Legacy of British violence in Kenya

In 1960, the colonial government in Kenya issued a letter to all administrative officers to burn all materials and documents relating to Mau Mau that the incoming African government could use against the British colonial administration.

While much of the documentation was destroyed on site, it is on record that another collection of highly sensitive documents comprising more than 1,500 government files was loaded on a British United Airways flight bound for Gatwick on December 3, 1963, nine days before Kenya’s independence, because they could potentially “embarrass Her Majesty’s Government,” a gross understatement of fact!