Is Corruption Blind or Stupid?

One of the central themes in my book ‘The Winds of Change’ is the end of imperialism in Kenya in the 1950s. The Mau-Mau insurrection destroyed many white families and the effects of the violent upheaval were felt for generations afterwards. The events, now long past, will always be with me.

With the end of World War II, Great Britain was once again free to pursue its imperialistic aspirations without distraction. Propaganda came out regularly, cheerleading the opportunities and benefits of colonial life as the government of the day tried to convince 150,000 of the King’s subjects to swap their cold, wet, food-rationed, war-ravaged, lives in ‘Jolly Old Blighty’ for the sunny climes of Africa.

By the mid-1940s, my family had been well settled in Kenya– long enough for us to have laid deep roots in the land. In 1946, my father, believing in the country’s future and buoyed by government reassurances, sank every cent he had in a farm in Kenya’s ‘White Highlands’.

Our family lived on the land, along with 35 African (mostly Kikuyu) families. At first, things went well but by 1949, the spectre of an insurgency had reared its ugly head. My father who spoke fluent Kikuyu (rare for a white man at the time) was shocked to the core when he overheard the wives of two of his workers discussing a secret meeting a few days hence. He clandestinely attended the meeting and cut a hole in one of the hut walls so he could listen unobserved, from the outside. His shock turned to horror as he realised, he had stumbled on a Mau-Mau meeting at which his much-revered tractor driver and a stranger from Nairobi planned to ‘chase the whites into the sea.’ Every Kikuyu living on the farm was there.

My father immediately went to see the Commissioner of Police in Nairobi. Instead of taking action, he was told, in no uncertain terms, to ‘keep his mouth shut’. Why? The British administration was busy playing politics and finalising its plans to bring thousands of mainly de-mobbed soldiers to Kenya as settlers—something they did for most of the nineteen fifties.

By 1951 the situation had become dangerous as the violence escalated. Our neighbour, Robert Hall was murdered by local Kikuyu tribesmen but it suited the local British administration’s reaction to frame arrest and hang six men from another tribe. As a first responder, my father saw the weapons used in the atrocity were Kikuyu, but he was ignored in the cover-up.

A few months later, all hell broke loose when another white farming couple in the district was also brutally murdered. Whitehall immediately declared an emergency, replaced the incompetent governor and 20,000 British troops were sent to the colony. An innocent anti-colonial activist, Jomo Kenyatta, was arrested as ‘Head of The Mau-Mau’( he wasn’t even a member) and incarcerated in the desert of Northern Kenya, following a rigged trial.

According to government propaganda, by 1956, the white settlers and the British army ‘had won the war on terror’ after thousands of Kikuyu, guilty or innocent, were locked up. The flashpoint arrived in 1959 when 11 detainees at the remote, notorious Hola camp were clubbed to death. This shocking event made headlines around the world, forcing British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to make his famous ‘The Winds of Change are blowing through Africa’ to the South African Parliament in Cape Town, which presaged a British withdrawal from its African Colonies. Ghana had already been granted independence in 1957.

Again, the Governor was replaced and Jomo Kenyatta was released in 1961. Eventually, an agreement was reached for Kenyan independence, which occurred on 12 December 1963. Settler land was reclaimed by the tribes and although our land was valued at 22 pounds an acre, the British government as part of the buy-back agreement, offered half as it was ‘overdeveloped’. The place was allowed to fall into disrepair before reverting to subsistence farming.

I have been back to see the farm a few times over the years. Some people live there who know me but in vastly lesser numbers than I had known. Nothing works. The boreholes do not work, so water must be fetched by a donkey from a nearby polluted river. Any signs of mechanisation have long since disappeared. The tragedy is that the land itself is fertile, capable of sustaining a much larger population, yet Kenya still imports most of its food, as field after field lies fallow. Before the recent war, Kenya could have significantly benefitted from the same knowledge the Ukraine successfully implement to produce its own food.

Why did it all fall apart? Was the British administration corrupt or simply playing imperialistic games? Or was it just willful ignorance? Perhaps not individually but the whole edifice was based on a corrupt premise. Currently, the population of Kenya is 60 million, up from about 1 million in 1880 when settlement began and 9 million in 1963 at the time of independence. The UN forecasts that Kenya will reach a population of 92 million by 2050. This figure is unsustainable and suffering will become widespread, except for the lucky few with deep pockets and the right connections.

Personally, I am thankful that we are no longer responsible for running a farm in Kenya. We lived in an unjust society.

‘The Winds of Change’ is available on Amazon and online bookstores in the Kindle and print formats. You can find out more information about my books at www.guyhallowes.com