KENYA AFRICAN UNION

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27064, 12 June 1953, Page 11

KENYA AFRICAN UNION

DECLARATION AS “ UNLAWFUL ” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NAIROBI, June 8. The Kenya Government today proscribed the Kenya African Union—the colony’s only African political organisation—formerly led by the convicted Mau Mau leader, Jomo Kenyatta. It has 100,000 members. The Government announcement said that the Governor’s Executive Council proscribed the union Has an unlawful society under the penal code. All the union’s property has been vested in the African Courts. The Government proscribed the union because there was ample evidence to show that the Kenya African Union has often been used as a cover for the Mau Mau terrorists’ organisation, and that both before and after the emergency was declared there has been a connexion between many members of the Kenya AfricanUnion and the Mau Mau terrorists. General Sir George Erskine, the new East African military commander, tonight pledged himself to defeat the Mau Mau and do his utmost to relieve the peoples of Kenya of their anxiety. In a broadcast he declared: “I shall not be satisfied until every loyal citizen in Kenya can go about his work in peace, safety, and security.” Twelve Kikuyu tribesmen were sentenced to death at Githunguri today for their part in the Mau Mau massacre at Ari earlier this year.