KIKUYU CATTLE SEIZED

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26886, 12 November 1952, Page 9

KIKUYU CATTLE SEIZED

POLICE PUNISHMENT IN KENYA

(Rec. 10 p.m.) NAIROBI, Nov. 11. Police and troops yesterday impounded more than 4000 head of cattle and thousands of sheep and goats from a Kikuyu reserve near Nyeri. The seizure is a punishment against 6000 Kikuyu natives of three small villages for refusing to co-operate with the police in the hunt for the murderers of'Nderi. a senior chieftain, and two African policemen. It is believed that the effect of the seizure will be enormous, because the Kikuyu assess their wealth by their cattle and livestock.

The round-up began at dawn. As troops and police drove out the stock the natives fled into the forests in the hills surrounding the villages. Police and troops drove the livestock up a hill to a meadow where the police have established their headquarters.

The police superintendent said any Kikuyu giving information leading to the arrest of the murderers would have his livestock returned to him. The others could apply to a magistrate. If the authorities were satisfied they would co-operate, their stock would be returned.

Police and troops yesterday seized a blood-stained knife and arrested 18 Africans when they broke up a Mau Mau meeting on a farm near Gilgil, 40 miles north of Nairobi. Other detachments detained 120 Kikuyu tribesmen for screening in the Kambu area, 10 miles north of Nairobi.

A report from Dar es Salaam says Tanganyika police have so far arrested 50 Kikuyu tribesmen who recently moved from Kenya. The police say the tribesmen are Mau Mau terrorists. They are the first batch arrested m Tanganyika since the crisis began in Kenya.