Editing Mau Mau rebellion (section)

==Deaths==
The number of deaths attributable to the Emergency is disputed. David Anderson estimates 25,000<ref name="Bloody uprising of the Mau Mau"/> people died; British demographer John Blacker's estimate is 50,000 deaths—half of them children aged ten or below.
He attributes this death toll mostly to increased malnutrition, starvation and disease from wartime conditions.<ref name="Blacker 2007">{{Harvnb|Blacker|2007}}.</ref>

Caroline Elkins says "tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands" died.<ref name="Elkins 2005 pxiv">{{Harvnb|Elkins|2005|p=xiv}}.</ref> Elkins' numbers have been challenged by Blacker, who demonstrated in detail that her numbers were overestimated, explaining that Elkins' figure of 300,000 deaths "implies that perhaps half of the adult male population would have been wiped out—yet the censuses of 1962 and 1969 show no evidence of this—the age-sex pyramids for the Kikuyu districts do not even show indentations."<ref name="Blacker 2007"/>

His study dealt directly with Elkins' claim that "somewhere between 130,000 and 300,000 Kikuyu are unaccounted for" at the 1962 census,<ref name="Elkins 2005 p366">{{Harvnb|Elkins|2005|p=366}}.</ref> and was read by both David Anderson and John Lonsdale prior to publication.<ref name="Elstein 07Apr2011"/> [[David Elstein]] has noted that leading authorities on Africa have taken issue with parts of Elkins' study, in particular her mortality figures: "The senior British historian of Kenya, John Lonsdale, whom Elkins thanks profusely in her book as 'the most gifted scholar I know', warned her to place no reliance on anecdotal sources, and regards her statistical analysis—for which she cites him as one of three advisors—as 'frankly incredible'."<ref name="Elstein 07Apr2011"/>

The British possibly killed more than 20,000 Mau Mau militants,{{sfn|Anderson|2005|p=4}} but in some ways more notable is the smaller number of Mau Mau suspects dealt with by capital punishment: by the end of the Emergency, the total was 1,090. At no other time or place in the British Empire was capital punishment dispensed so aggressively—the total is more than double the number executed by [[Algerian War|the French in Algeria]].{{sfn|Anderson|2005|p=7}}

[[Wangari Maathai]] suggests that more than one hundred thousand Africans, mostly Kikuyus, may have died in the concentration camps and emergency villages.<ref>{{cite book|title=Unbowed: a memoir|authorlink=Wangari Maathai |first=Wangari |last=Maathai|page=68|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=2006|isbn=0307263487}}</ref>

Officially 1,819 Native Kenyans were killed by the Mau Mau. David Anderson believes this to be an undercount and cites a higher figure of 5,000 killed by the Mau Mau.<ref name="Elstein 07Apr2011"/>{{sfn|Anderson|2005|p=84}} In addition, 95 British military personnel died as a result of the conflict.<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 March 2021 |title="UK armed forces Deaths: Operational deaths post World War II" |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/972075/20210325_UK_armed_forces_Operational_deaths_post_World_War_II-O.pdf |website=Ministry of defense}}</ref>