Jomo Kenyatta - Trial and Imprisonment

Trial and Imprisonment

Kenyatta was arrested in October 1952 and indicted with five others on the charges of "managing and being a member" of the Mau Mau Society. The Mau Mau Society was a radical anti-colonial movement engaged in the Mau Mau Rebellion. The accused were known as the "Kapenguria Six".

The trial lasted five months: Rawson Macharia, the main prosecution witness, turned out to have perjured himself; the judge — who had only recently been awarded an unusually large pension, and who maintained secret contact with the then colonial Governor of Kenya Evelyn Baring during the trial — was openly hostile to the defendants' cause.

The defense, led by British barrister D.N. Pritt, argued that the white settlers were trying to scapegoat Kenyatta and that there was no evidence tying him to the Mau Mau. The court sentenced Kenyatta on 8 April 1953 to seven years imprisonment with hard labour and indefinite restriction thereafter. The subsequent appeal was refused by the British Privy Council in 1954.

Kenyatta remained in prison until 1959, after which he was detained in Lodwar, a remote part of Kenya.

The state of emergency was lifted on 12 January 1960.

On 28 February 1960, a public meeting of 25,000 in Nairobi demanded his release. On 15 April 1960, over a million signatures for a plea to release him were presented to the Governor. On 14 May 1960, he was elected KANU President in absentia. On 23 March 1961, Kenyan leaders, including Daniel arap Moi, later his longtime Vice President and successor as president, visited him at Lodwar. On 11 April 1961, he was moved to Maralal with daughter Margaret where he met world press for the first time in eight years. On 14 August 1961, he was released and brought to Gatundu to a hero's welcome.

While contemporary opinion linked Kenyatta with the Mau Mau, historians have questioned his alleged leadership of the radical movement. Kenyatta was in truth a political moderate. His marriage of Colonial Chief's daughters, his post independence Kikuyu allies mainly being former colonial collaborators (though also from his tribe), and his short shrift treatment of former Mau Mau fighters after he came to power, all strongly suggest he had scant regard for the Mau Mau.