Langley Hawkins murder case

Langley Hawkins murder case
Map of the East Africa Protectorate
Location	Kiambu County, East Africa Protectorate (present-day Kenya)
Date	5 May 1920
Deaths	1 (+ a related suicide)
Injured	3
Perpetrator	Langley Hawkins
Charges	One count of murder, three counts of grievous hurt
Judge	Thomas Doveton Maxwell

In May 1920, white European settler Langley Hawkins discovered money and documents were missing from his house in Kiambu County in the British East Africa Protectorate. He summoned a Black African policeman from nearby Ruiru and the pair proceeded to beat and torture three of Hawkins' black male employees and a pregnant black woman to extract information relating to the theft. One of the employees, Mucheru, died during the torture and the woman later miscarried.

The policeman, Kisanda, died by suicide, but Hawkins was brought to trial on one count of murder and three of grievous hurt. A male all-white jury returned one guilty verdict for grievous hurt and two on lesser charges of simple hurt. Hawkins received a sentence of two years' imprisonment, relatively harsh for the offences he was convicted of but much less than would be expected had Hawkins been convicted on more serious charges.

The case was one of a number of similar outcomes that raised concern in the British Colonial Office over the widespread practice of flogging by European settlers in Kenya. Numerous attempts at reform eventually saw the replacement of the colony's Indian Penal Code and other measures to restrict the discretion allowed to juries and judges in murder and battery cases.