THE KENYA HOME GUARD
SIR,—May I comment on the letter from " A Settler " 7 1 have just spent a year in Kenya, mostly in Kiambu District, the part of the Kikuyu Reserve nearest to Nairobi. It is quite true that the Home Guard (properly so called) is an admirable and effective body, which has cut down the number of burglaries in the parts of Nairobi where it operates to a very low level. It is also, happily, true that many white people, like my own friends, and like " Settler " himself, are consistently good
to Africans, and on the best of terms with their Kikuyu servants.
But, unfortunately, there has been unneces- sary violence against the Kikuyu, even per- fectly innocent people, which has been con- doned by the white officers in command of African police and troops. The Askari men- tioned in Mr. Tolfree's letter published on Nov. 20th are either African constables in the Kenya Police, or African soldiers. The Kikuyu, even the loyalists, are terrified of the police, and with good reason. A friend' of mine told me that his houseboy, a Kikuyu, was beaten up by two police constables because he would not give them money when they looked at his papers. The papers were in order, and the Kikuyu was a loyalist who could not go home to the Reserve because the local Mau Mau knew he was against them. Raids into the Reserve by soldiers or police were accom- panied by wholesale looting, and if a man's but was searched he was lucky if any of his possessions were left to him. The really shocking aspect of this is the condonation by white officers even in face of strong directives against it by the Governor and General Erskine. As " Settler " says, the cruelty of African to African is notorious, and it does not require much imagination to see what can happen to the wretched Kikuyu if the white officers commanding Africans of other tribes make it obvious that they consider all Kikuyu as fair game.
The one happy aspect of the court martial of Captain Griffiths is that the publication of the facts in this country will help to stop un- necessary and indiscriminate violence against the Kikuyu.—Yours faithfully,
JANE MEIKLEJOHN
15 Ox Lane, Harpenden, Herts
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