CHARGE OF ILLTREATMENT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27273, 13 February 1954, Page 7

CHARGE OF ILLTREATMENT

ALLEGATION AGAINST KENYA RESERVIST

NAIROBI, February 11.

A self-confessed Mau Mau oathtaker, his hands swathed in bandages, “told a magistrate today that his head was set alight after a teen-aged European police reserve officer had ordered paraffin to be taken into an office in a Nairobi screening camp. Before the Court was a police reservist, Barry Harvey Hayward, aged 16 years. He was charged with assaulting an African, Ngethe, “by causing burns to his body.” Hayward’s 19-year-old brother, Brian, another police reservist, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment by a Tanganyika Court last year for ill-treating Africans while investigating Mau Mau activities. Beside Barry Hayward in the dock was a burly Kikuyu, Guthiongo, a member of the Nairobi screening camp’s staff, who faced similar charges. Ngethe alleged that he had been beaten till the blood ran out of his mouth and he could not talk. The paraffin was poured over his head and he was set alight. A few days after he had been arrested he was taken to the screening camp, where he admitted he had taken the oath.

Ngethe said: “When they asked me questions I knew nothing about, Hayward ordered the paraffin to be brought. Guthiongo then poured the paraffin over my head and struck a match. Hayward grabbed a shirt and attempted to beat out the flames.” Guthiongo was alleged to have told the police that he acted on Hayward’s orders. A statement attributed to him said that Hayward sat laughting when the paraffin burst into flames. A statement attributed to Hayward said he was writing when he heard a yell and saw Ngethe in flames.