The struggle of the Mau Mau, a nationalist and anti-colonial political movement (KLFA), whose guerrilla fighters were mostly Kikuyu, led Kenya to independence from the British Empire on 12 December 1963.
Since 1945, the Kenya African Union (KAU) had been demanding political rights and agrarian reforms, to no avail. From 1952 onwards, guerrilla fighters organised attacks on political figures and European farms. The British government declared a state of emergency and the struggle for independence lasted until 1960: over 8,000 African civilians, 68 Europeans and 460 soldiers were killed.
Protestant and Catholic missionaries condemned the Mau Mau and sided with the colonial government. The independent churches are close to the Mau Mau and against the colonial government. The Consolata missionaries, while condemning those who accept the Mau Mau oath, approve of the movement’s political reasons and remain close to the people. Nevertheless, Father Edmondo Cavicchi is wounded, and Sisters Eugenia Cavallo, Rosetta Njeri and Cecilia Wangechi and Christian Aloisio Kamau are murdered.
Jomo Kenyatta, the Kikuyu leader of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), is elected the first president of independent Kenya.
The road to Kenyan independence – Photo section
- Children at the entrance to the resettlement village. The perimeter of the detention camps was characterized by a ditch, barbed wire, and sharpened wooden posts.
- 1952–1960. Over one hundred detention camps and resettlement villages established by the British colonial administration in Kikuyu territory.
- Missionary priests and nuns meet the Kikuyu population in the resettlement villages.
- Field Marshal Mwariama, a Mau Mau leader.
