The Charging Buffalo by Guy Campbell

Author:Guy Campbell [Campbell, Guy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, World War II
ISBN: 9780436082900
Google: xqjgAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 1986-11-24T03:12:27+00:00

The same memorandum stressed that, as more pressure was exerted against Mau Mau in the Aberdares, there was an added probability that the gangs would seek shelter in Masai land and that, unless the Masai were properly armed, a serious setback could result.

Eventually many of the Masai were issued with arms and, along with regimental patrols, they ranged into trouble spots and kept the terrorists at bay. By the end of 1955 Mau Mau activity was sporadic and the final race was on to capture the remaining gang leaders, notably Dedan Kimathi and Stanley Mathenge.

Those members of the Regiment not in operational companies were still active in a variety of roles – aerial survey, mapmaking or as custodians of internees, leaders of Kikuyu Guard posts and liaison officers with British Brigade HQ. Our men were also, as previously, attached to the British and KAR battalions. Others spent time back on their farms, some still participating in small pseudo-gang forays. The KPR Air Wing was always on hand but the early aerial sorties with home-made bombs and grenades had been displaced by more mundane tasks: reconnaissance flights, transport duties and so on.

Surrender leaflets had been dropped on known areas of Mau Mau influence and many came in and surrendered. There was the ‘Green Branch’ surrender scheme, in which the former gang leader General China, captured by Wally Young of Kenreg, agreed in return for his life to negotiate with the forest gangs, encouraging them to surrender. Some, possibly with large prices on their heads, remained in hiding, deep in the forests of the Aberdares and Mount Kenya. Action by Special Police Forces had only one object – to capture or destroy those gang leaders still in hiding. Although a few terrorists were still at large as late as 1960 – and it was not until 12 January of that year that the Governor, Sir Patrick Renison, signed a Proclamation bringing the Emergency to a close – Mau Mau was virtually defeated, and in 1956 the government forces and the loyalists were in the ascendancy and daily those who had taken oaths were wavering. Any association with a gang was fraught with danger, and the vast majority of the Kikuyu were thinking of their future.

I left Kenya in February, 1956, handing over command to Major C. S. Madden (KRRC) on 1 February. By the end of December all fulltime serving members of the Regiment had been released and on 1 January, 1957, the battalion reverted to its Territorial Force status.

There had been much criticism of the way the Emergency was handled. Even after the declaration, action was often slow to follow discussion and conference; critics of the War Cabinet suggested that there were too many senior officers. (By 1955 there were three General Officers – a Commander-in-Chief, a Chief of Operations and a Chief of Staff – besides other staff officers. There was a Deputy Chief of Staff, a colonel/brigadier, with attendant satellites. On the civil side were the Governor, the Legislative Council (LegCo) and the War Cabinet with staff, and Ministry of Defence.

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