THIS DAY IN HISTORY: 21st October 1952 & 1956

Jomo Kenyatta was arrested on this day in 1952 and charged with organising and leading the so-called Mau Mau uprising. On 8th April 1953 he was sentenced to 7 years hard labour.

In an uncanny historical coincidence, four years later to the day in 1956, Dedan Kimathi, leader of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA) was shot and captured. Kimathi was charged with carrying a lethal weapon, a capital offence under the state of emergency imposed by the British colonial governor of Kenya on 20th October 1952. Kimathi was sentenced to death and hanged at Kamiti prison on 18th February 1957.

1,090 Africans were hanged in the 1950s by the British colonial regime in Kenya, including 207 people for supplying food, or 'consorting' with the KLFA. The brutality meted out by British colonialists in Kenya less than sixty years ago should not be forgotten. They incarcerated men, women and children in concentration camps less than ten years after the second world war that we are told was waged to end such injustice and brutality. It is estimated that 300,000 Kenyans were thrown into concentration camps. Earlier this month three survivors of British colonial torture and repression in Kenya won the right to sue the British government for damages.

History is a good teacher if we listen and learn attentively, read beyond the rhetoric and apply the lessons of yesterday to today - quite literally at the moment. The purpose of these daily posts is a modest contribution to enabling us to do just that.

The following clip shows the capture of Kimathi with two proud Africans being praised for their role in the process, one of them receiving a reward of £500.