The Mau Mau uprising started in 1952 and lasted until 1960. Black Kenyans fought alongside British forces in WW2 they were rewarded with nothing not even pay for their service while white soldiers were given land and compensation for their sacrifices. It all began in 1920 when Kenya became British East Africa a colony of the crown and white people started settling there. The white people took priority over the natives in many aspects, black people were band from politics until 1944 when some black legislatures were appointed. This angered the black Kenyens giving them motive to start a secret society with the intention of overthrowing the white presence in Kenya. Some Mau Mau clansmen and women fought peacefully others resorted to violence.
The majority of the British people believed that the natives were savages and needed to be neutralized to attain peace in their colony. Savilians were put in camps to be vetted, so the white people knew where their allegiances lay. The camp directors forced its inhabitants to do demanding labor to rehabilitate them and at the same time modernize Kenya. The people in the camps were worked to exhaustion and death. There was many cases of torture and depending on how many people died a day there would be one to two truck loads of bodies dumped, unburied. The only ways to leave the internment camps was to be screened which meant being badly beaten until they gave up the oath to Mau Mau or if they thought they had been rehabilitated. The number of deaths in the camps is not known, but is estimated to be more than 50,000 when there should have been none.
The majority of the British people believed that the natives were savages and needed to be neutralized to attain peace in their colony. Savilians were put in camps to be vetted, so the white people knew where their allegiances lay. The camp directors forced its inhabitants to do demanding labor to rehabilitate them and at the same time modernize Kenya. The people in the camps were worked to exhaustion and death. There was many cases of torture and depending on how many people died a day there would be one to two truck loads of bodies dumped, unburied. The only ways to leave the internment camps was to be screened which meant being badly beaten until they gave up the oath to Mau Mau or if they thought they had been rehabilitated. The number of deaths in the camps is not known, but is estimated to be more than 50,000 when there should have been none.
Jomo Kenyatta, a leader of a peaceful independence movement was convicted of being the leader of Mau Mau and was sentenced to nine years in prison, even though he did not play a large part in the Mau Mau movement. After he got out of prison he became the president of Kenya in 1964. He fought to eradicate British rule and won Kenya's independence.
sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV0udfKrzTQ
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/kenyatta-jailed-for-mau-mau-uprising
http://www.historyinanhour.com/2012/10/06/the-mau-mau-uprising-summary/
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/kenyatta-jailed-for-mau-mau-uprising
http://www.historyinanhour.com/2012/10/06/the-mau-mau-uprising-summary/