Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW : 1949 - 1953), Sunday 29 March 1953, page 3


- Police Snperintendhßn^ Amlimlied **

Armed Mau Mau Terrorists I

Strike Again In Kenya

12 NATIVES

SLAIN

From Our Staff Correspondent And A.A.P.

LONDON, March 28.-Mau Mau |

terrorists in Kenya killed at least 12 loyal Kikuyu home guards in South Nyeri reserve last night.

Early reports said that a gang of 100, armed with pis-tols and rifles, swept down from the Aberdare Forest to launch the attack.

The attack came as troops and police were still probing the massacre of Kikuyu natives in the Uplands area of Kiambu reserve, north of Nairobi, 24 hours earlier.

The deathroll in this mas-sacre is mounting, and police believe that the final count will exceed 300 dead.

Assistant Superintendent lan Henderson, of the Special Branch police, was ambushed and shot at in the forest area last night as he was driving back from the scene of the

massacre.

A bullet shattered the wind-screen of his car.

Henderson sprayed the forest on both sides of the road with Sten gun fire.

ROUND-UP

Security forces have rounded up most of the 500 Mau Mau terrorists who massacred at least 150 of their own tribe in a moon-light swoop on Thursday night.

The leader of the terrorists is still at large. He is Dedan

Kimathi, a former dairy clerk, with a price of £500 on his

head.

Kimathi-Kenya's No. 1 wanted man-has eluded all attempts in four months to capture or kill him.

As the search for suspects went on yesterday, two light aircraft circled low over the hills spotting for ground pat-

rols.

Women of the Kikuyu tribe are mainly responsible for the success of the manhunt which followed the massacre.

Police Superintendent Alastair Allen said that women broke their silence and de-nounced the perpetrators by the score after seeing tiny children sacrificed to "this brutal and senseless Mau Mau Society."

Superintendent Allen said that almost all those who took part were local men.

The attack is believed to have been carried out to a careful plan, aimed at natives loyal to the Government.

The Mau Mau (which wants to drive the white people out of Kenya), attacked at mid-night, slaughtering all they met along a seven-mile strip of the Lari location of the Up-lands area near Nairobi.

The trapped natives were roasted alive in their burning huts, or were hacked to pieces with knives and hatchets as they ran out.

In one corner of the loca-tion, a police officer yesterday discovered the scorched and mutilated bodies of 83 women and children.

BODIES IN ASHES

Official estimates of the massacre toll are 150, but bodies still lie among the hoi ashes of the burnt-out huts.

As fleets of lorries rolled into Nairobi filled with hide-ously-wounded Kikuyus women and childrenteams of doctors rushed from outlying areas, worked with nurses to try to relieve the victims' agonies.

Tiny children and their mothers lay with gaping knife slashes. Some of the victims were almost disembowelled, yet still lived.