Kenya Cowboy

Thirty-five years after its jubilant attainment of "Uhuru" Kenya can claim with some justification to have matured as an independent sovereign republic. While the transition from a British colony to an independent state was not as creditable as many might have wished, Kenya, nevertheless, did not suffer the degree of disintegration and chaos that was so much in evidence in many of her sister countries. The doleful pre-independence predictions of December 1963 did not come to pass; Armageddon did not befall the whites, although many considered it prudent to pack their bags. Yet, the specter of Mau Mau still clouds the history of this former scintillating jewel in the British imperial crown. During the early fifties the world was aghast at the horror and savagery of a new and special brand of terrorism which had been unleashed in the demi-paradise that was the White Highlands. The revolt was regarded in its origins and development as wholly evil. Yet, the Mau Mau insurgents (the land freedom army) became heroes and October 21st, the date in 1952 on which the state of emergency was declared, is commemorated annually with pride as Kenyatta Day. This book by a former colonial police officer at the time of the uprising offers a balanced assessment of the implications of Mau Mau, as well as a vivid, and often shocking reconstruction of events. He seeks both to give a personal human perspective of it and to shed light on the darker areas of fact. Indeed, the book is full of revelations, some of them damning.