Kenya was a negotiated process over time, colonial jurist were the authorities
and the final voices of authority.
In this chapter we have seen that the colonial criminalization of the oath
served as a battleground for fighting the Mau Mau movement in the courts and in
the written texts of the archive files. Although Africans turned to the courts to
unfold their invented or actual narratives of Mau Mau oathing practices, it was
also being used as a political space by the colonial administration to document
and collect evidence of Mau Mau oath savagery and to show European authority.
Thus these convicted individuals suffered a physical and written execution. The
lingering trials left in the colonial files were used to justify inhumane executions,
disfigurement, torture, detention, and abuse. The court dramas were a part of a
much larger colonial-Kenyan power production. The court system was a public
space for the colonial government to fight against Mau Mau powers.
The recorded text could be used to justify inhumane behavior and retaliations.
The criminalization of the oath allowed the oath takers to carry the criminal and
thug labels that also shaped the discussions turning attention away from the
grievances associated with the fighters which helped win sympathy and support
of some outsiders following the developments of the Mau Mau movement. It also
permitted the colonial administrators to focus on the ills of Mau Mau participants
instead of questioning how their own acts of violence, abuse, degradation, and
bestiality may have shaped the political developments. The criminalization of the
Mau Mau oathing was also a strategic governmental maneuver to dismantle
149