KENYATTA FOUND GUILTY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27011, 10 April 1953, Page 9

KENYATTA FOUND GUILTY

Management Of Mau Mau (Rec. 11 p.m.) NAIROBI, April 9. Armoured cars patrolled watchfully and troops were tensed for action throughout last night in preparation for retaliatory terrorist moves as the result of the conviction of the Mau Mau “master, mind,” Jomo Kenyatta. Kenyatta was sentenced yesterday to seven years’ imprisonment for managing and being a member of the Mau Mau. The Court imposed similar sentences on five other Africans charged with Kenyatta’Hie Magistrate, Mr Ransley Thacker, a retired Supreme Court Judge, gave his decision on the forty-eighth day of the trial. He castigated the six Africans and told them that in the long run the forces of law and order would defeat the Mau Mau. The Magistrate said he was satisfied that Kenyatta was the master mind of the society and he felt that the sentence was inadequate for what he had done. “Some small part of the Mau Mau plan to kill Europeans succeeded,” said the Magistrate, “but perhaps the greatest tragedy of all is that you turned Kikuyu against Kikuyu. The Mau Mau has slaughtered hundreds of men, women and children in revolting circumstances. You have let loose a flood of misery and unhappiness affecting the lives of all races, including your own. “You nave turned the clock back many years, and by your deeds much of the respect of your tribe has been Tost, at least for the time being. You have much to answer for, and you will be punished.” The Magistrate said the other five accused had not hesitated to join Kenvatta in the vile scheme to drive the Europeans out of Kenya. They had joined in vile deeds of terror and intimidation, but these would not succeed in their object. In the long run the Mau Mau would be defeated. Long Judgment The Magistrate’s long judgment was translated sentence by sentence into Kikuyu, and the whole day was oceup.ed in delivering it. The Africans charged with Kenyatta were Fred Kubai. a member of the Kenya-African Union and a prominent figure in the Kenya Transport Workers’ Union, Richard Acheing Oneko, former editor of an African newspaper, and an African councillor on the Nairobi City Council, Bildad Gaggia, secretary of the Nairobi branch of the Kenya African Union, Kunga Karumba, a member of the Kenya African Union Executive Council, and Paul Ngei, described by the prosecution as an apostle of the African Union among the Wakamba tribe. All of the accused pleaded not guilty. Addressing the Court after he had been sentenced, Kenyatta said: “We have not received justice. We feel, that this case has been so as to bring the Mau Mau as a scapegoat in order to strangle the Kenya African Union, the only African political organisation which fights for the rights of the African people.” Kenyatta declared that none of the six was guilty. He claimed that the trial had been unfair.

Kenyatta said it was his duty to instruct counsel to lodge an appeal end take the matter to the “highest Court if necessary. We believe the Supreme Court of Kenya will give us justice. “None of us would condone the mutilation of human beings. We are human and have families of our own. None of us would condone such activities as you think we are guilty of,” said Kenyatta. The Magistrate said the accused had 14 days to appeal The prosecution said that none of the accused would be required to begin to serve his sentence until the verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court. Protection for Magistrate The Magistrate was held today at an officially “unknown” destination under the strictest security cloak the colony has known. Police say Mr Thacker is in very real danger of Mau Mau vengeance. He left the Court after the case in an armoured car with a convoy of six heavily armed police vehicles. All other vehicles on the main road were held up till he got clear. Arc lights flooded all road junctions and vehicles and their passengers were carefully checked at barriers. A large force of police reservists in the Kenya Regiment and troops are guarding the entire Kapenguria area.