Hey, welcome back to Ugly Business, a podcast on British decolonisation. My name's Annie and my name is Molly. And this is the podcast that we talk about the biggest crimes ever committed by the British Empire.

Hey, welcome back to Ugly Business, a podcast on British decolonisation. My name's Annie and my name is Molly. And this is the podcast that we talk about the biggest crimes ever committed by the British Empire.

So, this week we're talking about the decolonisation process in Kenya.

And we'll be talking about the Mau Mau uprising and the British response to it.

Throughout today's episode, we'll be talking about who engaged in the violence, how they did so, who they harmed, and the consequences.

I'd be quite interested in finding out about this. The two different storylines and how each country understands the history of what went on in Kenya.

We think that this is a really important subject that we need to shed light on as it's not been very represented throughout British history and we think this is something that people need to know Abou,o thank you for listening.

This included working on plantations and in factories and they introduced native reserves and wage labour.

Anderson described Kenya during this time as a Mecca for the English middle classes. However, Kenya's most celebrated writer, he was named Ngugi wa Thiong'o called them parasites in Paradise.

Emerald Sir Edward Northey was appointed as the first governor of the British colony of Kenya, and from this point forward, British settlers began to arrive in Kenya. They were economically and politically influential, and native Kenyans, and in the wider community.

After this, African communities began to be governed by heads of Chief that were accepted by the British, and this usually was determined by if they were white or not.

As this happened, there began to be a crisis of authority as well as a crisis of masculinity amongst Kenyans.

I can't imagine how awful it would be to have the land robbed from underneath your feet and have another way of life forced upon you.

Exactly, Annie. And This is why the rise of Kenyan nationalism began. Kenyan people began to seek change in colonial and traditional authority and resistance to colonialism, and colonial officials began.

This caused the British Kenyan government to declare a state of emergency. The British press quickly picked up on white fears when covering the Kenyan emerging crisis, inevitably emphasising the struggle of the British settlers. The American press suggested that the Mormon Rebellion was a race war, making it seem clear that the white civilians were in the firing line. The experience of a white minority dominating the press coverage gave rise to the impression that the violence of the Mau Mau was principally directed against the European intent of the mammal's leaders before the conflict.

But it might have been violence against Europeans. It was not an event what happened. In Anderson's book, he outlines Caulfield's historical survey of the rebellion, which found that only 32 European civilians were killed in Kenya as a result of Mau Mau attack, with another 26 being wound.

While they expected to be the target of the violence and we're never gonna give up their privilege without a fight, the organised rising against the whites never materialised and the attacks among settlers were sporadic and scattered.

Through this was a definitive moment of war for the white settlers.

During the fighting, at least 11,000 rebels were killed, although academics think the true death toll could be more than twice that. This screening happened at many stages, including arrival to the camps, but at all stages the screenings always involved violence. Anyone who is found to be in connection with the Mau Mau would detained and put into a camp system that the British called the pipeline.

The British began interrogating and torturing suspects and corporal and capital punishment were enforced, including hanging forced labour, torture, sexual violence to men, women and children, and body mutilation In these camps.

Then came an authorization of regulation 17. This designed the legal terms of compelling force and punitive force. Meeting officers in these camps were free to use torture and violence routinely with detainees. The original telegram asked for the colonial secretary in London's approval to use overpowering force, and it was granted.

Who officials in Kent.

Yeah, even after reports of quote beating up and roasting alive of one African unquote, the dilution system included a system of assaults and psychological shock to detainees to force the compliance of the toughest mammal supporters. David Anderson argues that at this point, the British took a step that could not be reversed.

These camps heavily suppressed the Mau Mau people. However, it did not completely extinguish them, and these camps were so bad that they were described by Elkins as Britain's gulag. Over 10,000 Mau Mau people died, however, unofficial figures suggest that the numbers were much.

David Anderson describes the consequences of the rebellion as a story of atrocity and excess on both sides. A dirty war from which no one emerged with much pride and certainly no glory. However, Daniel GoldHoggen and describes the campaign against the Mau Mau as an example of Eliminationism. Although this verdict has been heavily criticised.

The civil suit questioned the authenticity of the colonial archive and also provided empirical evidence that discomforted many.

It was a case of restorative justice and produced considerable new historical evidence. Legal discovery found thousands of new documents from the end of Empire, which brought into question the ways British Colonial Archive is reflective of the colonial state itself and how the state, both at the time of empire and thereafter exercised its power and affirmed its actions arkins.

Foreign Secretary William Hague stated on the floor of the House of Commons quote: ‘Kenyans were subject to torture and other forms of ill treatment at the hands of colonial in administration. The British Government sincerely regret that these abuses took places, and they marred Henry's progress towards independence.’ There was a £19.9 million payout in damages, and the British Government financially committed to building a memorial in Nairobi, to commemorate the victims of torture and ill treatment during the colonial era in Kenya, the London law firm Lee Day, with support of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, represented the five Kenyan.

There is little expectation that they will come to light.

The government denied liability for the actions in Kenya during the emergency, but there was an official recognition that the Kenyans were subject to torture and poor treatment as a result of colonial government. Unfortunately, the case was dismissed.

Unfortunately, the Mau Mau people have never received full justice for the crimes committed against them by the British Empire.

Now we're going to answer some questions sent in by the public in response to this topic. First question is taken from Gary from Twitter.

His question is why should we still care about this as it's all in the past?

The Mau Mau people have never really received any justice and it's important that we don't forget the horrendous acts committed by the British Empire, so they don't get repeated. Also, there's still people living that it happened too so.

Yeah, still in living.

Memory so.

They deserve justice and Kenyans still don't have their land back. It's just owned by big companies now. The next question is from Sandra on Facebook. Do you not think the Mau Mau are to blame as they were the ones who incited the violence?

Interesting question Sandra, but I would say that the Mau Mau uprising was only in response to the colonisation and policies put on the Kenyan people by the British. So realistically the British people are to blame as it was a consequence of their own actions of colonising the Kenyan people. The mammoth uprising only killed very limited number of people. However, the British response killed 10s of thousands. Thank you guys so much for listening to.

This week's Episode of our podcast, I hope you've enjoyed it and we hope that you've learned something new about the Kenyan.

Thank you so much for listening. See you next week. Bye, guys. On Ugly Business, a podcast about British decolonisation.