Editing Mau Mau rebellion (section)

====Lari massacres====
{{Main|Lari massacre}}
Mau Mau militants perpetrated numerous war crimes. One such incident was their attack on the settlement of [[Lari Constituency|Lari]], on the night of 25–26 March 1953, in which they herded men, women and children into huts and set fire to them, hacking down with [[machete]]s anyone who attempted escape, before throwing them back into the burning huts.{{sfn|Anderson|2005|pp=119–180}} The attack at Lari was so extreme that "African policemen who saw the bodies of the victims ... were physically sick and said 'These people are animals. If I see one now I shall shoot with the greatest eagerness{{' "}},<ref name="French 2011 72"/> and it "even shocked many Mau Mau supporters, some of whom would subsequently try to excuse the attack as 'a mistake{{' "}}. A total of 309 rebels would be prosecuted for the massacre, of which 136 were convicted. Seventy-one of those convicted were executed.{{sfn|Anderson|2005|p=127}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire |url=http://uni360y1y.wdfiles.com/local--files/lecture-ten-friday-november-16-2007/Histories%20of%20the%20Hanged.pdf |page=175 |access-date=24 June 2023 |archive-date=24 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230624204817/http://uni360y1y.wdfiles.com/local--files/lecture-ten-friday-november-16-2007/Histories%20of%20the%20Hanged.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

A retaliatory massacre was immediately perpetrated by Kenyan security forces who were partially overseen by British commanders. Official estimates place the death toll from the first Lari massacre at 74, and the retaliatory attack at 150, though neither of these figures account for people who may have been 'disappeared'.  Whatever the actual number of victims, "[t]he grim truth was that, for every person who died in Lari's first massacre, at least two more were killed in retaliation in the second."{{sfn|Anderson|2005|p=132}}

Aside from the Lari massacres, Kikuyu were also tortured, mutilated and murdered by Mau Mau on many other occasions.<ref name="Ogot 2005 502"/> Mau Mau were estimated to have killed 1,819 of their fellow native Kenyans, though again, this number may exclude those whose bodies were never found. Anderson estimates the true number to be around 5,000.{{sfn|Anderson|2005|p=84}} Thirty-two European and twenty-six Asian civilians were also murdered by Mau Mau militants, with similar numbers wounded. The best known European victim was Michael Ruck, aged six, who was hacked to death with [[Machete#Cultural variations|pangas]] along with his parents, Roger and Esme, and one of the Rucks' farm workers, Muthura Nagahu, who had tried to help the family.<ref name="Anderson 2005 p94">{{Harvnb|Anderson|2005|p=94}}.</ref> Newspapers in Kenya and abroad published graphic murder details, including images of young Michael with bloodied teddy bears and trains strewn on his bedroom floor.<ref name="Elkins 2005 p42">{{Harvnb|Elkins|2005|p=42}}.</ref>

In 1952, the poisonous [[latex]] of the [[Euphorbia grantii|African milk bush]] was used by members of Mau Mau to kill cattle in an incident of [[biological warfare]].<ref name="carus2002_63-65">{{cite book| last = Carus| first = W. Seth| title = Bioterrorism and Biocrimes: The Illicit Use of Biological Agents Since 1900| pages = [https://books.google.com/books?id=1jEP8Ve4zwgC&dq=%22Common%20poisonous%20plants%20of%20East%20Africa%22&pg=PA63 63–65]| publisher=Fredonia Books| year = 2002| edition = Reprint of 1st| location = Amsterdam| quote = This episode is not mentioned in histories of the Mau Mau revolt, suggesting that such incidents were rare.}}</ref>