Last Year's Lesson: Kapenguria Six Trial Began - Dec. 3, 1952

The trial of the Kapenguria Six began on this day in 1952.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, history fans, here's a rerun for today, brought to
you by Tracy V. Wilson. Welcome to this day in
History Class from how Stuff Works dot Com and from
the desk of Stuff you missed in History Class. It's
the show where we explore the past one day at
a time with a quick look at what happened today
in history. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson,

(00:25):
and it's December three. The trial of Kenya's cap and
Gurias six began on the state in nineteen fifty two.
These were six political activists who were arrested under the
grounds that they were members of the Mau Mau political
movement against British colonial rule in Kenya. Britain's colonial involvement

(00:46):
in Kenya went back to when that part of Africa
became part of Britain's East African Protectorate. This was during
Europe's Scramble for Africa and basically Europe divided up as
much of Africa as possible amongst themselves without asking any
Africans about it. In nineteen twenty, Britain formally declared that

(01:10):
Kenya was a Crown colony. So all of this placed
Kenya under a white minority government, and that led to
widespread poverty and racism and oppression and resistance to colonial
rules started almost immediately. The East Africa Association formed in
nineteen twenty one, the year after Britain formally declared that

(01:30):
Kenya was a Crown colony. A man named Jomo Kenyatta,
who was one of the cap and Curious Six, was
involved almost from the start of this. He joined the
East Africa Association in nineteen twenty two. He continued to
work with a series of independence organizations as they disbanded
and reformed and started over with new groups over the

(01:51):
next several years. Sometimes these were because of internal changes,
sometimes it was because Britain had outlawed a particular organization
and they had to start over. He also traveled through
Europe and studied in England. A lot of these first
organizations were focused on some constitutional reforms, but as time
passed with seemingly no progress being made, many younger and

(02:14):
more radical members started to splinter off, and the Mau
Mau movement was formed in nineteen forty two. It was
formed when four Kenyan tribes came together and took an
oath to secretly fight against British rule. This was a
militant movement. It advocated violent resistance to the British rule
of Kenya, and their tactics included sabotage and assassination. So

(02:37):
by the nineteen fifties the British government had outlawed the movement,
but that didn't make the movement disappear, and nineteen fifty
two saw the Mau Mau Uprising that led to a
massive military engagement between the British Army and members of
the movement. The Mau Mouth faced devastating losses and members
were imprisoned during this time when they reported horrifying conditions,

(03:01):
including torture and abuse. In October of nineteen fifty two,
following that uprising, Kenyatta and five other leaders were arrested
on the grounds that they had been directing this outlawed movement,
and hundreds of other people had been arrested as well.
At the time, Kenyada was actually leading the Kenyan African Union.
They were all taken to Capaan, Guria because it was

(03:24):
a very remote location that authorities thought would be secure
enough that the other members of the Memo movement couldn't
break them out. These six men were placed on trial
from December nineteen fifty two until April nineteen fifty three.
Although the British colonial government was approaching this as a
criminal matter, to a lot of the rest of the world,

(03:46):
it really looked like a political trial. They were all
found guilty. They were sentenced to seven years in prison
with hard labor. Over the next decade, the British colonial
government gradually started shifting Kenya toward rule by its African
majority rather than having a white minority government. Kenyatta was

(04:06):
released from prison in nineteen sixty one, and then he
became one of the negotiators in a conference in London
in nineteen sixty two. That conference ultimately led to Kenya's
independence from Britain. A political party called the Kenya African
National Union won the first election, which had actually taken
place before independence, while Kenyatta was still in prison. He

(04:29):
had been elected the first party president, even though he
was still imprisoned at the time. Then, after Kenya formally
became independent on December twelfth, nineteen sixty three, Kenyatta became
its first prime Minister and later became Kenya's first president.
In it was announced that Kenyan's who had been tortured
by colonial forces during the Mamo Uprising would receive payouts

(04:51):
totaling twenty million pounds. Thanks to Christopher Hasiotis for his
research work on today's show, and to Casey Pgrim and
Chandler May's for their audio work on this podcast. You
can subscribe to the Stay in History Class on Apple podcast,
Google podcast, the I Heart Radio app, and wherever else
you get your podcasts. Tune in tomorrow for the birth

(05:12):
of a poet.