

20.11.2002 22:40

The Hola massacre was just the tip of the iceberg.

In Malaya and Kenya in the 1950s there were widespread atrocities committed in the name of 'liberal imperialism'
by troops under the control of Her Majesty's Government

There are those who would feel more comfortable if they could argue that the story of the cold war was the heroic West against the Totalitarian East. The role of the West as terrorists and torturers, and as the propagator of atrocities across the late colonial world is something of a corrective to this and a warning to those who misunderstand where we are today.

Supadupa


The legacy

20.11.2002 22:51

The legacy of the brutality, cruelty and babarism of the British colonial soldiers, not only affected Africans. When these same British soldiers returned home, desensitised and brutalised by what their experiences and the things they were ordered to do, in the Kenyan camps, they began to beat, torture and sexually abuse their wives and children, the end result of which is the likes of Fred and Rose west. If we look at the familial history of sadists, paedophiles and sex offenders, we find that many of these perverts and serial killers, dad's were soldiers/ex squaddies. These soldiers were taught, instructed, encouraged and allowed to use any form of abuse, be that emotional, sexual or physical abuse/torture against their targeted enemy. The abused offspring of these soldiers, having experienced all manner of torture and abuse during their unhappy childhoods at the hands of their squaddie dads, then continue the pattern of learnt abuse against other unsuspecting children and adults.

squaddie wife


Idi Amin

21.11.2002 11:17

Solida Walsh said: "This explains how babaric tinpot dictators/tyrants like Idi amin were created."

Idi Amin was trained as an army officer at Sandhurst. Although he was illiterate and fairly dense, the British army was impressed by his physical strength, willpower and commanding spirit. Consequently, he was promoted to sergeant in the British army. After independence, he rose to the rank of commander-in-chief of the Ugandan armed forces and seized control in a ocup in 1971. During his rule, he killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, expelled thousands of Asians and declared his appreciation of Hitler. After he was deposed by Tanzania, he fled to Saudi Arabia where he enjoys exile free in the knowledge that he will never have to face trial for his crimes against humanity. I sometimes wonder, seeing soldiers fighting in the pubs every Friday night, whether the British state's main export is its high-trained killers.

Dan


Idi Amin and the West

21.11.2002 12:52

And Idi Amin was assisted in his coup d'etat by the British and ironically by the Israelis who didn't like Milton Obote...

He was Britain's own equivalent to the United States's Mobutu in the Congo

Supadupa


Updated URL (Hola Massacre)

30.11.2003 03:44

Just a quick note to update the URL for the reference to my page on Kikuyu history. The section concerning the Hola Massacre is now at:  http://www.bluegecko.org/kenya/tribes/kikuyu/maumau.htm#hola

Thanks

Jens Finke
- Homepage: http://www.bluegecko.org


Ask a kenyan

13.05.2004 21:19

Its so easy to be a sceptic especially when you live in a country which only makes war criminals of other nations but never its own,and never admitting to its own sins.
We had our lives messed up and its not that long ago.One of my friends lived in the 60s in the central district detention camps with his mother.His father is still alive.
Anyway today even soldiers doing anything to people of other races can get away with anything and can be confident that they will be protected from the 'law'.
Mau mau are Kenyan heroes,African heroes.No one knows how much degradation went on and still goes on from the British to us.
Come to our hometown and see the Kakamega goldmines totally looted during the British colonial years.We approached the British government about it and they used their age old tools of threats to withdraw economic aid.
Its so disgusting.Its like the history of sceptics minds is written in 'white'.Its the only race that has always thought less of others and been determined to call them something other than human beings.

Ever noticed that when a problem exits between white countries its called an error that can be fixed but when there is a problem with other races it becomes a problem that can be resolved with war and military support,and we are called 'colored'.

The tears we have cried,the grandmas we have lost,believe me no one can replace.No one knows the pain.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/2416049.stm
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/mycentury/witness.shtml
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometruths/0244kenya.shtml

Simiyu Musibhulo
mail e-mail: bonnysim@hotmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.nairobicity.net


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