Living with a Bullet in One’s Body: General Magoto and Kenya’s Quest for Independence

Abstract

Mau-Mau revolutionary rebels began fighting for Kenyan independence in the 1940s, with the warfare reaching its zenith in the 1950s. The war was fought mainly by soldiers in their 20s and 30s, most of whom were from the central region of Kenya. The rebels and society at large were against British colonialism, which began when Kenya was declared a British protectorate in 1885 and a colony in 1920. It was the elites who encouraged people to see forced taxes, poor wages, the carrying of the Kipande (identity card), poor quality education, the colour bar (as Kenya’s version of apartheid was called), forced labour, constant harassment and arbitrary beatings and mass arrests, especially in the major towns, and indeed the general systemic poverty to be indicators of their enslavement. Furthermore, the African soldiers who returned from fighting on the side of the British during the Second World War came out strongly against the assumed superiority of the coloniser. By 1952, various Mau-Mau platoons had been established, with General Magoto joining the erstwhile Haraka platoon of Embu district. He is deserving of mention not only for having survived the military offensives via land and air, but also for having lived with a bullet lodged in his body for over 50 years.