Historical Background

Tetu division was at the heart of the Mau Mau war of independence.

During the war, the Mau Mau were able to move around their bases in the highland forests of the Aberdare mountains and Mount Kenya killing Africans loyal to the government and attacking isolated police and Home Guard posts.

Apart from the many freedom fighters that came from the area, it is also the home of the late celebrated Mau Mau leader Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi.

In 1895, British Queen Victoria had declared a “protectorate” over Kenya and Uganda . A few British settlers then violently took the best cool and agriculturally rich Kenyan highlands.

“We have stolen his land,” declared the British Colonel Grogan.

By 1948, 1.25 million Kikuyu were restricted to 2000 square miles (5,200 km²), while 30,000 settlers occupied 12,000 square miles (31,000 km²). The most desirable agricultural land was almost entirely in the hands of settlers.

During the colonial period, the British allowed about 120,000 Kikuyus to forced labour. They were, in effect, tenant farmers who had no actual rights to the land they worked, but had previously called home.

Between 1936 and 1946, the settlers steadily demanded more days of labour, while further restricting Kikuyu's access to the land. It has been estimated that the real income of Kikuyu squatters fell by 30% to 40% during this period and fell even more sharply during the late 1940s.

This effort by settlers, which was essentially an attempt to turn the tenant farmers into agricultural labourers, exacerbated the Africans anger.

Kenyan revolutionaries and predominantly the Kikuyu in the Kenya Highlands made preparations for armed struggle against the oppressive colonial rule. Kenya 's colonial Governor Evelyn Baring responded by declaring a state of emergency on Oct. 20, 1952.

From 1952 the Colonial Government detained without trial hundreds of thousands of Mau Mau suspects in a labyrinth of camps known as ‘The Pipeline'. 

Beginning in 1957, those detainees who still refused to cooperate were subject to the dilution technique: a systematic use of brute force and torture to break detainees of their Mau Mau allegiances. 

The dilution technique was officially endorsed by the Colonial Office in London .  Dilution began in the Mwea camps in March 1957 under the command of British Colonial Officer, Terence Gavaghan. 

The use of the dilution technique and its accompanying brutality was so effective in breaking the Mau Mau detainees that the colonial government authorised its expansion to other camps, including those at Athi River , Aguthi and Mweru. 

In retrospect, Mau Mau fighters stole weapons and ammunition. Blacksmiths made hundreds of guns. Britain mobilized 55,000 soldiers and cops to fight the Mau Mau. The Royal Air Force bombed guerrilla strongholds in Aberdares Forest and Kirinyaga.

In 1953 some 15,000 Mau Mau guerrillas were at large. In January 1954 the King's African Rifles began Operation Hammer . They combed the forests of Aberdare Mountain but met very little resistance; most guerrillas had already left. Eventually the operation was moved to the Mount Kenya area. There they captured substantial numbers of guerrillas and killed 24 of 51 band leaders. The Mau Mau were forced deeper into forest. By September 1956, only about 500 rebels remained.

In 1955, an amnesty was declared. It both absolved Home Guard members from prosecution and gave rebel soldiers a chance to surrender. Peace talks with the rebels collapsed on May 20, 1955 and the Army began its final offensive against the Aberdare region. Pseudo-gangs were used heavily in the operation. By this time Mau Mau were low on supplies and practically out of ammunition.

A posse led by Ian Henderson captured Field Marshall Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 with 13 other Mau Mau fighters. He was subsequently hanged in early 1957.

His capture marked the effective end of the Uprising, though some Mau Mau fighters remained in the forests until 1963. The Emergency remained in force until January 1960. Kenya declared its independence on Dec. 12, 1963.

The official number of Kenyans killed was estimated at 11,503 by British Government. According to David Anderson's Histories of the Hanged 1,090 Africans were hanged in the 1950s by Britain 's colonial regime. Just for supplying food to the Mau Mau fighters—labelled “consorting”—the colonialists sent 207 people to their deaths.

Caroline Elkins estimated that 300,000 Kenyans were thrown into concentration camps.

In October 2006, Mau Mau veterans filed a suit against the British government for reparations, charging it with systematic torture of Kenyan freedom fighters during the struggle for independence.