Editing Mau Mau rebellion (section)

==Mau Mau warfare==
Mau Mau were the militant wing of a growing clamour for political representation and freedom in Kenya. The first attempt to form a countrywide political party began on 1 October 1944.<ref name="Ogot 2003 16">{{Harvnb|Ogot|2003|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=mbKOXGsytcIC&pg=PA16 16]}}.</ref> This fledgling organisation was called the Kenya African Study Union. [[Harry Thuku]] was the first chairman, but he soon resigned. There is dispute over Thuku's reason for leaving KASU: Bethwell Ogot says Thuku "found the responsibility too heavy";<ref name="Ogot 2003 16" /> David Anderson states that "he walked out in disgust" as the militant section of KASU took the initiative.{{sfn|Anderson|2005|p=282}} KASU changed its name to the [[Kenya African Union]] (KAU) in 1946. Author Wangari Maathai writes that many of the organizers were ex-soldiers who fought for the British in Ceylon, Somalia, and Burma during the Second World War. When they returned to Kenya, they were never paid and did not receive recognition for their service, whereas their British counterparts were awarded medals and received land, sometimes from the Kenyan veterans.<ref>{{cite book|title=Unbowed: a memoir|author=Wangari Maathai|pages=61–63|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|date=2006|isbn=0307263487}}</ref>

The failure of KAU to attain any significant reforms or redress of grievances from the colonial authorities shifted the political initiative to younger and more militant figures within the native Kenyan trade union movement, among the squatters on the settler estates in the Rift Valley and in KAU branches in Nairobi and the Kikuyu districts of central province.<ref name="Berman 1991 p198">{{Harvnb|Berman|1991|p=198}}.</ref> Around 1943, residents of Olenguruone Settlement radicalised the traditional practice of [[oathing]], and extended oathing to women and children.<ref name="Elkins 2005 p25">{{Harvnb|Elkins|2005|p=25}}.</ref> By the mid-1950s, 90% of Kikuyu, Embu and Meru were oathed.<ref name="Branch 2007 p1">{{Harvnb|Branch|2007|p=1}}.</ref> On 3&nbsp;October 1952, Mau Mau claimed their first European victim when they stabbed a woman to death near her home in Thika.<ref name="Elkins 2005 32" /> Six days later, on 9&nbsp;October, Senior Chief Waruhiu was shot dead in broad daylight in his car,<ref name="Edgerton 1989 65">{{Harvnb|Edgerton|1989|p=65}}.</ref> which was an important blow against the colonial government.<ref name="Füredi 1989 116">{{Harvnb|Füredi|1989|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rTmL3ePiFRMC&pg=PA116 116]}}.</ref> Waruhiu had been one of the strongest supporters of the British presence in Kenya. His assassination gave [[Evelyn Baring, 1st Baron Howick of Glendale|Evelyn Baring]] the final impetus to request permission from the Colonial Office to declare a State of Emergency.<ref name="Edgerton 1989 66_67">{{Harvnb|Edgerton|1989|pp=66–67}}.</ref>

The Mau Mau attacks were mostly well organised and planned.

{{Blockquote|...the insurgents' lack of heavy weaponry and the heavily entrenched police and Home Guard positions meant that Mau Mau attacks were restricted to nighttime and where loyalist positions were weak. When attacks did commence they were fast and brutal, as insurgents were easily able to identify loyalists because they were often local to those communities themselves. The [[Lari massacre]] was by comparison rather outstanding and in contrast to regular Mau Mau strikes which more often than not targeted only loyalists without such massive civilian casualties. "Even the attack upon Lari, in the view of the rebel commanders was strategic and specific."{{sfn|Anderson|2005|p=252}}}}
The Mau Mau command, contrary to the Home Guard who were stigmatised as "the running dogs of British Imperialism",{{sfn|Anderson|2005|p=239}} were relatively well educated. General Gatunga had previously been a respected and well-read Christian teacher in his local Kikuyu community. He was known to meticulously record his attacks in a series of five notebooks, which when executed were often swift and strategic, targeting loyalist community leaders he had previously known as a teacher.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mau Mau Rebellion|last=Van der Bijl|first=Nicholas|publisher=Pen and Sword|year=2017|isbn=978-1473864603|pages=151|oclc=988759275}}</ref>

The Mau Mau military strategy was mainly guerrilla attacks launched under the cover of darkness. They used improvised and stolen weapons such as guns,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGYnXInkdmk These guns were more powerful psychologically than they were physically, with Jonathan Ferguson] August 28, 2024. [[Royal Armouries Museum]]</ref> as well as weapons such as machetes and bows and arrows in their attacks.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1963-09-6-4|title=Mau Mau reed shafted arrows with some barbed 'wire' iron arrow heads and bound nocks, Kenya, 1953|publisher=[[National Army Museum]] |archiveurl=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20230716000753/https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1963-09-6-4|archive-date=16 July 2023|access-date=16 July 2023|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis|type=MA|last=Stoddard |first=James |date=2020|title=Mau Mau Blasters: The Homemade Guns of the Mau Mau Uprising|publisher=University of Central Florida |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221112195601/https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1137&context=etd2020|archive-date=November 12, 2022 |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1137&context=etd2020}}</ref> They maimed cattle and, in one case, poisoned a herd.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://owaahh.com/when-the-mau-mau-used-a-biological-weapon/|title=When the Mau Mau Used a Biological Weapon |date=30 October 2014|work=Owaahh |access-date=12 February 2018|language=en-US |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410145343/http://owaahh.com/when-the-mau-mau-used-a-biological-weapon/|archive-date=April 10, 2023}}</ref>

In addition to physical warfare, the Mau Mau rebellion also generated a propaganda war, where both the British and Mau Mau fighters battled for the hearts and minds of Kenya's population. Mau Mau propaganda represented the apex of an 'information war' that had been fought  since 1945, between colonial information staff and African intellectuals and newspaper editors.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Osborne |first=Myles |title='The Rooting Out of Mau Mau from the Minds of the Kikuyu is a Formidable Task': Propaganda and the Mau Mau War |date=2015-01-30 |journal=The Journal of African History |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=77–97 |doi=10.1017/s002185371400067x |s2cid=159690162 |issn=0021-8537|doi-access=free }}</ref> The Mau Mau had learned much from - and built upon - the experience and advice of newspaper editors since 1945. In some cases, the editors of various publications in the colony were directly involved in producing Mau Mau propaganda. British Officials struggled to compete with the 'hybrid, porous, and responsive character' during the rebellion, and faced the same challenges in responding to Mau Mau propaganda, particularly in instances where the Mau Mau would use creative ways such as hymns to win and maintain followers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Leakey |first=L.S.B. |date=1954 |title=The religious element in Mau Mau |journal=African Music: Journal of the African Music Society |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=78–79 |doi=10.21504/amj.v1i1.235}}</ref> This was far more effective than government newspapers; however, once colonial officials brought the insurgency under control by late 1954, information officials gained an uncontested arena through which they won the propaganda war.<ref name=":3" />

Women formed a core part of the Mau Mau, especially in maintaining supply lines. Initially able to avoid the suspicion, they moved through colonial spaces and between Mau Mau hideouts and strongholds, to deliver vital supplies and services to guerrilla fighters including food, ammunition, medical care, and of course, information. Women such as [[Wamuyu Gakuru]], exemplified this key role.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Kikuyu Women, the Mau Mau Rebellion and Social Change in Kenya|last = Presley|first = Cora Ann|publisher = Westview Press|year = 1992|location = Boulder}}</ref> An unknown number also fought in the war, with the most high-ranking being [[Muthoni Kirima|Field Marshal Muthoni]].