Hola massacre
Encyclopedia : H : HO : HOL : Hola massacre
In the Hola concentration camp, located in the Coast province,a group of hardcore detainees, held at the Camp, had declared themselves political prisoners, John Cowan The Senior Superintendent of Prisons in Kenya was asked to write a report on how to deal with this hardcore Group. months earlier he had come up with the effective tactic of beating prisoners who refused to work, 'He explained that should the detainees not immediately "prove amenable to work", then "they should be - in the phrase - 'manhandled' to the site of work, and forced to carry out the task."
On the 3rd of March 1959, 85 prisoners were marched outside and ordered to work. As had always been the case, they refused to take orders. There were about 200 guards, who began brutally beating the prisoners for approximately 3 to 4 hours, according to one detainee John Maina Kahihu. "There were two hundred guards. One hundred seventy stood around us with machine guns. Thirty guards were inside the trench with us. The white man in charge blew his whistle and the guards started beating us. They beat us from 8 am to 11.30. They were beating us like dogs. I was covered by other bodies - just my arms and legs were exposed. I was very lucky to survive. But the others were still being beaten. There was no escape for them."
When it was all over, 11 prisoners had been bludgeoned to death and around about 60 others were badly injured.
There was a conscious effort by the Prison Officials to cover up the brutality committed at Hola, they claimed that the dead prisoners had drunk contaminated water.
The truth came out however, and in Britain there was Political uproar, led by figures such as Barbara Castle, who concluded that the British behaved like Nazis when dealing with Kikuyu. Suddenly it was apparent to the British establishment that it was they who were now the Brutal thugs.
The camps were closed throughout Kenya, and the prisoners were freed soon after. The massacre was one of the catalysts that led to Kenya's independence.
The Hola Camp atrocity was a reason why British Politicians, such as Harold Macmillan and Iain Macleod, saw the need to decolonise Kenya, they saw Kenya, and to an extent the Empire, as a liability to Britain’s prestige, especially in light of entering the new EEC and securing an Atlantic Alliance with America.
John Cowan was awarded a MBE by Queen Elizabeth II.
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