Confrontation

Violence erupted on October 20, 1952 as the Mau Mau protested the midnight arrest of Jomo Kenyatta and five colleagues. Many innocent victims were slain during the revolt including 97 so-called loyalists who were brutally murdered at the "Lari Massacre." Sir Evelyn Baring accused Kenyatta of organizing the Mau Mau and subjected him to a rigged trial. The accused were all found guilty and sentenced to seven years of hard labor at a remote camp near Lake Turkana.

The Mau Mau rebellion continued until 1956. During the three years of civil war, over 30,000 men, women, and children were imprisoned in concentration camps, many losing their homes and their land as a result. Another 13,500 Africans and a little over 100 Europeans were killed. The colonial government finally conceded some political power to the Africans with limited representation in the Legislative Council. White settlers, not satisfied with anything short of complete partition of the country, began to leave. Kenyatta was sentenced to two more years of prison, but was elected president "in absentia" of the Kenya African National Union, or KANU.

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