The book review:
In this carefully researched and documented work, Elkins sets the record straight unequivocally revealing that the British colonial government of Kenya engaged in deliberate horrendous abuses of human rights during the Mau Mau emergency. Furthermore, rather than individual cases of wrongdoings, the egregious abuses were systematic, approved at the highest levels, designed to break the will of the Kikuyu people and to destroy forever any challenge from them to colonial suzerainty.

Elkins concludes that between 1952 and 1959 more than 100,000 Kikuyu were killed, most beaten, shot, starved or worked to death as part of the policy of the Pipeline—a system of gulag-type camps designed to use violence to force Mau Mau oath takers to confess their participation and to recant. Ironically, most of the forest guerillas never made it to the pipeline as they were killed on the spot when captured. Prisoners were categorized, seemingly arbitrarily, according to their supposed level of involvement in Mau Mau (and their resistance to the abusive system) and moved between the dozens of fearful camps as they became more compliant. The system would finally regurgitate them as broken men (and women) back into the reserves. Meanwhile, in the reserves the remaining population was herded into “protected” villages that were in essence local concentration camps. The author believes that almost two million Kikuyu suffered loss of land, life and prospects on account of colonial brutality.

Capricious shootings, beatings of all sorts, torture with fire and cigarettes, awful forms of rape and stuffing objects into bodily orifices, hanging men upside down, drowning them in feces, infecting them with disease, etc. etc. are chronicled by the author through use of such documents that survived as well as from extensive interviews with victims. It is horrific reading. Such forms of abuse were not, however, simply inspired by sadistic guards, both European and African, but were blessed by Governor Barring and the Secretary for Colonial Affairs in London. Bolstered by settlers’ racial hatred, authorities convinced themselves that the Mau Mau were subhuman vermin who posed such a threat to colonial Kenya that normal standards of conduct were simply set aside. British officials were arrogant in maintaining the pose of righteousness and of the civilizing mission of colonialism. Furthermore, authorities knew that their repressive actions violated international human rights instruments, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and International Labor Conventions. Whenever challenged (even in Parliament), they lied, fabricated justifications, exploited small loopholes, diverted attention, challenged the bona fides of accusers, and spun their versions of the events. Occasionally, underlings were sacrificed to the courts. These men also sought to eliminate the historical record of the pipeline through conscious destruction of records. (I could not help but see parallels between British actions and contemporary accusations of American handling of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo).

Yet, despite efforts on the part of some—including victims—to attract the world’s attention to the abuses, there was little response. In the end, the pipeline philosophy more or less worked. The Kikuyu were crushed. By 1960 the camps were emptying and by independence completely gone. Kikuyu nationalism, land freedom, independence and “expel the whites” were subsumed into Kenyan nationalism. Mau Mau participants were sidelined by the new government. Arch devil Kenyatta transformed himself into an archangel. He was conservative and pragmatically saw the need to look ahead, not behind. So, the past was not investigated nor were any abusers held accountable. There were no truth and justice commissions, nor any trials; only the memories of the victims—and those have been largely ignored by their fellow countrymen.

Elkins’ opus is excellent as far as it goes. Although she does stress the inner Kikuyu divisions of loyalists versus Mau Mau and a bit of the ramifications of that animosity for the independence government, I would have liked more on why Kenya did not pursue accountability for Mau Mau era crimes. Perhaps that is another book.

Imperial Reckoning is a sordid tale and a hard read. Justice was not done. It is the sort of a history that lies heavy on us, now that we know, but imagine how difficult a book this is for Kenyans.