Mau Mau rebellion

Mau Mau rebellion
Part of the decolonisation of Africa
Troops of the King's African Rifles on watch for Mau Mau rebels
Date 1952–1960 Location British Kenya Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom Kenya Uganda  Southern Rhodesia	Mau Mau rebels[a] Kenya Land and Freedom Army
Commanders and leaders
Winston Churchill (1951–1955) Anthony Eden (1955–1957) Harold Macmillan (1957–1960) Ian Henderson George Erskine Kenneth O'Connor Evelyn Baring Terence Gavaghan	Dedan Kimathi  Musa Mwariama Waruhiu Itote Stanley Mathenge (MIA) Kubu Kubu
Strength
10,000 regular troops 21,000 police 25,000 Kikuyu Home Guard[2][3]	35,000+ Members[4]
Casualties and losses
3,000 native Kenyan police and soldiers killed[5]	12,000–20,000+ killed (including 1,090 executed)[6] 2,633 captured 2,714 surrendered

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The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt, or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the Mau Mau, and the British authorities.^[7] Dominated by Kikuyu, Meru and Embu fighters, the KLFA also comprised units of Kamba^[8] and Maasai who fought against the European colonists in Kenya, the British Army, and the local Kenya Regiment (British colonists, local auxiliary militia, and pro-British Kikuyu).^[9][b]

The capture of rebel leader Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 signalled the defeat of the Mau Mau, and essentially ended the British military campaign.^[10] However, the rebellion survived until after Kenya's independence from Britain, driven mainly by the Meru units led by Field Marshal Musa Mwariama. General Baimungi, one of the last Mau Mau leaders, was killed shortly after Kenya attained self-rule.^[11]

The KLFA failed to capture widespread public support.^[12] Frank Füredi, in The Mau Mau War in Perspective, suggests this was due to a British divide and rule strategy,^[13] which they had developed in suppressing the Malayan Emergency (1948–60).^[14] The Mau Mau movement remained internally divided, despite attempts to unify the factions. On the colonial side, the uprising created a rift between the European colonial community in Kenya and the metropole,^[15] as well as violent divisions within the Kikuyu community:^[6] "Much of the struggle tore through the African communities themselves, an internecine war waged between rebels and 'loyalists' – Africans who took the side of the government and opposed Mau Mau."^[16] Suppressing the Mau Mau Uprising in the Kenyan colony cost Britain £55 million^[17] and caused at least 11,000 deaths among the Mau Mau and other forces, with some estimates considerably higher.^[18] This included 1,090 executions by hanging.^[18]

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