I doubt if all the secrets of the Kikuyu uprising will ever
be known. Young soldiers were brainwashed into believing they were fighting in
Kenya for our glorious empire. Sixty years ago I was there as a 19-year-old
national service officer. I am delighted that the government has given some
token compensation for Kenyans who suffered torture (Britain's brutal past
exposed, 6 June). I still suffer from memories of the British apartheid system
there and numerous instances of arbitrary killing and brutality by British
forces, Kenya police and Kenyan African Rifles. In reality we protected
land-grabbing British farmers and enriched UK companies.
Young troops were encouraged to shoot any African on sight
in certain areas. Prize money was offered by senior officers for every death.
The brains of one young black lad I shot with no warning (by orders) landed on
my chest. He had no weapons, only a piece of the Bible and part of an English-language
primer in his pocket. Before I burned his body near the farm where he had been
working, I was ordered to cut off his hands, which I did, and put them in my
ammunition pouches, as we'd run out of fingerprinting kits. Of course, he was
recorded as "a terrorist". I was told to shoot down unarmed women in
the jungle because they were carrying food to the so-called "Mau Mau"
– a word they never called themselves.
The whole of this Kenyan tragedy was predictable. Although
Kenyan black troops had fought for the British in the second world war, they
were rewarded with their land being taken away, no press or trade union
freedom, suppression of political movements and slave-like conditions of work,
which I witnessed. Yes, some black Kenyans did turn on others for not rising up
against such indignities. But many of those who were killed were local chiefs
and their supporters, who had co-operated with hugely rich white farmers.
However, the revenge killings by the colonial authorities were totally disproportionate
– with bombing raids, burning of villages and the forced movement of thousands
of families onto poorer land, in the name of "protection". Very few
white people were killed by Africans.
But it wasn't just the black people who suffered. I remember
telling my company commander that a young soldier whose medical records showed
he was only fit for clerical work should not go on a military exercise. I was
laughed at. He was forced to go. After three hours' steep climb through jungle,
he died in my arms, probably from a heart attack. Because I remonstrated, I was
ordered to take a donkey and carry his body, which kept slipping off, for
nearly a week to deposit him at HQ on the other side of the Aberdare mountains.
His mother was told he was a hero who'd died on active service.
I was sickened by my experiences. I disobeyed orders and was
court-martialled and dismissed from the service. I actually thought I was going
to be shot. Stripped of my uniform, I was told to make my own way home. Then I
wrote to Bessie Braddock, the Labour MP, and was put back in my uniform to fly
home in a RAF plane. After campaigning around the country for Kenyan
independence, I received new call-up papers, because I had not finished my
national service. I then decided to stand trial and become the first British
man allowed to be registered as a conscientious objector against colonial
warfare. History has proved me right. With these expressions of
"regret" by our foreign secretary, I now feel vindicated for being
pilloried as a "conchie".
David Larder
Retford, Nottinghamshire
