Soldiers in the Court Room: The British Army's Part in the Kenya Emergency under the Legal Spotlight

Abstract

In April 2011, civil proceedings were launched in the High Court in London concerning alleged torture during the Mau Mau Emergency in Kenya, from 1952 to 1960. In this on-going case, the claimants allege that torture was widespread in Kenya, and that it was condoned by the British state. This article explains the background to the case and describes the expert evidence given by the author on the British Army's role in the Emergency. The historical evidence on five issues is summarised: the command and control arrangements for the security forces, the nature of the intelligence system, the relationships between British and local security forces, the army's knowledge of human rights abuses and whether efforts were made to stop them, and army participation in screening and interrogation. In each case, it is shown how the British Army was deeply implicated in a system of mass repression of the civilian Kikuyu, Embu and Meru populations. Finally, the article examines the discovery of a vast cache of documents at Hanslope Park, which covers 37 territories during the decolonisation period. The discovery of some 8,800 files is likely to have a significant impact on the understanding of post-war decolonisation.

Acknowledgements

The author expresses his gratitude to Professors David French and Ashley Jackson for their helpful comments on an earlier draft, and to the editors for their encouragement.

Notes

Anderson, Histories of the Hanged; Elkins, Britain's Gulag. For review essays: Carruthers, Being Beastly to the Mau Mau, 489–96; Ogot, Review Article, 493–505; Branch, Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya.

The Hon. Mr. Justice McCoombe, Ndiku Mutua and Others and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office; coverage can also be found in contemporaneous press reports, in particular in The Times.

Justice McCoombe, Summary of Judgment.

Justice McCoombe, Summary of Judgment.

Huw Bennett, British Army Counterinsurgency. I have published the following on the topic: Bennett, ‘The British Army and Controlling Barbarisation’, 59–80; Bennett, ‘The Mau Mau Emergency’, 143–63; Bennett, ‘The Other Side of the COIN’, 638–64; Bennett, ‘Erskine, Sir George Watkin Eben James (1899–1965)’.

Percox, ‘British Counter-Insurgency in Kenya, 1952–56’, 60, 62, 69, 70.

Kenya National Archives [hereafter KNA]: CS/2/8/198: ‘Functions of Emergency Committees etc’, forwarded from J. M. Kisch, Secretary to the Governor's Emergency Committee, to the Chief Secretary, Cabinet members, Provincial Commissioners et al., 19/3/53.

KNA: CS/2/8/198: ‘Functions of Emergency Committees etc’, forwarded from J. M. Kisch, Secretary to the Governor's Emergency Committee, to the Chief Secretary, Cabinet members, Provincial Commissioners et al., 19/3/53.

The National Archives, Kew [hereafter TNA]: CO 822/486: Telegram from Baring to Colonial Secretary, 10/4/53.

KNA: AH/9/40: Emergency Directive No. 7, 17/6/53.

TNA: CO 822/457: Telegram from Colonial Secretary to Baring, 29/5/53.

TNA: WO 276/473: ‘Emergency Organisation. War Council’, WAR/C.6, 26/3/54.

KNA: DC/NKI/3/1/14: Letter from Potter, Chief Secretary, to all Provincial Commissioners, Commissioner of Police, and Heads of Departments, 4/3/53.

KNA: DC/NKI/3/1/14: ‘Memorandum on the Reorganisation of Intelligence in Kenya Colony’, 4/3/53.

Hanslope Archive [hereafter Hanslope. All cited Hanslope documents are drawn from my second statement to the High Court, dated 1/4/2011] DO 3/2: ‘Reorganisation of Intelligence in Kenya Colony. Progress Report Aug. 1953 Part I’, by the Intelligence Adviser, 6.

Hanslope: DO 3/2: ‘Reorganisation of Intelligence in Kenya Colony. Progress Report August 1953 Part I’, by the Intelligence Adviser, 7–8.

Kitson, Gangs and Counter-Gangs, 23.

KNA: WC/CM/1/1: ‘The Operational Intelligence Organisation. Memorandum by the Kenya Intelligence Committee’, 28/1/55.

Thornton, ‘Minimum Force’, 215–26; Bennett, ‘Minimum Force in British Counterinsurgency’, 459–75.

Bennett, ‘Minimum Force in British Counterinsurgency’, 465.

WO 276/542: Booklet ‘The Story of the Kenya Regiment T.F. 1937–1959’.

Parker, The Last Colonial Regiment, 206–07, 261.

Hanslope: CO 968/424: Telegram from Governor's Deputy to Secretary of State, 12/12/53.

Bennett, ‘The British Army and Controlling Barbarisation’, 64–70.

Hanslope: CAB 19/4 Vol. I: Record of the Chief Secretary's Complaints Co-ordinating Committee, 7/3/55.

Hanslope: CAB 19/4 Vol. I: Record of the Chief Secretary's Complaints Co-ordinating Committee, 6/6/55.

See Branch, Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya, 55–93.

TNA: WO 276/411: Appreciation of the Situation, by Major-General Hinde, 5/3/53.

TNA: WO 276/200: Emergency Directive No. 3, Kikuyu Guard, 22/4/53.

TNA: WO 276/510: Office of the Director of Operations, Emergency Directive No. 3: Kikuyu Guard, 23/4/53.

TNA: WO 276/200: Emergency Directive No. 8, Role of and co-operation with the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru Guards, 15/7/53.

KNA: VP/2/22: Nyeri District Emergency Committee [NDEC] Minutes, 10/12/53 and 24/12/53.

KNA: VP/2/22: NDEC Minutes, 2/2/54.

TNA: WO 276/170: Central Province Emergency Committee Minutes, 13/11/53.

Imperial War Museum Department of Documents: Erskine papers, Accession No.: 75/134/4, Report to the Secretary of State for War, ‘The Kenya Emergency’, signed Erskine, 2/5/55, para. 18.

TNA: WO 32/15834: Letter from Erskine to Secretary of State for War, 10/12/53.

Reprinted in Clayton, Counter-insurgency in Kenya, 1952 to 1960, 38–39.

TNA: WO 216/879: Telegram from Erskine to War Office, 7/1/55.

TNA: WO 276/474: ‘Kikuyu Guard. Note by the Commander-in-Chief’. WAR/C.114, 9/6/54.

TNA: WO 276/404: Letter from Major J. T. Harington, to Special Branch Rift Valley Province Headquarters, 7/11/53.

Bennett, ‘The Other Side of the COIN’, 648–49.

Hanslope: AA 45/26/3/2A Vol. I: Letter from Secretary for Defence to Secretary for African Affairs, 30/8/54.

Hanslope: AA 45/26/2A Vol. II Box 135: ‘Screening Method and Policy Nanyuki District’.

Hanslope: DO 3/2: Provincial Special Branch Circular No. 2, Operational Intelligence, 28/10/53.

Hansard, available from http://services.parliament.uk/hansard/Lords/bydate/20110811/writtenanswers/part102.html

Hansard, available from http://services.parliament.uk/hansard/Lords/ByDate/20110405/writtenministerialstatements/part012.html

Hansard, available from http://services.parliament.uk/hansard/Commons/ByDate/20110630/writtenministerialstatements/part009.html

Confidential information to the author.

Email to the author from Mary Pring, Information Management Group, FCO, 4/8/11.

Cary, The Migrated Archives.

Cary, The Migrated Archives, 1.

Cary, The Migrated Archives, 2–3.

Cary, The Migrated Archives, 4–5.

Cary, The Migrated Archives, 5.

Cary, The Migrated Archives, 6.

Cary, The Migrated Archives, 12.

Cary, The Migrated Archives, 12.

Cary, The Migrated Archives, 15.

Cary, The Migrated Archives, 17.

Cary, The Migrated Archives, 20–21.

Bennett, ‘Minimum Force in British Counterinsurgency’, 460–61, 467–68.

Drayton, ‘Where Does the World Historian Write From?’, 682.

Drayton, ‘Where Does the World Historian Write From?’, 676.

Drayton, ‘Where Does the World Historian Write From?’, 680.