Editing Mau Mau rebellion (section)

====Operation Anvil====
{{main|Operation Anvil (Mau Mau Uprising)}}
[[File:Patrol Kenya.jpg|thumb|British Army patrol crossing a stream carrying [[FN FAL]] rifle (1st and 2nd soldiers from right); [[Sten]] Mk5 (3rd soldier); and the [[Jungle carbine|Lee–Enfield No. 5]] (4th and 5th soldiers)<ref>{{cite book |first=Bob |last=Cashner |title=The FN FAL Battle Rifle |location=Oxford, UK |publisher=[[Osprey Publishing]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-78096-903-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qpDvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT23 |page=15 |access-date=4 March 2019 |archive-date=9 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240409023657/https://books.google.com/books?id=qpDvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT23#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
By 1954, Nairobi was regarded as the nerve centre of Mau Mau operations.<ref name="Elkins 2005 p124">{{Harvnb|Elkins|2005|p=124}}: "There was an unusual consensus in the ranks of both the military and Baring's civilian government that the colony's capital was the nerve center for Mau Mau operations. Nearly three-quarters of the city's African male population of sixty thousand were Kikuyu, and most of these men, along with some twenty thousand Kikuyu women and children accompanying them, were allegedly 'active or passive supporters of Mau Mau'."</ref> The insurgents in the highlands of the Aberdares and Mt Kenya were being supplied provisions and weapons by supporters in Nairobi via couriers.<ref name=henderson1958manhunt>{{Harvnb|Henderson|Goodhart|1958|p=14}}: "In the first months of the emergency the Mau Mau discipline was so strong that a terrorist in the forest who gave his money to a courier could be almost certain of getting what he wanted from any shop in Nairobi."</ref> Anvil was the ambitious attempt to eliminate Mau Mau's presence within Nairobi in one fell swoop. 25,000 members of British security forces under the control of General George Erskine were deployed as Nairobi was sealed off and underwent a sector-by-sector purge. All native Kenyans were taken to temporary barbed-wire enclosures. Those who were not Kikuyu, Embu or Meru were released; those who were remained in detention for screening.{{efn|During the Emergency, ''screening'' was the term used by colonial authorities to mean the interrogation of a Mau Mau suspect. The alleged member or sympathiser of Mau Mau would be interrogated in order to obtain an admission of guilt—specifically, a confession that they had taken the Mau Mau oath—as well as for intelligence.<ref name="Elkins 2005 p63">{{Harvnb|Elkins|2005|p=63}}.</ref>}}

Whilst the operation itself was conducted by Europeans, most suspected members of Mau Mau were picked out of groups of the Kikuyu-Embu-Meru detainees by a native Kenyan informer. Male suspects were then taken off for further screening, primarily at Langata Screening Camp, whilst women and children were readied for 'repatriation' to the reserves (many of those slated for deportation had never set foot in the reserves before). Anvil lasted for two weeks, after which the capital had been cleared of all but certifiably loyal Kikuyu; 20,000 Mau Mau suspects had been taken to Langata, and 30,000 more had been deported to the reserves.<ref name="Elkins 2005 pp121-125">{{Harvnb|Elkins|2005|pp=121–125}}.</ref>