Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), Saturday 28 March 1953, page 1


Hundreds Die In Mau Mau Terrorism's Gravest Outbreak

NAIROBI, Friday.

The Mau Mau terrorists last night massacred at least 200 of loyal Kikuyu tribesmen and their families, in the worst outburst of violence Kenya has experienced.

Ten miles from Nairobi pregnant women were disembowel-ed before their children's eyes, and then the children themselves were hacked to pieces.

Among those killed was a for-mer Kikuyu chief named Luka, who was slashed to death with his three wives.

Chief Luka was attacked and slashed about the head in a Mau Mau attack last November but managed to escape. It is believed the massacre might begin the open war the Mau Mau threatened against white settlers and pro-Govern-

ment Africans in the colony.

Other attacks were in an up-lands region 25 miles north of Nairobi. They also raided a police station at Naivasha, 55

miles north of Nairobi.

Reuter's correspondent, Ronald Batchelor, in a dispatch said: "I

have just completed an extensive tour of Lari location, and feel sick. This tiny slice of country-side has vultures wheeling in hot

sunshine over the charred re-mains of human beings. It has been somersaulted back to Dark-est Africa of ancient blood lusts and primitive mysteries!

"Even hardened European pol-ice officers' could be seen with tears coursing down their cheeks. They watched the mothers carry away the mutilated bodies of their small children."

An hour after the Mau Mau gangs had launched their at-tacks, Lari location was in flames from end to end.

Dozens of Kikuyu families died in the roaring furnaces of their wooden huts.

Batchelor said the stench of death was mingled with the still rising smoke and ashes of a dozen or more buildings.

"Ex-Chief Luka lay in ruins in his home - a bloody mess of flesh and bone. Only his feet told us that a few hours ago this was a human being."

Batchelor said that police com-pounds were beginning to be crammed with squatting rows of suspects of the violence.

Early reports said there were at least 33 African casualties in the uplands districts, and five or six at Naivasha.

A senior police officer said: "The casualties are now coming in to Nairobi hospitals, and most of them are pretty cut up."

Hundreds of police and troops were rushed to the locations.

Regular reserve officers of the police force at Nairobi were called from their beds to join in what is likely to be the biggest manhunt of the emergency.

The organised terror took place in the Lari location of Kiambu reserve.

Another gang swept into the

town of Naivasha and stormed the police station, murdering five African police.

They stripped the building oí

50 rifles and a dozen sub-machine guns, carbines, and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

The Mau Mau assaults were made in a fury of savagery un-paralleled in Kenya since the white men first penetrated East

Africa.

All the victims were Kikuyu homeguards or Government ser-

vants.

The attacks are believed to have been the work of Kikuyu's recently repatriated from the Rift Valley.

Terror gangs roamed a seven mile strip on the location, burn-ing, shooting and hacking to pieces men, women and babes in arms.

Every available European and African in the security forces of the colony were called from their beds to man strong points and patrol the countryside.

They were taken to the area in fleets of lorries.

Mau Mau gangs are estimated to number between 300 and 500.

They had been rounded up by European and African police and African Home Guards in a mass comb-out of every yard of the area, which began at dawn.

Eyewitness 'reports of the ter-rorism said the Mau Maus ap-peared to be well organised.

One African said he heard the command, "Now." The door of his hut was burst open, and a fusillade of rifle shots tore into the room.

"I rolled under the bed and pretended to be dead," he said.

A few moments later he ven-tured out. He saw the gang striking matches and setting alight to a row of huts. Others waited for the occupants to come out. Some managed to rush out of the burning huts into a ring of blood-lusting murderers, who waited with long-bladed razor sharp knives and hatchets.

Police recently reported an in-crease in Mau Mau gangsterism in big Kenya towns and settle-

ments.

Last week they said the pat-tern of the terror campaign was changing from purely guerrilla action in forests, to planned or-ganised attacks on African and Asian populations in built-up

areas.

More battalions of British troops are leaving Britain soon to operate in the Rift Valley

area.

Additional troops will bring the number to 5,500 operating against the secret society pledg-ed to "drive the white man out of Kenya."