Mau Mau Resurgence Feared In Kenya

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29227, 10 June 1960, Page 15

Mau Mau Resurgence Feared In Kenya

NANDABI, June 8. The Kenya Government today clamped down special security regulations on the Nyeri district, where a loyalist Kikuyu headman was murdered recently.

It was the first time emergency “dire brigade powers” have been used since the seven-year-old Mau Mau state of emergency ended six months ago. Mounting unrest and lawlessness in the Nyeri district has been causing growing concern in Nairobi over a possible revival of the Mau Mau terror.

The Special Security Regulations, imposed under the Preservation of Public Security Ordinance which replaced the emergency laws last January, provide for the control of movement in the Nyeri district, curfew and closure of shops and markets. They give the Provincial Commissioner for the Central Province powers to impose special measures in all or parts of the Nyeri district at his own discretion. Infringement of the regulations can be punished by fines of up to £5OO or two years’ imprisonment. Dusk-to-dawn curfews are Iready in force in two locations in the Nyeri district. They were imposed last week-end to prevent intimidation of possible witnesses after the murder of the headman. William Kimathi. whose teen-age son and daughter were forced by his' murderers to take a Mau Mau oath of secrecy in their dead father's blood Four Kikuyu men charged with Kimathi’s murder were remanded in custody until Monday by a Nyeri magistrate today. Further arrests are expected. The leader of the Right-wing United Party. Group Captain Llewellyn Briggs, has said the murder and incidents of intimidation in the area are symptoms of a Mau Mau revival. and warned that present conditions are similar to those which preceded the Mau Mau emergency.

He urged the Government yesterday to deal firmly with any revival of Mau Mau. making “the fullest use of existing legislation.”

On Monday, the Government said four Africans had been imprisoned for administering 4 .Mau

Mau-type oaths during the last two months in the Meru district, about 60 miles north-east of Nyeri. Earlier, the Minister for Security and Defence, Mr Anthony Swann, told the Legislative Council that a disquieting increase in oath-taking cer nonies in the Rift Valley Province was being investigated. The new regulations imposed in Nyeri were contained in an order signed by the Governor (Sir Patrick Renison) in a special issue of the Government Gazette today.