The name is absent

government “to maintain law and order by protecting the individual from the
forces of evil"³⁶ This was achieved at the gallows.

Criminalizing “the unlawful society commonly known as the Mau Mau^,δ7

On October 20, 1952, the British colonial government declared a state of
emergency in Kenya as a result of Mau Mau. The notion of Kenya as a peaceful
paradise for Europeans was violently shattered. Recorded documents and
reports on the movement reported shocking accounts that one of the objectives
of Mau Mau was to “murder Europeans and eliminate European influence in
Kenya.”³⁸ Although the media reported Mau Mau were terrorists, the war was a
fearful time for all of those living in Kenya.³⁹ For instance, not only did Mau Mau
oathers fear the repercussions of breaking the oath, they were also threatened
with colonial execution for oathing.

The practice of oathing occurred throughout Kenya’s pre-colonial history
as a sacred swearing between participants, and during colonialism it was
engaged in as a dynamic and complicated response to colonial inequality,
racism, and injustice. However, criminalizing the oath was a policy that shifted
power to the State in an attempt to control the spread of Mau Mau activities. The
death penalty was supposed to be a deterrent from African participation and as a
way to show “that the Governments is [was] very much in control.”⁴⁰ The

³⁶ Corfield, Historical Survey, 3.

³⁷Language used on Mau Mau emergency cases. For example, the Warrant of Execution of Sentence to
Death, KNA MLA 1/791 - CC 36/54 Rex vs. Masika S/О Nyanze

³⁸ Corfield, Historical Survey, 72.

³⁹ See for example, “Kenya: SOS,” Time, October 27, 1952.

⁴⁰ 1954 Machakos Annual Report p 28, KNA.

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