Some of the Evidence
EVEN the most devoted supporters of Mau Mau will not derive much useful aid from Law and Disorder : Scenes of Life in Kenya, by Peter Evans (Seeker and Warburg, 18s.). It is a violent and facetious book (c.f. the blurb: 'trenchant . . . humour . . .'). Mr. Evans begins with a sketchy and tendentious account of the last twenty-five years in Kenya, during twenty of which he was not there; he then describes the Kenyatta trial, and succeeds in comparing Mr. Pritt, QC, with St. Teresa of Lisieux—a notable feat. At one point he truly says, 'I have dealt with some of the evidence at length. . . .' Fortunately Mr. Montagu Slater forestalled him. (According to Mr. Evans, the difference between a Western and an Eastern 'political' trial is the difference between 'the bull ring and the abattoir'; he should consider the success in 'the bull ring' of Kabaka Mutesa II of Buganda.) After some amateur sleuthing, Mr. Evans was packed off as a 'prohibited immigrant'; and no wonder. He is described as a barrister and a journalist, but the pen has becothe altogether mightier
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