Editing Mau Mau rebellion (section)

==Mau Mau status in Kenya==
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| quote = Partisan questions about the Mau Mau war have ... echoed round Kenya's political arena during 40 years of independence. How historically necessary was Mau Mau? Did its secretive violence alone have the power to destroy white supremacy? Or did it merely sow discord within a mass nationalism that—for all the failings of the Kenya African Union (KAU)—was bound to win power in the end? Did Mau Mau aim at freedom for all Kenyans? or did moderate, constitutional politicians rescue that pluralist prize from the jaws of its ethnic chauvinism? Has the self-sacrificial victory of the poor been unjustly forgotten, and appropriated by the rich? or are Mau Mau's defeats and divisions best buried in oblivion?<ref name="Lonsdale 2003 47">{{Harvnb|Lonsdale|2003|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=mbKOXGsytcIC&pg=PA47 47]}}.</ref>
| source = —John Lonsdale
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}}It is often argued that the Mau Mau Uprising was suppressed as a subject for public discussion in Kenya during the periods under Kenyatta and [[Daniel arap Moi]] because of the key positions and influential presence of some loyalists in government, business and other elite sectors of Kenyan society post-1963.<ref name="Elkins 2005 pp360-363">{{Harvnb|Elkins|2005|pp=360–363}}: "During the run-up to independence and the years that followed, former loyalists also wielded political clout to consolidate their own interests and power. Under Kenyatta many became influential members of the new government. ... This system of loyalist patronage percolated all the way down to the local level of government, with former Home Guards dominating bureaucracies that had once been the preserve of the young British colonial officers in the African districts. Of the numerous vacancies created by decolonization—powerful posts like provincial commissioner and district commissioner—the vast majority were filled by one time loyalists."</ref><ref name="Branch 2009 ppxii-xiii">{{Harvnb|Branch|2009|pp=[http://assets.cambridge.org/97805211/30905/frontmatter/9780521130905_frontmatter.pdf xii–xiii]}}.</ref> Unsurprisingly, during this same period opposition groups tactically embraced the Mau Mau rebellion.<ref name="Branch 2009 pxii" />

Members of Mau Mau are currently recognised by the [[Government of Kenya|Kenyan Government]] as freedom-independence heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives in order to free Kenyans from colonial rule.<ref name="speech2009">{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalheritage.go.ke/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=19&tmpl=component&format=raw&Itemid=54 |title=Speech to the 52nd Commemoration of the Memory of Dedan Kimathi |author=Jacob Ole Miaron, Permanent Secretary of the Vice President Ministry of State for National Heritage and Culture |date=26 February 2009 |access-date=14 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111009161558/http://www.nationalheritage.go.ke/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=19&tmpl=component&format=raw&Itemid=54 |archive-date=9 October 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Since 2010, Mashujaa Day (Heroes Day) has been marked annually on 20 October (the same day Baring signed the Emergency order).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kenyalaw.org/klr/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Constitution_of_Kenya__2010.pdf |title=Chapter Two – The Republic |work=[[Constitution of Kenya|Constitution of Kenya, 2010]] |publisher=National Council for Law Reporting |quote=The national days&nbsp;. . . [shall include] Mashujaa Day, to be observed on 20 October |at=Article 9, p.&nbsp;15 |access-date=11 February 2012 |archive-date=2 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130402042845/http://www.kenyalaw.org/klr/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Constitution_of_Kenya__2010.pdf |url-status=dead }}.</ref> According to the Kenyan Government, Mashujaa Day will be a time for Kenyans to remember and honour Mau Mau and other Kenyans who participated in the independence struggle.<ref name="speech2009" /> Mashujaa Day will replace Kenyatta Day; the latter has until now also been held on 20 October.<ref>{{cite news|title=Who are Kenya's real heroes?|author=Dominic Odipo|url=http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/columnists/InsidePage.php?id=2000009290|newspaper=The Standard|publisher=Standard Group|location=Nairobi|date=10 May 2010|quote=Changing Kenyatta Day to Mashujaa Day is not just an innocuous and harmless exercise in constitutional semantics.|access-date=7 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121125350/http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/columnists/InsidePage.php?id=2000009290|archive-date=21 January 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2001, the Kenyan Government announced that important Mau Mau sites were to be turned into national monuments.<ref name="monuments">{{cite news |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1236807.stm |last= Jenkins |first= Cathy |date= 22 March 2001 |title= Monuments for the Mau Mau |publisher= BBC News |access-date= 30 May 2012 |archive-date= 14 May 2006 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060514182307/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1236807.stm |url-status= live }}</ref>

This official celebration of Mau Mau is in marked contrast to post-colonial Kenyan governments' rejection of the Mau Mau as an engine of national liberation.<ref name="Branch 2009 pxi">{{Harvnb|Branch|2009|p=[http://assets.cambridge.org/97805211/30905/frontmatter/9780521130905_frontmatter.pdf xi]}}.</ref><ref name="Anderson 2005 pp335-336">{{Harvnb|Anderson|2005|pp=335–336}}: "[Kenyatta] often spoke of the need to 'forgive and forget', and to 'bury the past'. He acknowledged the part the freedom fighters had played in the struggle, but he never once made any public statement that conceded to them any rights or any genuine compensation. Mau Mau was a thing best forgotten. ... In Kenyatta's Kenya there would be a deafening silence about Mau Mau".</ref> Such a turnabout has attracted criticism of government manipulation of the Mau Mau uprising for political ends.<ref name="monuments"/><ref name="Branch 2009 ppxii-xiv">{{Harvnb|Branch|2009|pp=[http://assets.cambridge.org/97805211/30905/frontmatter/9780521130905_frontmatter.pdf xiii–xiv]}}.</ref>

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| quote = We are determined to have independence in peace, and we shall not allow hooligans to rule Kenya. We must have no hatred towards one another. Mau Mau was a disease which had been eradicated, and must never be remembered again.<ref name="Clough 1998 p25b" />
| source = —Speech by Jomo Kenyatta, April 1963
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